# sure thing black currant wine



## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Hey all, if you are like me and you like to keep things simple and you don't want to waste a bunch of fruit you worked hard to pick on some crazy experiment, then this is for you.

you will need 15 pounds of black currants 
10 pounds of sugar 
5 campden tablets 
5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient 
2.5 teaspoons of pectic enzyme 
and one packet of yeast, I use cuvee

Put your frozen currants in a nylon mesh bag and place in your fermenter bucket, freezing bursts the cell walls and the currants almost juice themselves, I crush them some more anyway.
Dump your ten pounds of sugar into a stock pot and add enough water to dissolve it, then turn the burner to medium high. Get the sugar water to almost boiling and pour it over the currants in your fermentor bucket. This will set the color.
Now add cool water to the six gallon mark on your bucket.
Add all the dry ingredients EXCEPT FOR THE YEAST, and stir. 
Wait 24 hours then add your yeast. 
In a warm room your must will start perking away in about two days. 
One week after adding the yeast, pull out the nylon back and feed that to your chickens, it's amusing. 
In another week syphon your wine into a glass carboy with an air lock. try not to suck up any dead yeast in the bottom of your fermentor bucket.
Now as your fermentation starts to slow down and solids settle to the bottom of the carboy keep syphoning into a clean carboy with an air lock. 
After about a month your wine is done, bottle and consume.
It's really good and its foolproof, I'm a fool I should know.
Cheers, Guy


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

Would this recipe work with any other berries?


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Yes it will, with a minor adjustment. thank you for asking 
You can use sour cherries, but you should add about a half teaspoon of tannin to give the wine a little body

If you use any other berry such as raspberries, blackberries or strawberries you will want to add some acid blend, 3 teaspoons will do it. AKA three lemons.

I have been making wine for a while now. raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, sour cherry, and black currant. For what it is worth I had an electrician come out and do some work for me, all he wanted in payment was two bottles of sour cherry wine. 

Simple and sure thats how I roll. Ask questions I will answer.
Guy.


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

Thanks. One more question (probably the first of many to come). You say to keep syphoning into a new carboy as the solids settle. How many times does this need to be done and how often? Once a week, every 3 days? Or until the wine has cleared up?


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

I never really syphon into glass carboys more than twice. The second racking occurs when the air lock hardly ever bubbles about two weeks. There really won't be a whole lot of solids by this time. Avoid the temptation to get every last bit of wine from the bottom of the carboy. Its a sacrifice to the wine Gods. 

I am guilty of leaving my wine in the second clean carboy for a month. It won't hurt, I just don't enjoy sanitizing wine bottles so I tend to put it off. 

If you like a dry wine bump up the acid blend to 5 teaspoons, you can always add more acid, taking it back is harder.

I hope that answers your question. 
Cheers, Guy.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

I started three five gallon batches of wine on the day I started this thread, so I will be able to update the process in "real time" I can include photos as well.

Happy wine making,
Guy.


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## ajaxlucy (Jul 18, 2004)

I'm going to have to plant more black currants.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Okay it has been one week since I added the yeast so today I pulled the bags








This is the currant wine








and this is the sour cherry wine
















and this is the chicken feed








Next week I will rack the wine into glass carboys


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Okay here we are Saturday already! 
Like me many of you live on a farm, and with that comes dirt, its just a universal truth. Dirt happens. I should stress the importance of keeping your wine making supplies clean. I rinse out everything in scalding hot water then swish or dunk in a sanitizer and let it dry. Carboys and wine bottles are stored in milk crates up side down and everything else is kept in a sealed rubbermaid container. I sanitize again just before I rack or bottle. 

This is the sour cherrie wine I'm using it as an example because it is easier to see how cloudy it is. The fermentation has slowed down quite a bit, the airlock only burps about every thirty seconds. Don't drop the inlet of your syphon clear to the bottom of the bucket keep it just below the surface. 








pretty cloudy, yes?








This is why you don't want to suck from the bottom and as you can see you don't really lose that much.
















Okay a couple of things, one go to your dairy or your milk man and ask him for some milk crates, they will just give them to you, they have a surplus. They are perfect for yarding around full carboys, and they hold sixteen bottles of wine neatly.
The other thing is well...this is where things aren't so cut and dry, in about a week this batch of wine should clear up, as in not be so cloudy, if it is I will rack it into a smaller carboy. If it isn't I might wait another week. 
So yes, I lied. I only did it to make this whole process seem less scary. 
Here is the Black currant wine.








It's hard to see how cloudy it is, but notice how nice that carboy fits in the milk crate.
Last of all, I like to protect the wine from light so I cover it up. You can just keep it in a warm dark closet, it has to be warm to keep the yeasties active. 








Hopefully by next week the wine will be clear and I will rack it one last time. 

Cheers, 
Guy.


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

In one of the earlier pictures, is that corn in with the black currants?


