# Fruit wine made from apartment grown fruit?



## jebbewocky (Nov 4, 2009)

Does anyone know of any kinds of fruit which could both make good wine, and be grown inside an apartment?


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## Tom (Nov 4, 2009)

Welcome to the forum
Tell us about your wine making experience.

Not in the quantities you will need to make wine. Why not BUY the fruit when in season? You will need 5-6 #'s per gallon to make a good fruit wine.


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## Wade E (Nov 4, 2009)

No really and the amount of fruit needed to make wine is pretty high so I really dont think its feasible. There are many ways to make fruit wine though like for instance use Vintners Harvest fruit wine bases which are cans of fruit and juice that are not treated and even include a recipe which is okay but a little off in my opinion as far as amounts of sugar and water to be used. Theres also a place in NY called Walkers Fruit basket which selld 5 gallon buckets of juice for wine making. Grocery store fruit is not the best to use as the fruit is usually picked too early and never truly ripens. Frozen fruit works very well and so does fruit jelly and jams.


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## jebbewocky (Nov 4, 2009)

Thank you for the welcome! My winemaking experience: I ordered a winemaking kit a few days ago.  I just went for a small one, 1 gal. I just plan on making some as a hobby moreso than anything else.

I'll just buy them then.


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## arcticsid (Nov 5, 2009)

Jebb as Wade said juice is a good option. I make alot of wine from store bought juice, pre mixed and concentrates. Some nice wines can be made from these right off the shelf. But as Wade pointed out, some of the juices he mentioned would make some REALLY good wine!

Here in Fairbanks, I am sure most of the fresh fruit in our supermarket is indeed harvested early. Sometimes you can wait for a good deal and then decide what to make. Make friends with someone in the produce section, they can let you know if they have any fruit that is to ripe for the shelf but perfect for wine.

I have said before, wait till something comes on sale or in season, decide what you would like to make and let us know. Someone can point you to a good recipe, most have been tried and proven, so you will have a head start on experimenting from the blind.

Good luck, have fun. Keep us posted on your efforts and progress.

Cheers.

Troy


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## Wade E (Nov 5, 2009)

jebbewocky said:


> I just plan on making some as a hobby moreso than anything else.
> 
> I'll just buy them then.



 Yeah, thats what we all said!  I give it 6 months before you are buying some more equipment for making bigger batches and more of them! There are some of us that dont drink much or even at all but are just addicted to fermenting something!


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## jebbewocky (Nov 5, 2009)

Haha! Yeah, I do tend to go overboard.
I really don't have room for a bigger kit though. 
And by "buy them" I meant the fruits.

Anyway, what's a good fruit wine to start with, or all they all pretty easy?
I was thinking of a blackberry or a raspberry, or maybe boysenberry or loganberry.


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## Dirtydog420 (Nov 6, 2009)

I started in august of this year with a primary, plastic secondary, and racking equipment, from a kit.. Now have 3 3gal glass carboys, and 1 5gal carboy.. Need to get another 5gal soon though....


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## Midwest Vintner (Nov 6, 2009)

black currant is great. blackberry and raspberry are good, too. apple can be hit or miss depending on types used. pineapple is another good one and easy to work. strawberry is good, but you need alot of #/gal to get good flavor. cherry is another good one, but you have to pit them. peach is pretty tough and blueberry can be slow to ferment, although it's really good.

dirty, just wait. we were like that in '04 and now we have 1 20 gal primary, 1 10 gal primary, 1 7 gal primary, ~10 5 gal glass carboys, ~4 3 gal glass carboys, and many 1~.5 gallon glass bottles for extras.


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## arcticsid (Nov 6, 2009)

Wade, our buddy O.P. made a similar comment on another thread earlier today. Something like, "I only did this mostly for a hobby, I had plums to ferment!" He's as hooked as the rest of us.



LOL

Troy


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## arcticsid (Nov 6, 2009)

Jebb, I live in the smallest place of any of you!! Wine can be made without a giant wine room. (man that would be fun!)


It can be an issue, but it really doesn't take alot of room to make wine...YET!

These are the most basic things:

A fermenting vessel/bucket etc. I am using a 5 gallon pickle bucket for the last 24 batches. I cleaned the snot out of it, but it works quite fine.

Somewhere to put it after fermentation is almost done. A carboy or a bunch of glass bottles.(some say plastic will work), drill a hole in the cap and run a smal hose into a bottle of sulphited water. It can burb but cant burp back.

