Home-made Wines.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1024, 16 October 1891, Page 4

Home-made Wines.

According to my promise of last week I here give some practical ideas on tlie subject of home-made wines. The whole secret of wine making consists in the proper management of the fermenting process; the same quantity of fruit, whether it be rhubarb, currants, goose berries, grapes (unripe), leaves, tops, and tendrils, water and sugar, will produce two different kinds of wine, by varying the process of fermentation only—that is a dry wine like sherry, or a brisk beverage like champagne. The receipt here given will do for rhubarb or any of the above mentioned fruits. ENGLISH CHAMPAGNE. Take fifty pounds of rhubarb (or gooseberries for preference) and thirty-seven pounds of fine moist sugar. Have a fifteen or twenty gallon tub, with a tap hole near the bottom. In this tub bruise the rhubarb (or gooseberries) add four gallons of water, stir well, cover with a blanket or cloth, stand for twenty-four hours, then draw off the liquor through the tap, add one of two more gallons of water to fruit, again stir well, and remain two hours, then draw off, mix two liquors together, and in it dissolve the sugar (cold). Clean out the tub, return the liquor., cover with blanket, place tub in room at temperature of 60dg, remain till fermentation sets in, then draw off and put in a ten gallon cask which fill up with water, if there is not enough liquor. Tilt the cask a little. If there is any liquor left in the first tub, strain it through flannel, and add to the smaller cask instead of water. As fermentation goes on keep the cask filled with cold water. In about a fortnight’s time, the bulk of the fermentation being over, place in tho hung, and make a gimlet hole, which fit with a peg or spile, this spile to be taken out every two or three days for about a fortnight, to allow the carbonic acid gas to escape. When this state is passed, the cask may be kept full, by pouriDg a little liquor in at the vent hole once a week for a month. This operation is performed till about the middle of December, when the whole of the liquor must be drawn off and strained through felt or flannel. Clean out the cask thoroughly return the liquor, dissolve a quarter of an ounce of pure isinglass in a little water, which must be well stirred in the liquor to fine it, then place the bung in tight. About the middle of September, on a dry clear day, the wine may be drawn off and put into champagne bottles, and to each bottle, a piece of loaf sugar of about the size of a small hazel nut, use good sound corks and secure with wire. Keep in a cool dry place for twelve months when the wine should be equal to most of the champagne that is sent out to this colony, besides being not only cheaper but much more wholesome. PARSNIP WINE. Fifteen pounds of parsnips sliced, boil till soft in five gallons of water, squeeze liquor well out, strain it, add three pounds of loaf sugar to each gallon of liquor, boil the whole for three-quarters of an hour. When nearly cold, or say at 75dg., add a teaeupful of fresh yeast, spread on a slice of toast. Let it remain in the tub for ten days, stirring well each day, then put into a clean cask, which fill up, bung secured, let it stand for twelvemonths. Have a vent hole with a peg, and as it ferments keep the cask filled. It is to he understood in all cases that a quantity of the liquor is always kept in bottles, to fill up the cask and replace the quantity lost by fermentation. After the wine has been in the cask a year, bottle and store in a cool place. BLACKBERRY WINE. Fill a tub with ripe blackberries, pour on boiling water to cover. When cool enough smash the berries, let them stand till a crust of scum forms on top, say in three or four days, then draw off tlie liquor and strain. To each gallon add one pound of dark brown sugar, mix and fill up the cask, let it ferment for a fortnight keeping the cask well filled. When fermentation has ceased bung it down. In twelve months’ time draw off and bottle. RED CURRANT WINE. Red currant and cherry wines are made in a similiar manner to blackberry, only using loaf sugar instead of brown sugar. The cherries must be stoned. PEACH WINE. Peaches, apricots, or nectarines make delicious wine as follows: —Take the stones out of forty-five pounds of ripe peaches, slice them'into a clean earthernware pan, strew over ten pounds of powdered loaf sugar, let it stand covered till next day. Boil ten gallons of soft water, with sixteen pounds of loaf sugar and the whites of ten eggs beaten fine, boil half an hour, skimi ming till clear. Then add to it the fruit and sugar, and boil to a pulp, taking ofi the scum as it rises. Put the whole into a tub, in which are the broken stones and kernels, stir well, and when nearly cool stir in half a pint of fresh yeast. Stir well every two days for a week, then draw off and strain through flannel, put back in cask to ferment, keeping the cask always full. When fermentation has ceased, add two quarts of brandy and hung up tight for two months. Then rack into clean cask, fill up, fine with a little isinglass and six ounces of sugar candy. Stand twelve months and then bottle. In six month’s time it will be fit for use.

GINGER WINE. The following recipe for a delicious ginger wine has been used in my family for nearly a century past. Ten pounds of pudding raisins chopped, thirty lemons sliced, ten Seville oranges sliced, thirty pounds of brown sugar, one pound and a quarter of fine Jamaica ginger bruised. Boil the ginger in the water half an hour and let it cool in a cask. Put in the sugar, pare the lemons very thin, strip them of their white pithy skin, throw away the pips, and slice them into the tub. The whole of the skin of the oranges may be used. When the liquor is milk warm stir in half a pint of yeast, stand for four days, then fill up into clean ten gallon cask. As it ferments keep tlie cask filled. In six month’s time it may be bottled. HONEY WINE OR JIETHEGLIN. Take twenty-eight pounds of new honey add fifteen gallons of spring water, boil for an hour, strain clear, pour in a cask, add two ounces of bruised ginger, a few cloves, a little mace, and one ounce and a half of cinnamon bark, all bruised together and tied up in a muslin bag. When cool aid half a pint of yeast. When fermentation has ceased bung up tight. In six months strain off and bottle. Dora.