North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Rob Halgren <halgren@msu.edu>]

> Well it seems to me that my wines are pretty potent.  I haven't measured it
> scientifically, just personally.  If you want a dryer wine, use less sugar.
> After all the alcohol is not sweet.  The left over sugar in the solution
> after fermentation is done is what makes it sweet.  It is like most recipes
> say.."sweeten to taste."
>
> I did use beer yeast when I made beer but that was from a kit so it does not
> really count.  I used bread yeast the first time because I had everything
> ready to go and it seemed that my wine yeast was no good.  I make bread a
> lot so I had a quart jar of bread yeast in the fridge.  I used it and got
> wine.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.
> Naomi
> in Idaho

There is a pretty good book (older, but still good) called First Steps 
in Winemaking.  If I have the title right - there may be a newer edition 
than the one I have, or I may be wrong in some other fashion.  The 
author is very british, and discusses 'country wines' in some detail, 
with recipies.  Dandelion wine (which is far more excellent than you 
might imagine) is in there, as are wines made from almost anything that 
can ferment.  Not a lot of detail, but a lot of ideas.

You can order a hydrometer (or pick one up) for quite cheap, I think 
mine was 10 bucks.  This handy device measures the specific gravity of 
your juice (or wort, if you are making beer).  You probably are shooting 
for something around 1.090 for a starting gravity.  The higher the 
number, the more sugar is in the solution.  If I were making a wine from 
pressed juice, I would measure the SG, and add beet or cane sugar to 
raise the SG to the desired level.  This is far safer and more reliable 
than following a written recipe - fruit sugar content varies widely 
depending on how good a year it was.  When your fermenting is done, you 
can measure again and do a handy calculation to determine your alcohol 
content.

This isn't a bad introduction to the hydrometer: 
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp

I would, however, go out of my way to get a good quality wine yeast. 
Any homebrew store and a number of internet vendors would carry several 
 different varieties.  Yeast strains are quite different.  Using bread 
or beer yeast is a good way to get a product that tastes 'bready' or 
'beery'.  In addition to producing wine that tastes more like wine, wine 
yeasts also usually ferment to a higher alcohol content, which is what 
you want.  A couple bucks extra for good yeast is well worth it.

Rob

--
Robert G. Halgren, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Specialist
GTSF - Michigan State University
http://genomics.msu.edu
(517) 353-7236    -   halgren@msu.edu