Juneberry Wine

Relax..

Wine making.

A recipe for Juneberry wine.

First. Pay your son a few quid to scramble around the tree to pick the ripe fruits before the blackbirds and pigeons steel them. About 4 pounds will do (both as a reasonable payment and as a weight of collected fruit).

Make a special visit to the shops for a lemon and a 2 pound bag of brown suger and store in a suitably dry place for later use.

Make a cuppa tea and have a fag (this is essential unless you are a non-smoker)

Your going to need access to water so dont bother with this if you live in the desert
Buy some yeast well in advance (I use the high alcohol varieties)

Wash and crush the berries in finely meshed nylon straining bag ensuring that most of the bugs and spiders have been removed first (mainly because they dont like the crushing sensation and they dont make good wine).
Add the juice and zest from one lemon - mind you dont get this in your eyes cos it bloody hurts [tip: wear high impact safety goggles and protective gloves when dealing with lemons]

Stuff this in your previously washed and sterilised bucket with sugar, 3 litres water, (you could crush in a campden tablet if you want - I'm anti chemical stuff so i dont) stirring well to dissolve sugar. Cover with muslin and put in warm place. Leave overnight (if your making this after work) or 12 hours at any other time.

Give it a good stir with a stainless implement - not a stick or loo brush.

Add wine yeast after additional 12 hours.

Stir twice a day for a week and squeeze the straining bag to extract juice and smelly gas produced by the yeast.

At the end of the week (timing is not important) gently squeeze and drain the straining bag - dont go overboard with the squeezing or you will end up with cloudy juice.

Give the whole lot another day to settle and syphen off into a one-gallon demi-john and fit the airlock, place jar onto a tray to alleviate wrath from the missus because this will foam through the airlock onto the polished worksurfaces - or you could leave a little room at the top of the jar and top up later.

After a couple of weeks when the vigorous fermentation subsides top the jar up just below the neck with water (room temperature).

Allow this to ferment for 2 (or more) months until the wine is both clear and has finished working remembering to rack it off after each 30 days.

The brown sugar gives this a sherry like flavour and the high alcohol yeast helps to make you pissed.