We tried our hand at making our own wine for the first time a couple of years ago and our initial reasons were this would just be really cool to do!  Our secondary reason is that it would make great gifts….well that’s not exactly true if you had tasted a couple of our first batches we made it might have been a gift we should not have shared with our friends LOL!  I have one friend in particular that tasted my first batch I made and she was very kind but she grew up in the country on a farm and she said this is very typical of what wine tastes like out on a farm so I thought well at least my wine is farm grade 🙂

Would you like to make your very own homemade wine?  You Can!  It is even more exciting when you use items from your own garden to make your wine.  We have used apples, honey, and now more recently our own Jerusalem Artichokes which we have an abundance of.

Making your own wine is slightly labor intensive but the results are well worth it and so is the cost!

This Is The Basic Process For a 10 Gallon Batch of Jerusalem Artichoke Wine (I recommend you find your own recipe and follow it and tweak it and keep accurate notes)

• Gather up the Jerusalem artichoke we used about 20 lbs, we usually use a screen method as shown here in this blog post to help filter out a lot of the dirt before we bring them inside.
• Then we scrub them and cut them into chunks.
• Next we boil the Jerusalem Artichokes in about 3 gallons of water to extract the sugar and flavor and then you pour that water into a container and let that cool to be used for your wine and then you boil the Jerusalem Artichokes again in another batch of 3 gallons of water. Same process.
• Anytime you make wine you will also add sugar, some fruit, or other seasonings and herbs.  Many folks use lemons, oranges, and even ginger root just to name a few.

 Whenever you make wine there are several steps that involve fermenting the wine, racking the wine, stirring the wine, siphoning the wine etc…..This blog post is meant more as an inspiration as it takes several batches to get to the point where you start getting the wine making process down it is kind of the same patience involved with soap making to perfect it to where you are happy with the results.

I have to share that making your own wine can be an extreme money-saving venture if you are able to get your crop or staple for free that you prepare your recipe around and if everything goes according to plan.  The main reason though folks make their own home made wine is not to save money especially not when you are still in the learning stages but it can eventually save you a bundle.

 We love to repurpose old bottles but my husband will tell you the process of removing the labels from old wine bottles is time-consuming.  We do purchase our bottling supplies such as corks, seals, sanitizer, and camden tablets to make the wine from Wilmington Home Brew Supply a local home-brew supplier they always have everything we need on hand and offer us solid advice and have helped us to continue to improve our efforts!  They will be getting a shout out in my local biz and Small Mom & Pop biz post coming out by the end of this week!  So stay tuned!

You can really see the difference the seals that we purchase from them make on our finished product it makes the bottles look more polished and ready for gift giving!  Sure to bring cheer to several folks on our holiday list this year or I really should say next year since this batch began this past September!  So if you started right now making a batch of wine over the holiday a 10 gallon batch makes approximately 50 bottles and they would be ready some time in March.  Let me know if you try your hand at this new hobby.  I would love to hear about your results and feel free to ask my husband “The Viking In My Life” any questions about this process as he is extremely interested in the fermentation process.

We wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with time with your family and friends.

Fondly,

Related Articles:

Jerusalem Artichokes Another Way To Prep In The Garden(lilsuburbanhomestead) 

Junk To Funk: Some Woman Down The Road Left Me With Hardwood(canadianbudgetbinder)

What Is Your Gift Of The Magi?(lilsuburbanhomestead)

Our Fall Mountain Adventure…Apples, Hiking Trails, & Brewery Tours(lilsuburbanhomestead)