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

tnyardfarmer said:


> In one of the earlier pictures, is that corn in with the black currants?


Hah, no. That's what the sour cherries look like after a week of fermenting, it draws the color right out of them. Nothing could draw all the color out of black currants. I emptied all the mesh bags into one bucket is all.


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

Thanks, that had me confused.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Here we are Saturday again. Well the fermentation has slowed down quite a bit, but as you can see from the photo there is still a bit of foam on top, so I'm going to hold off one more week. I know, its starting to go from a little white lie to "Hey, you are a big fat liar!" The craft room isn't quite as warm as I'd like it to be, give me a minute, I'll come up with another excuse. 
















As you can see, I started fifteen more gallons so something is going to have to happen. 
Hah, don't let this happen to you!
Cheers,
Guy.


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

When removing the nylon bag of fruit, do you let it drain on it's own or squeeze the juice out of it?


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

tnyardfarmer said:


> When removing the nylon bag of fruit, do you let it drain on it's own or squeeze the juice out of it?


There is a big debate over this you know. Should I squeeze or just let it drain? 

I make sure I'm alone, lock the doors and squeeze the dickens out of the bag. I don't want to hang out for an hour with the lid off of my bucket waiting for the last drop to drain out. You end up with extra sediment but you also end up with extra wine, and you loose a little wine every time you rack. 

So yes I squeeze the bag, I don't run it through a press or anything but I get as much out of it in the shortest amount of time. 

I hope this helps.

What kind of wine are you making? 

Cheers.
Guy.


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## SashayXP (Apr 26, 2008)

hi, gentlemen...I am getting on this post late (sorry)...but I am so excited to find you. Was there a tutorial somewhere that I should read first? Where do you get those big jugs? Can you use frozen currants? (I know I can't wait until next summer to do this)

thanks in advance.

where in eastern washington? I lived in moses lake once...loved it.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

SashayXP said:


> hi, gentlemen...I am getting on this post late (sorry)...but I am so excited to find you. Was there a tutorial somewhere that I should read first? Where do you get those big jugs? Can you use frozen currants? (I know I can't wait until next summer to do this)
> 
> thanks in advance.
> 
> where in eastern washington? I lived in moses lake once...loved it.


I like to use frozen fruit, freezing bursts the cell walls and the juice comes right out of them as they thaw. Picking fifteen pounds of currants in one shot would be quite the undertaking, plus we only have a couple of currant bushes that are producing right now. 

I am lucky we have a general store that stocks beer and wine making supplies, if you don't have a store like that in your area, I'm certain you could find an online source that will ship to your door.

As far as missing anything, no, not really. My first post is an ingredient list and from there on its a step by step in real time. That is to say I'm posting as I'm making.

Happy wine making.
Guy.


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## tnyardfarmer (Mar 22, 2011)

@Catahoula - I am not making any at present but want to get started. I have access to all the strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches and apples I will ever need. I have aquired most everythng I need to get started equipment wise. I can only make so much jelly and preserves so it is time to do something different with the fruit. Thanks for posting your recipes and methods, it is quite helpful to newbie winemakers.


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## SashayXP (Apr 26, 2008)

yes and let me add my thanks to that to too...thanks for posting this!


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Saturday! Well I had a conflict with the house wool comber, so I will have to put off wine racking for a day, but I did take pictures.

I added a heater for both the wool comber and the wine, as you can see the carboy in the middle got a new lease on life.








The currant wine and the first carboy of cherry wine is ready to rack, you can see through the cherry wine to the foam on the surface, very nice.








the currant wine is pretty clear too, but it's so dark in color it's hard to photograph








Wine racking photos in the morning, I might have to send the wool comber to the store or something.
Thanks for checking in.
Guy.


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

great info and pictures, thank you for posting!

I've got three Tsema black currant bushes right not that are a couple years old. May be time to take some cuttings


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## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

(slurping noises to keep saliva from falling out of mouth) yumyumyumyum.

This summer had landscape job to cut back a ladies' (many many) rosebushes. I didn't care what kind, etc, just wanted to take those beautiful jewels and ferment them. It went faster than I thought, and it was wonderful! (but, boss complained a bit because he had to charge her for half hour less, because at the end of the day, I'd put aside all the branches with hips, and spent an time carrying them separately.....but, he got to taste the wine when it was ready)Of course that doesn't happen every time I see a fruit I like. It was a special opportunity, and I took advantage of it. 
This summer I bought 3 10lb boxes of blueberries. I used one to make wine, first time in 18 years or more. Still aging, but very pleasant to taste now and then, and see what I've made.... (plus, the blueberries were cheap due to my friend's nephew being able to get some for 'family members' very low cost.) 2 more boxes left, might use one for wine again, and the other for some preserves....
thanks! I enjoyed looking


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

Okay I got the wine racked this morning, a day late but thats okay, wine is forgiving. So as you can see the wine is in slightly smaller carboys. This is a good thing, there is less surface area exposed to air. You can also see there is still quite a bit of sediment floating around in the middle carboy. The first and third look really good almost clear. When you rack your wine try and keep the siphon inlet away from the bottom, the goal from here on out is to leave sediment behind.








