HOME-MADE WINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1939, Page 10

HOME-MADE WINE

QUITE SIMPLE TO MAKE. PRECAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED. What is more delicious than a glass of home-made wine? And yet so few housewives bother to have a supply on hand for use at home and when guests are present. Probably they believe that wines are difficult to make at home but it will be seen that this is not so. Most wines, home-made or otherwise, are all the better for being bottled off after about 6-12 months, or when they have cleared thoroughly. They are then freed from the heavier dregs and will go on improving. In most cases, the longer they are kept the better. Make sure that the bottles are perfectly dry, clean and sound, and that the corks are new, of good quality and tight-fitting. They can be soaked in boiling water to soften them for driving into the bottles. Let the wine run from the tap in the cask into the bottles through a fine strainer. Do not fill the bottles too full; cork them securely and keep them lying on their sides in a cool, dry place. One point that must always be remembered. Never leave the brew working in tins as this is highly dangerous owing to the chemical action on the tin and soldering which will, set up a poison. Wood or earthenware containers must be used. BLACKBERRY WINE. To one gallon of blackberries allow one quart of boiling water and to one gallon of juice from one to two pounds of sugar. Gather the fruit when ripe and on a fine dry day. Pick it carefully, measure and put into a tub or into a vessel with a tap. Pour the boiljng water over, and when cool enough bruise the berries with the hands until they are all broken. Cover and leave for three or four days, or until the pulp rises to the surface and forms a crust. Drain off the liquor and add the sugar. Mix well and when dissolved put into a cask. Leave with the bung-hole lightly covered until fermentation ceases (from seven to 10 days) and keep the cask well filled up with extra liquor. A little stick cinnamon may be added. Close the bung-hole tightly and leave from six to 12 months. Then bottle and cork tightly.