Raspberry wine

[Sentinel owl]

In my part of the country, the raspberries are just coming into season, and I'm a-hankerin' to do some picking pretty soon. One thing I'd like to do this year is make some raspberry wine. All of the googling I've done has been a bit..erm, "professional" for me. I mean, I'm all for high-quality winemaking and such, but at heart, I'm a grubby, jury-riggin', 21st-century MacGyver.

The best (read: simplest) recipe I've come across calls for the following:
*4 lbs raspberries
*1 cup welshes grape juice
*"enough" sugar to get the solution to 1.09 g/ml density
*water to make one gallon of solution

and small amounts of the following:
*"acid blend"
*pectic enzyme
*powdered tannin
*campden tablets
*yeast nutrient

and, of course, yeast.

Now, I'd like to ask what I can do away with or get by without. I remember from the good ol' days of the Homebrew Thread at &T that a bit of mashed banana makes a great yeast nutrient. Tannins, apparently, are added to "give the flavor more spunk" and make the wine "drier," according to one website. They are naturally in the skins of grapes, but it doesn't seem necessary to add it in. So, out it goes. Pectin enzyme is pretty much just in the wine to make it clearer by removing pectin. Doesn't affect flavor much. So, out it goes. I'm also less-than-excited about adjusting the acidity with an acid blend. could I either just use some citric acid or citrus juice (like orange), or entirely ditch it?

it looks like I will need a campden tablet or two to prevent "bad stuff" like wild yeasts and bacteria from ruining my brew. A good buddy of mine worked very hard to brew some grape wine, only to have five gallons of vinegar after a month! I can get them very cheap online, though. Also, I'm contemplating buying some wine yeast online instead of using shitty bread yeast from the supermarket.

Finally, as for the specific gravity, I know I can make a cheap hydrometer from a drinking straw and a few "standard solutions" to calibrate it.

Any problems with my plan? Any suggestions? What I'm really concerned about are the ramifications of tossing out everything but the fruit, sugar, grape juice, and yeast. Will the banana instead of nutrient be ok? The other thing I'm a bit worried about is sanitizing my equipment. This probably belongs in BLTC or whatever it's called these days, but heck, I love DIY!

[Dr. Awkward]

I can't pretend to know much about it, but my father does a bit of homebrew. You'll definitely want to order wine yeast instead of using bread yeast. And you should be fine using citric acid instead of an "acid blend". My father has a huge jar of citric acid just for that purpose.

[kfc v lot]

Right personally i would get wine yeast with added nutrient(i can give you links if your in the UK) Also a hydrometer will help a lot(just read your going to make one, though they can be had cheap), on sanitization i would recommend http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-1.html loads of info on it! (it is primarily beer but sanitization is needed in all brewing) Also campden tablet are just sodium metabisuplhite in a tablet form £0.79 as opposed to £2.99 for tablets)

I would do this:
Mash raspberry's in pan add juice and boil + add sugar, then while still boiling cover and bring off heat. Allow to cool or bung it in an ice bath (still in pan). Add to sanitised vessel with yeast etc. then add an airlock with vodka or sanitiser instead of water.

Oh and from a forum i visit:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18692&p=216036&hilit=raspberry#p216036

Hope that helps, i don't know much about wine- just loads about all grain beer...

[asilentbob]

I'd blend the raspberries in a blender, then boil them with the water and sugar... Then pour into a sanitized container put a lid on it... wait till it reaches room temp, then add the yeast and put the airlock on it. I don't think raspberries have much sugar.

Pectic enzyme is supposed to help the cell walls in fruit break down to release slightly more juice... or something like that.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/redrasp.asp
A little bit more complex, but meh. If you have the time scour his site and look at other recipes. He has tons and they are all excellent. Those two recipes call for 2.5lbs of sugar per gallon. So you might want to have your total sugar bill around that. You could even go with honey, but it would take a lot longer to age.

Where did the homebrew thread go?

I just started about 4 gallons of a strange dark ale and a gallon of some weird apple-grape mix. Just bottled 2 gallons of hard cider. Have 1 gallon of chile-mead that I want to cork in bottles and seal with wax for long term storage and aging. (Setting some aside in a flip top bottle for cooking.)

[PROJECT PAT]

He was working through college on my grandpa's farm
I was thirsting for for knowledge and he had a car
I was caught somewhere between a woman and a child
When one restless summer we found love growing wild
On the banks of the river on a well beaten path
Funny how those memories they last

Like strawberry wine and seventeen
The hot July moon saw everything
My first taste of love oh bittersweet
Green on the vine
Like strawberry wine

I still remember when thirty was old
My biggest fear was September when he had to go
A few cards and letters and one long distance call
We drifted away like the leaves in the fall
But year after year I come back to this place
Just to remember the taste

Of strawberry wine and seventeen
The hot July moon saw everything
My first taste of love oh bittersweet
Green on the vine
Like strawberry wine

The fields have grown over now
Years since they've seen a plow
There's nothing time hasn't touched
Is it really him or the loss of my innocence
I've been missing so much

Like strawberry wine and seventeen
The hot July moon saw everything
My first taste of love oh bittersweet
Green on the vine
Like strawberry wine

[Kwinnie Bogan]

Chocolate Rain!

[Razor]

BNB (http://www.brewnotbombs.org/) has some good information for starting out DIY brewing. It mostly involves home brew beer but there is some decent stuff on all types of alchohol.