The three of us met in Greensboro for Father's Day weekend. Saturday we went traveled to the Brown Farm to visit our fahter/grandfather for the day. While there, we tapped into his knowledge of brewing and winemaking which he, in turn, had learned from his father. The process for grape (usually scoppernong) or blackberry wine is described as follows:
(Note: for the purpose of naming, I will refer to my great grandfather as Brown v1.0, his son as Brown v2.0, his son as Brown v3.0 and my brother and I as v4.1 (myself) and v4.2)
Mash the grapes, skins and all, and mix with the sugar and warm water and place into a vessel with a cloth tied over the opening. The vessel used in this case was a large clay urn or stoneware pot. Let this mixture sit in a dark place. The
This is v1.0's process for making wine from grapes or blackberries:
Mash grapes skins and all, and mix with the sugar and warm water (around 5 gallons). Place the mix into a large earthenware pot and tie a cloth over the opening. Set this on a shelf in the smokehouse and leave it for about week or until it starts to smell. This is a first fermentation that takes advantage of the natural yeast found in the skins of the grapes themselves. Then this mix is strained through a cheesecloth into a 5-gallon carboy, the yeast is added and the carboy is closed up with a stopper complete with fermentation lock (tube that runs from the carboy down to a small cup of water allowing the carbon dioxide to escape the bottle, but preventing bacteria and oxygen from entering the bottle). The carboy is then placed in the root cellar where it sits until the production of CO2 stops. Then a measure of apple jack brandy is added to "stabilize" the wine so that it stop fermenting and the taste remains stable.
This procedure produced a very drinkable wine. I know this from personal experience too. My grandfather poured out a measure of wine for us to taste. The liquid was older than I am, but it went down smooth.
SO... we have set up another ferment. MGHW061607DBB 1 has been created and is featured in the image above along with three vagabond tramps taking reguge in our basement. more to come
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Here is a June 26th update: the brew you see in the photo is still fermenting nicely, still offgassing after 10 days. I am pleased as every day of fermentation is just a little more alcohol in the mix. I will try to give more frequent updates as the process continues and of course, report a highly subjective opinion of the finished brew after the first sip.
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