My parents have been asking me for a while if I wanted any of the grapes from their greenhouse and I haven't got round to picking them. Normally they turn their surplus into wine - only a couple of gallons and sometimes a bit dodgy in taste - but this year they decided it was too much effort. So I thought I'd better volunteer.
When I checked them out though, I found a lot to be frosted or mouldy, or both.
I normally make 'wine' from hedgerow ingredients - elderflowers or berries, blackberries, rose hips - so I didn't have quite the right equipment for this.
There weren't enough grapes to warrant treading them in a big barrel ....
and the 'grape press' had to be invented on the fly...
'Real' grapes don't require sugar or yeast adding but the recipe I found advised that for home grown grapes I should add some.
BUT....I don't have a hydrometer, so can't check the sugar levels and have just added a few tablespoons as a guess. I don't have any wine-making yeast, so have used some intended for bread.
It's now all sitting in a demijohn, for which I don't have a proper air-lock, but hopefully will start to bubble soon and maybe, despite all the making-do with equipment, I'll get a bottle or two of wine.
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