Lord Willum’s White Grape Raspberry Wine
 
 
This recipe is specifically for my White Grape Raspberry wine. It is a very good sweet dessert wine.

Ingredients:

1 can generic White Grape Raspberry breakfast juice. I used Welch's, but just make sure yours doesn't have any preservatives.
1 cup white cane sugar.
1 regular tea bag.
1/16 tsp. (large pinch) Lalvin EC-1118 yeast.(Almost any wine yeast will do. Consult your local brew shop or buy online.)
Water to make 54 ounces total volume.

Preparation:
Clean and sterilize all containers and mixing apparatus with solution of crushed ½ Campden tablet dissolved into 2 cups warm water. Save ¼ cup sterilizing solution for the bubble trap.

Directions:
Take one 12 oz. can of white grape raspberry juice concentrate. Make sure that it has no preservatives (no Sulfites or Sorbates. Acerbic acid (Vitamin C) is OK). Mix it up as you would for a breakfast drink, but use hot water and add and extra half can of water. You want to end up with 54 fluid oz. of juice that is about 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix in about 1 cup table sugar completely. Pour ½ cup of this sweetened juice into a coffee cup with a regular tea bag and microwave on high for about 30 seconds. You should end up with a very strong juice/tea. Let it cool for a little bit and squeeze out the tea bag. Pour this juice/tea and the rest of your juice into your fermenting bottle. This adds a little tannic acid to the juice and improves the flavor of the wine later on. Add the yeast and seal with your bubble trap. Shake vigorously and set up some place warm for 3-4 weeks. I suggest on top of your water heater or refrigerator. Come back once a day for 7 days and shake the bottle vigorously, then again on day 14.

After 3 or 4 weeks total, put your bottle in the refrigerator for a couple days to chill the yeast and slow/stop the fermentation. After a day or two you should see a small amount of stuff on the bottom of the bottle. This is the dregs (dead yeast and stuff) that we don't want to drink. It won't hurt you (unless you are alergic), but it is not very tasty. Siphon out the "good stuff" into another container. Don't get greedy, leave a little liquid on the bottom if that's what it takes to avoid picking up the cloudy, yeasty stuff.

Your white grape raspberry wine is almost ready to drink! If you want, you may add sugar or honey to make it sweeter. Once you have reached this stage, you might want to read the section on Stopping fermentation.

Enjoy!

 
 
  
The "be patient" part
  
Please be sure to see the Pictures section for some samples of my work.