Saturday, February 5, 2011

Saskatoon Wine



This afternoon, I bottled last year's saskatoon wine.  If I could make enough of it, saskatoon would satisfy my desire for red wine.  Unfortnately, last year's berry crop was poor, so there wasn't much to bottle.  In August, I picked 5 lb of berries and made 1 gallon of wine.  (The year before, i brewed 5 gallons in addition to canning about 50 quarts of berries.)  After tasting a bit each time the young wine was racked, i was left today with 4 1/2 bottles.  The 4 full bottles were properly corked, labelled, and moved downstairs to the wine cellar.

The half-bottle won't last out the day.  Our neighbour is coming over, and we'll share a glass with him.  He's 21 years old, and I take every opportunity to try to convince him that home brewing is an easy and enjoyable thing to do.  He might not get around to it just yet, but give him a few years.  One day, as he's shelling out twenty of his hard-earned bucks for a bottle, he'll remember . . .

               Recipe

   5 lb saskatoon berries
   2 1/2 lb sugar
   1 orange
   1 pkg champagne yeast

   Simmer berries in just enough water to keep them from burning. 
   Extract as much juice as possible.  Add warm water to make 1 gallon.
   Stir in sugar and the orange, cut into pieces.  Sprinkle in the yeast.
   Let ferment one week, then siphon into a secondary fermenter with an air lock.
   Let it brew, racking it off the sediment, until it stops working.  Bottle and cork.


4 comments:

  1. I realize this post is extremely old but thank you for this simple recipe, it's just what I'm looking for.

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  3. Just picked 40 lbs of saskatoon. Goal is to get 40 to 50 bottles made.Been reading up on a lot of methods people are doing. This will be my first time with saskatoon wine. Making wine is a very good hobby.

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