#everybitcountschallenge Day 12, 12th August 2022 - The Three Amigos and Orange Wine

Introducing the "Three Amigos"

Well the Yeast is live, which means I can get on in the next few days to do some winemaking.  In honour of the fact that we have a "live wire" yeast, I have made up another couple of bottles to set them to start as well.  Then I can have a little wine making session a little later on.  It is early afternoon as I am typing this.  It has been a very hot day again - energy not as depleted as yesterday but heat still getting to me.  I know it is not much, but starting the winemaking off again, will be another tick off the list.  We do not drink a lot but I do have a penchant for country wines - we grew up on these after all.  

So here they are the three Amigos, being started off. Hopefully will get a gallon of wine per Demijohn which usually equates to around four bottles a gallon.  What wines am I going to make at some point and in no particular order and to start with:

Elderflower from a kit

Orange from fresh oranges and juice

Blackberry/Bramble Wine

Apple Wine

However, they are for another day.  Today we are just dealing with the orange.  

The Making of Orange Wine

I am starting off with the Orange wine.  I have fresh oranges and juice which hopefully I am going to be able to turn into 2 gallons of Orange house wine.  It has been a few years since I made this, but here we go:  The details below are for 2 gallons of wine.

Make sure all your equipment has been sterilised.  I usually give all demijohns and fermentation buckets a good clean out with a little bleach and hot water.  Then rinse everything down with clean water.  Just before I add the wine must, the whole fruits and juices which you will be working with, I use a commercial steriliser (it is usually a form of Metabisulphate). to clean out my fermentation bucket.

Glass demijohns I do the same with, but before Metabisulphating them, I actually pop the demijohn into the oven for a short while just to make sure that it is receiving a good clean.  My demijohns have been stored in a dusty shed for a little while so I want to make sure they are really clean.   Allow to cool then Metabisulphate them.

First off, I need to zest eight Oranges (I use a fine Microplane) and then juice the eight Oranges into the fermentation bucket with 12 pints cool water, and 4 pints of hot water.  Mix together add in 4 1/2 lb of sugar give it a good stir and then add the yeast.  Stir again and then put the lid on the bucket.  Leave until the following day and give it a good stir once a day until Friday evening. 

On Friday evening, I will need to transfer the strained contents (strained through a fine jelly bag) of the fermentation bucket on Friday evening, when it will be decanted into the Demijohns.  A fermentation trap with a little Metabisulphate solution will be added to both traps.  This is to keep the flies out of the Demijohn.

I will check to make sure everything is doing nicely tomorrow evening and give it a daily stir.

I now have a load of Orange peels to use up.  They are going to be turned into Orange cleaning vinegar tomorrow.

The peels from the eating Oranges which were left over I shall put to good use.  I shall scrape off some of the thick pith wih a paring knife and use the pieces as they come off or break.  Will then pop in the dehydrator to dry, initially for making Orange powder which is good for adding to stews and casseroles.  I will keep in a bag in the fridge until I have enough to deal with.  You can also use in fire starters, and pot pourri.

I must say that the house smells wonderfully of sweet Oranges at the moment

That will do for starters and if I come across anything in the house that also wants using up, I may actually experiment especially if any tinned fruit that needs using to see if I can make something out of what potentially is nothing. 

I really am enjoying this challenge #everybitcountschallenge

hosted by Jessica at Three Rivers Homestead as it really is making me think out of the box when it comes to using what I have to hand and before I go and splurge any pennies on fresh fruit supplies etc. I am keen to see what I can achieve with what I actually have in the house.  I hate waste at the best of times and so if I can do something, then it is far better than nothing.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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