OK, I found a couple websites describing how to make super-easy homemade wine from your own fruit or grapes. I've made batches "scientifically" in the past but recently came across a story about a young fellow who rode his bike around California this summer making wine from roadside grapes which he then carried in a little jug in his packs. It gave me the idea to try to make some simple "jiffy" wine.
Here are the links, for your amusement:
THE GRAND FINALE:
I got a half gallon of juice from anonymous red grapes at my brother's farm and squeezed them and let the juice (no skins) sit in a small jug with some bread yeast in it. Loose lid. No tests, no nuttin'. Fruit flies were around it but I figured they weren't creeping under the lid. A couple weeks later, I just now racked it off an inch or two of lees (no bugs) but it doesn't taste so hot. Maybe I could still add sugar?
I also set aside a half gallon of fresh apple cider I pressed, with loose lid---it's pretty darn vinegarey now. Rats.
I'm thinking I might've had too much airspace above the wines---4".
I bleached out the jugs.
Oh well.
So much for the easy way. How did I botch it? Any fixes possible?
JP outyourbackdoor.com