I did some brewing and wine making back in college. I put together a cheap and easy setup. Go to a local bakery and ask for their used frosting buckets, they will usually give them to you or charge a couple bucks. I like the 3 gallon size. Clean them out and you have food grade buckets with a pressure seal. Get some 3/8 polyethylene water tubing like you would use to hook up an ice maker. You'll need about 2ft per bucket. Drill a 3/8 hole in the top of the bucket and push the tubing through. It should be snug. Put the other end into a cup of diluted bleach/water. I like to make blue raspberry wine. I wash then freeze the blueberries and raspberries to break the cells open and release the juices, then I mix my sugar and water and bring it to a boil and add the frozen berries and bring it back to a near boil, then let it cool, move to bucket, pitch the yeast, and seal it up. Open it the next day and give it a vigorous mix, then seal it up and rack it (move to a clean bucket leaving the solids behind) in about a week. If you leave it for a few weeks at room temp it should be safe to bottle, but I have had a few blown corks. If you're going to get into the hobby, the only special equipment I really recommend is a hydrometer. Especially if you're going to make your own recipes. Then you can check your starting and finishing weights to estimate alcohol content and see if the ferment has finished.
Nice video! Having made a good bit of blackberry wine, I have a suggestion. I've tried most of the commonly available commercial yeasts and one stood out for a great blackberry wine- Pasteur Red. It kept the fruit forward. Otherwise Champagne yeast might get you a higher alcohol content, with enough sugar, and it will cleanly ferment. Yeast has a huge impact on the final product. If in doubt, just divided your must into a few batches and use different yeasts. It is a big, highly noticable deal. Love the vids!
Great job Laura! Miss you! I would sure love to find a way without so much added refined sugar. I thought my Italian plums had enough built in sugar last year but not so... and I tried to make dandelion wine years ago until I discovered it was just sugar water with a little dandelion herbal flavoring basically LOL. I just don't want to be supporting the sugar industry that much if possible LOL
If your yeast is doing its job it should eat most of the sugar (turning it into alcohol.) The one piece of special equipment I recommend getting is a hydrometer. Measure your starting weight and finishing weight. As long as you start in the right place, the yeast you use should determine your finishing weight. Personally, I don't worry about being a purist in any sense, I just concentrate on making something drinkable. Any source of sugar should work. As Colorado Mom suggested, honey is really good, but it takes longer to ferment. You can also just add more fruit... anything that you think would go together well. I personally really like blueberry and raspberry together.