Bottles to put it in. There have been some neat ways in here how people get there bottles. 

And then of course your ingredients.

Fruit, juice, etc.
Yeast and some minimal additives.

But when you consider, not only is it great fun to make your own it can be quite cheap, and a whole lot more satisfying.

Don't let space get you down! When it comes time to bottle and store your creation, start looking for friends who have the room to do it but first be sure they don't like wine!!!

Cheers 
Troy


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## Tom (Nov 6, 2009)

arcticsid said:


> Wade, our buddy O.P. made a similar comment on another thread earlier today. Something like, "I only did this mostly for a hobby, I had plums to ferment!" He's as hooked as the rest of us.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


TROY !
I thought it's an OBSESSION !


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## arcticsid (Nov 6, 2009)

I guess Tom. I am quilty of drinking most of my wine early, but I am hooked good. I go stir crazy if something isn't fermenting. Just started a batch of apple juice and banana slurry. Pitched the yeast (after making a starter with it) about 36 hours ago and it's fizzing right along.

I love gardening equally as well, but it isn't worth fighting off the Moose. So I got hooked on making wine. As room expands so will I.

I actually can't ever see me at least having SOMETHING fermenting, so I quess that is my admission that I am an addict to brewing my own.

Troy


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## bryano (Nov 7, 2009)

jebbewocky said:


> Thank you for the welcome! My winemaking experience: I ordered a winemaking kit a few days ago.  I just went for a small one, 1 gal. I just plan on making some as a hobby moreso than anything else.
> 
> I'll just buy them then.



just a hobby huh....


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## jebbewocky (Nov 7, 2009)

That isn't meant to be derogatory.
I have a few other hobbies, like tarantula keeping, and my wife-to-be has her things as well.

Why is peach wine difficult? I was thinking of doing a peach-raspberry wine.

Once my kit gets here anyway. Stupid merchant making a typo on the zip code, resulting in it being sent across the country...yeargh.


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## Wade E (Nov 7, 2009)

I dont think its difficult but it is more work then some other wines due to the amount of pulp if from fresh fruit. Other then that theres really no difference. Do you plan on using fruit or a juice because if using store juices there are many out there that have ingredients in there that will make your must (juice not fermented) impossible or very hard to ferment such as potassium metabisulfite and benzoate. Remember that Ascorbic acid is fine and actually we use this quite often before fermenting tp prevent browning of the juice especially with apple or pear or any fruit that oxidizes very easy. We use this along with some sulfite because the small amount of sulfite used may not be enough to safely keep the wine from oxidizing but enough to ward off micro organisms and wild yeast and ascorbic acid doesn not hinder a fermentation like adding more sulfite would.


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## bob1 (Nov 7, 2009)

I like that Midwest. Yes you go out buy a couple 1 gal carboys next thing you know they are everywhere. So many to keep track of so many to miss they are everywhere. I did make living room off limits. And the shed just full of 1.5 gal,2 gal, 5 gal, i think 7 gal ? buckets. But yes You will find a place for carboys and places to stack bottled wine.


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## jebbewocky (Nov 10, 2009)

Got the kit today! I hope to start something this weekend!


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## St Allie (Nov 10, 2009)

bob1 said:


> I like that Midwest. Yes you go out buy a couple 1 gal carboys next thing you know they are everywhere. So many to keep track of so many to miss they are everywhere. I did make living room off limits. And the shed just full of 1.5 gal,2 gal, 5 gal, i think 7 gal ? buckets. But yes You will find a place for carboys and places to stack bottled wine.



I've got 22 x 1 gallon carboys..so i know what you mean.. they end up all over the house. I use 'post it' notes on them.. easy to keep track that way.

Allie


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## manicorganicgal (Mar 23, 2010)

*A Beginner Also, And A Question?*

I just started making wine last spring in an attempt to preserve the harvest. The only equipment I have are 5 gallon frosting tubs and some silicone aquarium tubing! I didn't use any recipe other than plain baking yeast, sugar or honey, fruit and water. So far I've made mulberry, blueberry, peach, clover-n-honey,fig and an end of harvest medly. The medly turned into the best vinegar I've ever tasted, lol! All of the other wines except blueberry and fig are very strong, sweet and delicious! The blueberry and fig however, are very light and dry, almost like a weak lemonade. Is there anything I can do to make them better without making them as sweet as the others? If I add sugar or more fruit, or even blend them with a commercial wine, can those things be added directly or would it ruin the whole thing? I am trying to stay as organic and chemical free as possible. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!


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