Thread: Homemade Country Wine Production

Originally Posted by Rojo

I made the wine yesterday morning. After pitching the yeast today I will be uploading the whole process. I modified the recipe doubling the fruit per gallon like all the other wine made this fall/winter wine making season.

Double the fruit, gonna be killer.

I was going to get this post done yesterday but I changed the oil in my C230 Mercedes, 2009 Silverado, and the engine oil - transmission fluid & filter, and rear differential gear oil spilling some oils & fluids along the way. By the time I came inside the only thing I was doing was opening a bottle of Blueberry wine.

I posted earlier processing the rest of the satsumas & mandarins from our trees that ripen for November/December harvest. Great for juicing but past their prime for fresh eating. Now comes the fun part, making wine from the juice.

2025 SATSUMA WINE


2-1/4 Gals Owari & Page juice with pulp
14 cups Sugar = 1.120 added another cup with brought Must to 1.130
1/2 Gal Distilled water
1 Box Golden Raisins chopped
1 cup English Tea
1-1/2Tsp Fermoplus
2Tsp Pectic Enzyme
1-1/2 Nutrient
3-1/2 Campden Tablets


1/9/2025 Mixed Must in 5gal fermenter. After adding everything added campden tablets and covered top of fermenter.

1/11/2025 Properly started yeast culture and pitched to Must.

This is how I make notes so I can repeat a good wine.



At this point I have mixed the distilled water and sugar adding the mixture to the Satsuma juice and taken a reading of the specific gravity. 1.130 is showing on the hydrometer. This is as high a starting sugar content as I like to go.



Since the specific gravity or density of the water was increased the different weights of the solids are affected causing them to either sink or float. The campden tablets are creating a toxic sulfur based gas that kills most living wild yeasts as well as undesirable organisms. We do this so when the wine yeast is added it's colony size overwhelms any spoilage bugs or bacteria that would turn this wine to vinegar. I let this gas work for at least 24 hours up to 48 hours before adding the yeast.



Assembling everything needed for a good wine yeast rehydration I add 1/2tsp sugar to a sanitized measuring cup with about 1/3rd cup of distilled water. After I microwave the sugar water to 105-106 degrees. As the water cools to 104 degrees I add the dry wine yeast.



These time lapsed photos show the just added yeast then at 10 minute intervals. As you can see in the last photo my Yeast colony is thriving.



After 20 minutes I extract a little wine Must from the fermenter and add it to the yeast. This is tempering the yeast colony to the hostile environment before taking the plunge so to speak. When adding the colony I pour it to one side keeping the colony as intact as possible. The PH being very low tempering the yeast first really helps the colony take off. As the colony grows and feeds the CO2 released will turn the mixture over so stirring will not be needed at first. Now we wait.

Once the yeast started working it mixes itself. I still must stir once a day at least to keep the Cap of solids from spoiling. I punch down the Cap twice a day. I have a video uploaded but must make sure it works.

Video plays now. Go full screen to see all the bits of orange being worked by the yeast.

After 24 hours of building momentum the Satsuma wine fermentation is at a full roll.

The Foam is gone. Fermentation has slowed. Time to get this Must into a Secondary fermenter. The Champagne yeast EC1118 really packs a punch. It ran thru this Must in just a few days.



The filter bag is sold by wine & beer making shops. Nothing special here, the bucket is sanitized, the filter bag is sanitized, and after transferring the Must into the filter bag I fix the bag out of the Must to allow it to drain. No squeezing here, gravity only.



The wine is simply racked thru the spigot into the Secondary.



Checking the Specific Gravity at this point we are at 1.034, which is around 13%ABV. If the wine ferments dry it will be around 18%. I will be feeding a 2:1 syrup to boost the ABV while removing the air gap so once the CO2 is exhausted the oxidation doesn't start.



I have a short video of how the bubbler full of Vodka was rolling after 20 minutes.

That wouldn’t last a week here, I’d kill it.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

That wouldn’t last a week here, I’d kill it.

Man I thought your Taco Bell comment on the earlier video was out of sight funny.

Thumbs up here for the quote, just fantastic.

Totally prepared for the deep freeze. Got 10 pounds of pork shoulder to grind up for tamales, more pizza dough proofing, boats to work on in the shop, and now Lemon wine to ferment.

First I scrub the very ripe, plump, Meyer Lemons. Our Citrus gets a little black something on it during the wet season, comes right off, but I'm not going to Zest a dirty Lemon.



Nice and yellow now. So after cleaning up all the water drips from the Lemon bath I get a new dish rag out then setup for Zesting & Squeezing.



I've started Zesting the Lemons here, I zest them all before juicing.



While this is going on 1-1/2 gallons of Distilled water is warming on the stove with 9 pounds of sugar mixed in.



The Juicer we bought really gets all the seeds out catching them for easy cleaning. I put all the fruit hulls in the freezer in a Bucket till the garbage runs.



I have the Syrup added along with all the Zest & Lemon Juice.



I have not made Lemon Wine without the Tea but like the English Breakfast Tea the best in my wine.



Chopping a box or two of Golden Raisins is kinda a pain as they stick to everything but again I like the quality of fermentation I get using them. As far as eating fresh when they taste as good as they do they must contribute to the overall wine taste in a positive way.



Dropped in the essentials before the Campden Tablets.



Here the Must is ready to move to the Fermentation area till tomorrow evening when I pitch the yeast.