Homebrew

My dad was a fantastic beer brewer. He had something going in the basement all the time; he didn't have fancy equipment but everyone enjoyed the results all the same.

He also made wine out of anything he could get his hands on. Most of it ranged from "quite good" to "drinkable" but there were some notable failures....his persimmon wine was legendary in a bad way...lol.
 
We tried making wine and homebrew when I was a teenager, it was a failure.

We also tried to make root beer. We added too much sugar to the bottles so they began to explode and send sticky shards of glass all over the basement. We felt like members of the bomb squad as we carefully removed the caps from the remaining bottles and watched the contents spew like champagne. It took several days to clean up the mess but the most painful part of the cleanup was listening to the constant lectures from my mother and stepfather.

My father always made a barrel of hard cider. He used a combination of apple and pear juice, honey, oatmeal, raisins and whiskey to get things going. The barrel had an airlock with a hose that went into a jar of water. When the bubbles from the hose slowed to a certain number per minute he pronounced the cider fit to drink.
 

​I have heard that my grandpa made dandelion wine. I have never had it. My husband and I made beer once. Turned out OK..for beer. He wants to make it again after he retires.
 
I do make wine at the store. They take care of the tricky stuff, bottling it and drinking it is the easy part.

I usually go mid range but also splurge on some of the more premium blends. I will say that it is a $$$ savings that I enjoy as here in Canada wine bought at the LCBO is not cheap.
 
Does Friendship Fruit count? In a past - less health-conscious - life I would brew up batches occasionally. It made a tasty 'adult' dessert served over ice cream or plain cake. Also good added to a cake batter and baked. In order to keep a mature batch alive, it needed regular feeding (adding more fresh fruit and sugar) so unless you were a heavy user, it was shared with a friend - hence the name - who then enjoys it as is or uses it to start another batch.

To begin a brew, put into a large glass jar several cups of various stone fruit which has been cut into chunks - larger than fruit cocktail but still bite size. Add sugar, stir well and cover the top with a piece of cheese cloth secured with rubber band around the top and then loosely covered with a lid. Store on pantry shelf or kitchen counter. Stir several times a week and recover. It's ready to use in about 3 weeks when it also must be fed with more fresh fruit and sugar. I once kept a batch going for a couple of years.

I see several recipes on the web but notice they include fruit other than stone fruit such as bananas and strawberries. I have a feeling that they would disintegrate quickly.
 
No, I never have. But my sister makes wine, most of it is pretty tasty. She lives on a farm in south Georgia and has two varieties of grapevines. Muscadine grapes are my favorites for eating and for wine.
 

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