These can sit for a month now if need be. When the air lock quits burping the fermentation is done. The wine should be nice and clear, and ready to bottle. Keep an eye on the airlock make sure it has sterile water in it and make sure there isn't anything growing in it. In fact its a good idea to swap out a clean one every other week. When the fermentation is done you could rack it one more time into a clean carboy and set it in a cool closet, this is called "chill proofing", it allows any remaining sediment to to settle out of your wine before you bottle.
Sometimes I do that sometimes I don't, it depends on how many bottles of wine I have left.
This is the best picture I could get of the sediment in the bottom of the carboy.









Okay that brings us up to date, I'll do what I can to photograph the bottleing process, it takes two hands to bottle but maybe I can get creative.

Cheers,
Guy.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

This was a great tutorial. Thank you Cataloula very much. I am not at all familiar with the terminology and am hoping the store where I find the glass "carboy" bottles can help me understand what the airlock and siphoning tubes are.

We have some black currants and some black elderberries that should be producing this year, along with "sweet" cherries, goji berries, plums, peaches, pears and grapes. I am hoping to try my hand at making some of this into wine; and your information has been a tremendous help.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

motdaugrnds said:


> This was a great tutorial. Thank you Cataloula very much. I am not at all familiar with the terminology and am hoping the store where I find the glass "carboy" bottles can help me understand what the airlock and siphoning tubes are.
> 
> We have some black currants and some black elderberries that should be producing this year, along with "sweet" cherries, goji berries, plums, peaches, pears and grapes. I am hoping to try my hand at making some of this into wine; and your information has been a tremendous help.


I'm sorry I was vague on a couple things, thanks for bringing that up, I used to use a regular old piece of vinyl tubing to siphon with but this little gizmo is pretty nice 








And this is an air lock I have it paired with a rubber top for the carboys








These fermentor buckets are money well spent they have volume marked on the sides and the lids are set up for airlocks, note the brand name.








I hope this helps.
I'll do my best to answer any more questions.
Happy wine making,
Guy


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Thanks. Now where do I get that little "gizmo" & "airlock"? I've looked in my yellow pages and cannot find any type of shop that sells the tools you are speaking of. The closest thing I found was glass water buckets at Wal-Marts.  

Is there a shop on the net you would recommend?


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## notbutanapron (Jun 30, 2011)

*gasp* Wonderful

I love how honest you are when you lie.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

motdaugrnds said:


> Thanks. Now where do I get that little "gizmo" & "airlock"? I've looked in my yellow pages and cannot find any type of shop that sells the tools you are speaking of. The closest thing I found was glass water buckets at Wal-Marts.
> 
> Is there a shop on the net you would recommend?


Old Goat Winery Is near me and in get my supplies there. I think they shop, but check the sugar wine thread that has other links for comparison.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

motdaugrnds said:


> Thanks. Now where do I get that little "gizmo" & "airlock"? I've looked in my yellow pages and cannot find any type of shop that sells the tools you are speaking of. The closest thing I found was glass water buckets at Wal-Marts.
> 
> Is there a shop on the net you would recommend?


Sorry for the delay we have purchased from these folks before 
http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making/wine-making-supplies/
but you might want to shop around. 

In fact we need to buy more corks here pretty soon, I should be ashamed to admit that we have almost used up a 400 count bag of corks. 

Cheers, 
Guy.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

notbutanapron said:


> *gasp* Wonderful
> 
> I love how honest you are when you lie.


Hah, yes you will find that I am a very honest liar.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Huh??


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

motdaugrnds said:


> Huh??


wha? heh, maybe you cant put links in PMs, this is a pretty strange forum as far as some rules go http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making/wine-making-supplies/ is the link I tried to give you. Google E.C. Kraus if that link doesn't work, then click on wine making supplies, prepare to lose an hour of your life.

Let me know if you need any more help.

Guy.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

This is the best tutorial ever. You've given me courage to _FINALLY_ give winemaking a try (we're talking like 40 yrs. of saying I'm going to)! Thanks a million!! :goodjob:


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Catahoula, you're a Homesteader's treasure!!!

I'm so looking forward to setting up my own work space like yours so I can process some of our fruit this year.

?? Where can I get those large buckets that have measuring tables on them??


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

motdaugrnds said:


> Catahoula, you're a Homesteader's treasure!!!
> 
> I'm so looking forward to setting up my own work space like yours so I can process some of our fruit this year.
> 
> ?? Where can I get those large buckets that have measuring tables on them??


Try Here


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

po boys link is a better price than I pay here, good source that. 

I wouldnt put the spigot in it though. 

Cheers,
Guy.


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