Night of the Living Raspberry - How to Make Perfect Raspberry Wine
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Night of the Living Raspberry
or
How to Make Perfect Raspberry Wine
From the Kitchen Zen for Men[1] recipe collection
I seldom consume the efforts of my own labor, but tonight I opened a two-year old bottle of my raspberry wine and I was shocked. It roped nicely around the glass as I swirled it; the nose (or bouquet) was mild and pleasant and the clear red liquid refracted the light from my bay windows perfectly.
It couldn't be as good as it looks or smells - few things in life are, I sarcastically thought. So I carried the glass over to my nineteen-year old son who doesn't drink (anything except my mead[2]) and said "feeling brave?"
He looked up from his computer screen and his eyebrows rose as he saw the glass of raspberry wine. As usual no words were required to communicate but I offered unnecessarily "Try this - If you don't die in thirty seconds I'll drink the rest." He took the glass from my hand and sipped cautiously as I waited for his reaction. His eyebrows rose once again and he took another sip and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree after Thanksgiving.
"Wow- That's excellent!" he replied as he swirled the wine and rotated his swivel chair towards the light so he could evaluate how the wine roped around the glass.
So - after drinking two glasses of the best raspberry wine I've ever consumed, I thought I'd share my recipe with you. I have a mountain of organic raspberries in my freezer from this year's harvest and after making jam until my eyes bugged out I'm glad to have an alternate use for these wonderful berries.
Once again, if you are reading this hub, I will assume you are a home brewer and have the basic knowledge required to create a successful batch of beer or wine, so I will not include the most basic instructions here. If you need guidance on the basics, there are many great books available that will help you get started, or feel free to post a question to the hub & I'll answer it as soon as I notice it.
So here's my recipe with simple instructions. You can't buy this in the liquor store!
This recipe produces 3 gallons of rich, sweet raspberry wine that will knock your socks off!
Night of the Living Raspberry/Raspberry Wine
9-10 pounds of raspberries, crushed
6 campden tablets, crushed
1 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. yeast energizer
3 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 ½ tsp. pectic enzyme
10 ½ pounds granulated sugar
2 gal. filtered water
EC1118 yeast
Good water is essential. If you don't have a water filtration system, use good bottled spring water; bad tap water will result in an inferior product.
Day 1: Begin the process by crushing the raspberries. I place them in a large mixing bowl and use the bottom of a heavy drinking glass to press down in a mortar & pestle type motion. Transfer the crushed berries to nylon mesh fruit bags and repeat until they are all crushed. Be careful-don't break that glass and bleed all over the kitchen!
In your sterilized primary fermenter, add the water, the first 6 pounds of the sugar, acid blend and pectic enzyme. Do not add the yeast on day 1. Stir it well. Come on, stir it like you hate it! The wine will need lots of oxygen to ferment, so now's your chance to entrain some O2. Drop in the mesh bags of raspberries into the fermenter and using your sterilized large stirring utensil if choice squish the bags for a few minutes to ensure the campden dissolved into the water can get to all the berries. Pour any raspberry juice left over from the crushing process into the fermenter. Attach top on the fermenter with airlock attached. I actually don't put water in my airlock yet.
Now, have a nice glass of mead or blueberry wine[3] and relax. We'll come back tomorrow.
Day 2 (Morning): Wake up and take the top off the fermenter and stir the mixture again (with sterilized utensil). Be sure to squish those bags of fruit-we want all the raspberry goodness to transfer to the water.
Day 2 (Evening): Stir again just like above. We'll pitch yeast in the morning.
Day 3 (Morning): Ok, time to hydrate the yeast and pitch along with the nutrient and energizer. Add it and stir well, then re-cover, adding water to your airlock.
Day 4: At least once during the day (twice is better) squish those bags of raspberries. It'll help transfer all of the juice from the berries to the liquid.
Day 5: Same as day 4. Your wine should be fermenting by now.
Day 6: Add 3 more pounds of sugar, stir well & re-cover. If you don't have fermentation yet, you may have gotten some bad yeast. You do have backup yeast, right? Pitch yeast again if needed or add more nutrient and energizer..
Days 7 & 8: Stir & squish bags at least once.
Day 9: Add final 1 ½ pounds of sugar, stir well & squish.
Days 10-13: That's right; squish those friggin' bags!
Day 14: Remove bags of now depleted raspberries and re-cover.
Days 15-? I left this time-frame open; I let my wine stop fermenting completely for at least a few days before I rack it over to a glass carboy. When it stops, rack it over, top with sterile water if needed to bring the level up into the neck of the carboy and attach airlock. I have left my wine "on it's lees" for up to a month before racking and still have been pleased with the results.
Move the carboy to a cool, dark place for 3 months. Keep water in the airlock.
Month 3-4: Rack again; put back in a cool, dark place and forget about it for 6-8 months. (But do keep the water in the airlock at the proper level.)
