Raspberry Wine 3

Started 4th August 2013

Our first ever home brew wine was raspberry wine and it was the best tasting of all the wines we've made so far. Our second raspberry wine was pretty good too, although a bit too sweet, but we've learnt a lot in the last year or so of winemaking.

We're now using bigger buckets to make bigger batches of wine - it's a lot easier in the long run. As some of the wines contain a lot of fruit and pulp and others froth up a lot, we're brewing 2 gallon batches in 3 gallon buckets and 4 gallon batches in 5 gallon batches. This allows us a full amount of liquid without spillage.

This year we've been picking our home grown raspberries every couple of days and saving them in the freezer for another batch of raspberry wine. As the freezer was filling up rapidly, we chose to make a 2 gallon batch now and follow it with another 2 gallon batch in a few week's time. For this one, we've chosen to use one 220ml bottle of concentrate and one 500g bag of currants.

Note that this recipe and quantities are for a 2 gallon batch of raspberry wine.

Raspberry Wine Recipe 3
Step 1:
Add 6lbs raspberries into a 3 gallon bucket
Add 5lbs sugar
Add 2 teaspoons pectolase to break down the fruit and extract flavour
Mash well, cover and leave for 24 hours

Step 2:
Simmer 500g currants in a large pan of water for 30 minutes, allow to cool, add to bucket
Add 220ml bottle of red grape juice concentrate to bucket
Mash well again, cover and leave for 24 hours

Step 3:
Top up bucket to about 2.25 gallons (just over 10 litres) with cold water
Test SG and add sugar to bring up to 1090
Add 2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Add 1 teaspoon yeast
Stir well, cover and leave in a warm place for 10-14 days to ferment

Step 4:
Strain off the liquid into 2 clean, sterilised demijohns
If necessary, top up with cold water to the shoulder of the demijohns
Fit bungs and airlocks and leave to ferment for a few weeks (maybe 6)

Step 5:
Test the SG and if fermented out to about 0.995, then:
Rack off into clean, sterilised demijohns
Add 1 crushed campden tablet to each demijohn and shake well
Add 1tsp potassium sorbate to each demijohn to stop the ferment and shake well
Fit bungs and airlocks and leave for 2 or 3 weeks to degas, giving it a gentle shake every couple of days.

Step 6:
Bottle!