Although It's probably not good for me, I decided that it would be effective if I made wine. So I began (rather blindly I might add) an odd rotation of wine. What I've done is purchased a gallon of wine, and emptied it (the fun part) then I filled it back up with a mixture of yeast and sugar and flavor... and gave it time. The Yeast converts the sugar to alcohol the flavor makes it tolerable, and time.... is of the essence. How is this done? I'll explain.
Cleanliness is next to godliness. Wine is doubly so. I boil the bottle. usually for 20-30 min. that seems excessive but in actuality it's not going to hurt anything and it gives me a chance to do something else for a while. that's a big pot... and a lot of water... it takes a while for it to come up to temperature. So put the kettle on and have a nice cup of tea while you wait for it to boil. We've some other things to take care of too.
Not so simple syrup. Incorrectly made can introduce an unpleasant taste to your wine, as well as your cocktails. I bring to a boil, and put in a half cup of sugar, then stir till it's all dissolved. For my wine I put in four cups this way. Any more and the sugar starts to act as a preservative. That is bad. There is a process to make a high alcohol content wine. when I get it to work I'll post it. for now stick with four cups of sugar.
again... I can not stress enough to be sterile. Bleach water is your friend. If you buy an airlock (the airlock and bung are like two bucks) don't boil it. It will melt it... trust me. I let it soak for a bit in this and rinse VERY thoroughly. The rubber bung is a #6 and fits Carlo Rossi bottles perfectly. The little cup thing fits over the tube inside the big cup thing, a little water is placed in the big cup, the cap is placed on it and it's fitted into the bung hole. You don't need TeePee for your bunghole. The airlock lets CO2 out but not the outside air in. My first few bottles were done with a balloon and a hair tie (or rubber band. something to secure it)
so, you've put the (boiling) syup into the container (I use a funnel to do this) and a can of frozen juice concentrate. filled it up with water. At this point... go do something else. Really. let it sit and normalize the temperature for a few hours. If you add the yeast now it will hinder it because all of it's food is Uber hot. You don't like that, but it kills yeast. Also don't turn your bottle sideways. I use localized gravitational fields.
you can use baking yeast. The active dry yeast in the store will work. If you have a brew shop or winemaking supply this LALVIN was recommended to me, so far so good. keep your future wine in a cool dark place. I'd say 8 weeks, but really its to taste. 8 weeks makes a very dry wine. I've heard as little as 15weeks. I'll edit this post when my first batch is finished :) give you an on-the-spot rating.