Yeah, that's right-6-8 whole months. This will allow all of the fine particles to settle down so your final product will be perfect. My bottle tonight was PERFECT down to the last drop - not a bit of sediment.
After 9-12 months: bottle your wine and allow it to bottle age as long as you can stand it. Raspberry wine ages well in a bottle, and the longer you wait the better it will be.
Good luck and happy brewing.
For more wine & mead recipes see:
Blueberry Wine: http://hubpages.com/hub/Blue-is-my-Berry-1-How-to-Make-Blueberry-Wine
Mead - The Nectar of the Gods: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Mead-_-The-Nectar-of-The-Gods
Maple Mead: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Maple-Mead
Blueberry Mead at http://hubpages.com/hub/Blue-is-My-Berry-2---How-to-Make-Blueberry-Mead
Strawberry wine http://hubpages.com/hub/Strawberry-Wine-from-Planet-NineHow-to-Make-Strawberry-Wine
Blackberry wine http://hubpages.com/hub/Blackberry-Singing-in-the-Dead-of-NightHow-to-make-Superior-Blackberry-Wine
Raspberry Mead at http://hubpages.com/hub/Return-of-the-Living-Raspberry---How-to-Make-Raspberry-Mead
Footnotes
[1] http://hubpages.com/hub/Kitchen-Zen-for-Men-Master-Hub--Recipe-Links-and-Important-Tips
[2] http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Mead-_-The-Nectar-of-The-Gods
[3] http://hubpages.com/hub/Blue-is-my-Berry-1-How-to-Make-Blueberry-Wine
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Comments
Can do - I should have named it "Mule Kick" Raspberry wine instead - but it's good stuff!
Whoops! I mistakenly wrote "12" # of raspberries when I published the hub and when I checked my notes from 2 years ago, I used about 9-10# for the 3-gallon batch instead. My apologies - that's what I get for writing after drinking 2 glasses! The recipe has been corrected.
Nice intro! Save me some!
If you can stand the long plane ride, I can certainly save some for you!
wonder if you could possibly answer me a question I have only made homemade wine 3 times, fist time turned out great was inspired to make more second 2 attempts also turned out ok but the wine was very strong I don't mean in taste the taste was pleasant but the alcohol content was huge both I and my husband could not drink it neat had to dilute it with pop don't think that we can't take our booze not the case wine was more like a spirit ,one of hubby's friends a seasoned drinker would not be warned saying no home made wine had ever put him on his back,he drank half a bottle neat and fell through the shower doors shattering them when he returned home. His wife has never liked us since. The recipe ingredients were always the same why did one batch turn out ok and others super strong only difference that there seemed to be was first batch seemed to clear much quicker than second two this one was also made in the winter while other two were made in the summer months not that that should make a difference.....any ideas I am afraid to make more I might kill us.
Wanrey-
Okay, I understand - you are curious about the variation in the alcohol content of homemade wines, so here's my explanation of why that happens.
As you know, yeast consumes sugar and produces alcohol as a by-product. When the wine ferments at a higher temperature (like in the summer months) even though it is kept in the house during the fermentation process it still makes a difference. Sometimes a 2-3 degree difference makes a huge difference. Sorry about the shattered shower doors! If you used the same yeast and same amounts of sugar in all 3 batches, the variation in alcohol content can only be attributed to the difference in ambient temperature during fermentation. To track this, you'll need a hydrometer to check the specific gravity just before you pitch the yeast, then take another reading with it just before you bottle it. The difference in the two readings will give you the alcohol content. A hydrometer is cheap and can be bought from any homebrewing supply store.
The other factor for controlling alcohol content is the yeast. If you use KV-1116 yeast, you'll get a lower alcohol content than if you use Pasteur yeast of EC-1118 yeast, both the latter have a higher alcohol tolerance and will yield a stronger, more potent wine. I recommend using KV-1116, it will give you great flavor as well as a lighter "kick".
You can also modify your process by stopping the fermentation early by way of an additive you can buy at the homebrew store - I don't know the name of it but if you call the store they'll be able to hook you up. Or, you could use less sugar in your recipe, but this could result in a "dry" wine unless you stop the fermentation early.
So-1)use a yeast that produces less alcohol, 2)Keep the fermenter in a cooler place in your house and hope the fermentation stops a little early, 3)Buy a hydrometer and monitor the fermentation and stop it when it reaches your "target level" for alcohol.
Did this help? I recommend a book - "The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian - it was a great help to me.
Let me know if any of that works & good luck!
CEGjr
thanks for the info sure it will help out will look for the book eager to try your raspberry wine recipe
wanrey-
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out. (in a year)
Excellent! I'm going to experiment with wine very very soon and am excited to gather recipes....Thank-you!
Natural-
Good luck with your wine making adventures! If you like raspberries, you'll love this one.
Bryan Robertson says:
6 months ago
Nice intro! Save me some!