Thread: Homemade Country Wine Production

The most important rule in Country Wine making next to Sanitizing everything is to harvest and process fruit in it's Prime. I allow my Key Limes (ingredient in the Raz-A-Rita wine) to ripen a bit before harvesting. I need 4 cups of juice to the 3 gallon batch on wine. So as the fruit is ripening I harvest the prime fruit and refrigerate asap. When I have enough to squeeze I process the fruit at one time then freeze the juice in a 4 cup container. When ready to use all I have to do is thaw and pour.



Last year I had to mix in some Persian Lime juice to get my 12 cups (45 bottle batch) but this year I will have more than I need the tree is still loaded with fruit and setting more.
Doing a little at a time like this makes wine making days go much smoother and you have the absolute best quality fruit - flavor.

Love me some limes on mexican food. Wife loves key lime pie. I think I need to check into growing our own trees too…..lol

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

Love me some limes on mexican food. Wife loves key lime pie. I think I need to check into growing our own trees too…..lol

I just came back from Wally World. One of the items I needed was Heavy Cream for a Key Lime Pie. I make mine using Paula Deens recipe. Of all the recipes I have made Her's is the silkiest. I will be posting up Sunday a batch of Cherry Bread and Key Lime Pie.

Originally Posted by rojoguio

I just came back from Wally World. One of the items I needed was Heavy Cream for a Key Lime Pie. I make mine using Paula Deens recipe. Of all the recipes I have made Her's is the silkiest. I will be posting up Sunday a batch of Cherry Bread and Key Lime Pie.

I’ll be waiting. I made my wife a key…. Well lime pie for her birthday and decided we’ve had better. It wasn’t that good of a recipe. Tasted like cheap imitation. Frozen pies in store aren’t much better.

Key Lime trees grow with the least amount of input here of any Citrus. The Swallowtail Moth will lay eggs on it sometimes but nothing like my other citrus varieties. I pull the worms off as soon as I see any munching going on. Also they need much lass water than a Persian Lime tree. Their taste changes as they ripen, great for my wine concoctions but not a improvement in Pie making, green is King in Pies. Cool thing is you can keep it small, mine is only 6ft from the dirt to the top. Loads upon loads of limes this year. Today at Wally World 1 Key Lime was 38c. My tree is 4 years old and I think it adds 100 limes a year. Sunday dinner, Brisket Slaw Burgers with homemade Bread & Butter Pickles, Fried Bell Pepper Rings, Fried Mushrooms (your favorite), and Key Lime Pie.

Everything sounds good except for those yucky mushrooms….lol

It's time to bottle the Raz-A-Rita. Since there is 3 Carboys and my new 6.5 Gal Glass Big Mouth Bubbler will only hold 2 the last batch will be done after the first two. I get this Email with the 6.5gal Bubbler on sale for $35 right when I was looking for one. I had to scoop it up. Sanitizing everything is how you start. I had 3 cases of bottles that I sanitized 2 years ago. Not taking a chance of having my wine turn to Vinegar I started with the table and worked my way up. I'm doing this in my shop because I'm prone to spills and the Sanitizer eats the finish on our counters if left on to dry. My S-10 will be moved to the big building soon and I'm building out a wine room in here.



The drying equipment had to be sanitized too then all the bottles were pulled out of the boxes and stood on the table. Also the new Fermenter was unboxed.



The Wine Filter system has filters good for 5 gallons of wine but mine has been racked several times more than required so I think I'm running all 6 gallons on one set of filter pads. I will fill the Fermenter receiving the filtered wine with Argon so no oxygen comes in contact with my wine.



After the wine is filtered Stabilizer will be added then wine conditioner. Once this is finished a couple of days resting before bottling is recommended. I'm not a big fan of Tannins so my wines need to be consumed within 3 years. Just terrible, I have to have a glass of wine regularly.

I’ll store your S-10 for ya……..