Country Fruit Wine making - Damson and Aronia Berry

I decided to pop up the allotment today because I needed to drop off some compost - potato peelings etc. Its bin day and most people send them off to be recycled and made into either biogas or soil. We take them up our allotment and compost them.

 Anyway I remembered we have yet to pick the Ariona berries. These are not very nice tasting. I bought them as part of an unusual fruit pack as bare rooted plants - probably about 8 years ago now. Well they produce lots of berries or they do if you remember to net them because the birds eat them. We have two plants and I only had enough etting to cover one so we really only got half of the harvest. Must buy some netting next year in fact. Its the first time I ahve tried making wine fromthem. The seller ( DT Brown Ltd) says they make better wine and jam than they do as eating raw. I would agree they are not nice tasting. Infcat the birds must be desperate up there because mu hens do not like them either.

So on the way home I saw loads of wild damsons and picked them as well. Or some of them because there are lots this year. As I said in previous posts from the stuff I was told as a kid lots of berries means a long cold winter is on the way.

This is an Aldi shopping bag and you can see there are lots.

It takes a few days to start off fruit wine so I am writing this in the present to show you what to do if you fancy having a go at this. Later I am going to do exactly the same thing but with free wild elderberries so if you cannot find damsons ( you can miss out the arionas because they are not common and substitute whatever is available)  then use what is out there. Blackberries also work for example.

DAY 1

So I picked them, brought them home,washed them and took as many of the stems off as I have patience for. Previous experience has told me that some soft fruit makes bitter wine if you leave the stems on. According to my Ikea preserving pan or stock pot ( not sure which it actually is) I have about 6 litres of fruit.

I covered this with water and am now cooking to extract as much fruit as possible.

Then mix in sugar while its still hot to disolve it and stick in a sterilised bucked with a lid to keep the flies out. If you get flies in it it will be horrible and turn to vinegar.

DAY 4

Then I left it for 3 days and gave the bucket an occassional shake.

Today I put it into a brewing barrel fitted with an airlock and will now leave till it stops bubbling. Then I will bottle and leave a couple of months to settle before drinking.

I am also going to now make elderberry so I am off to pick some and get going with my next fruit wine.

Happy wine making

Bracken