Well today I made up a bit of Red wine out of some grapes I found growing in my garden :)  

was a simple process, although it's likely to come out more a rosé than a red I think.

following the guide written in the Cider/Wine Section to make this, so won't go into full detail, but do have some pics of some of the stages to help.

There was roughly 400g of red grapes, which is just enough to make a gallon of red wine, cause you put a lot of water in it heh.

so, first step is wash your grapes off and chuck em in a sauce pan, then cover them with water and smash em up.
It looked kinda gross, but hey, if it's alcoholic I don't mind heh :) 

Then I put it on the stove on high heat until boiling, remove any of the scum and reduce to a simmer.
I now leave it simmering for about 20 mins.  Look at the colour, fantastic eh :)  (well the red colour, not the scum that's not yet been removed lol.)

After 20 mins of simmering, I add 200g of sugar and fill the pot up to the top with water, simmer and stir for a few minutes, then turn the heat off and leave to cool for about an hour.

I then strain the liquid off and throw away the skins and stuff, leaving me with a nice, very sweet liquid :)  it's quite nice at this stage, and it should be very sweet.  if it's not then you may need more sugar.

Before putting in the demijohn it must be cooled, so make sure it isn't hot still before popping it in.
at this stage I also may take a reading on the hydrometer to check what the OG is, mine was a little low for a Wine at about 1.040, so I added more sugar to push it up to around 1.090.  which should leave us with a wine around 11-12%

If adding more sugar it's usually best to mix it up with water first, but you can add it straight to the demijohn and stir it around until it's all dissolved.

ok, when all your liquid is in the demijohn you may need to top it up with water to about the mark shown in this photo, you need to leave space for any frothing etc that the yeast will cause. 

*Note: If you add more water this will adjust your OG, so take another reading.

today is day one for my wine, so I've popped in a crushed Campden tablet to destroy any natural yeasts that might be present.

You then need to fill the airlock with Vodka or water (I only ever use water, not had an issue yet.) then stick the airlock in the demijohn.

so in 24 hours I'll add Yeast, Yeast Nutrient, Pectolase and Citric acid into the demijohn and watch the storm brewing :)

Hopefull in about six months time I'll be able to tell you what it's like.

 

However, I also bottled up a gallon of elderberry wine today, and I have to say, it's the most fantastic wine I've made so far.  

The elderberry wine was made pretty much in the same way as this red wine, berry pulled off the bush, crushed in some water and boiled, sugar added, popped in a demijohn.. hey presto 3 months later I have 6 Bottles of fantastic elderberry wine at 11.2% Vol (ABV)