Adventure in Wine Making

A few weeks ago Aaron rousted me out of bed, plied me with coffee and took me down to Midwest Brewing for a class on how to make raspberry wine. I was hooked almost instantly, and bought a starter kit after class. This weekend I started two batches of wine, peach and cherry.

Peach Wine I used the base recipe from Winemaker's recipe handbook. I want a strong peach flavor, so I bumped the amount of peaches to 3lbs, 1oz. I mistakenly used yeast nutrient instead of energizer, so when I added the yeast on Monday night I also added 1/4 tsp of energizer. I want a sweeter, fruity flavor so I used Cote des Blancs yeast.

Cherry Wine I used the base recipe from Winemaker's recipe handbook. I opted for the sour cherry instead of sweet, because when I used to get cherry wines from the winery in Door County the sweet cherry was too overwhelming. I can always sweeten it to taste with simple syrup later. I used exactly 4lbs of sweet cherries, and on Monday night added Champagne yeast. As of Tuesday morning, both wines are fermenting nicely.