In the DEAR MOTHER section of TMEN NO. 3, Gary Dunford
asked if it's possible to make wine at home without buying
$40 worth of equipment. The answer is yes.
RELATED CONTENT
I started making wine with stuff I could scrounge while
living in a one room apartment in the city. Following are
my own Super Simple directions. They're guaranteed to drive
dedicated winemakers up a wall but they do produce results.
Anyway, they're a beginning and beginnings are the most
important part.
You can make wine out of almost any fruit. In fact, you can
make it from just about anything that grows. I have used
grapes, pears, peaches, plums, blackberries, strawberries,
cherries and—my favorite—honey. Honey wine is
called Mead. The so-called wine of the gods. It's cheap,
easy and good. Here's how:
Get a gallon jug, preferably glass but plastic will do.
Clean it out good. Smell it. Someone may have kept gasoline
in it. Wash the jug with soap (NOT detergent), rinse with
baking soda in water and—finally—rinse with
clear water.
Put a pint and a half to two pints of honey in the jug (the
more honey, the stronger the wine), fill with warm water
and shake.
Add a pack or cake of yeast—the same stuff you use
for bread—and leave the jug uncapped and sitting in a
sink overnight. It will foam at the mouth and the whole
thing gets pretty sticky at this point.
