Wine kits are a big part of my apocalpse food stockpile, but at £35+ for a kit, they are expensive and bulky. So i present you with a couple of super cheap, super simple recipes for post apocalypse wine. Using 'everyday value' tinned fruit, this can cost less than £2.00 per gallon.
Purist winemakers, please forgive me.
I present two recipes. One for Ribena wine and one for Tinned Peaches wine. Actually, so similar that I give it as a generic recipe.
You will need:
5L demijohn OR 5L plastic water bottle. I just buy 5L bottles of water and use the water as an ingredient. Demijohns are expensive.
Airlock (and bung for demijohns) With plastic bottles just fit the airlock in a melted hole.
Sterilising tablets or solution. I use Tesco home brand tablets from the baby care isle. At a pinch use UNSCENTED dilute bleach.
Ample sterile drinking water. Post apocalypse you might boil and filter it, not chlorinate it.
Sterile Wine bottles, or post apocalypse, anything goes
Saucepan and heat source.
Nice to have.
Clear plastic syphon tube from home brew shop, amazon or B&Q
Funnel
Stick Blender
Hydrometer from home brew shop or amazon.
Ingredients Ribena wine:
1L Regular Ribena. Not diet stuff
500g White sugar
1 Tea bag (ordinary breakfast tea)
1 Sachet Wine Yeast. Only in the most desperate apocalypse situation would you use bread yeast or beer yeast.
1 tsp citric acid powder ir 1tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Pectolytic enzyme if you have it. Not essential.
Yeast nutrient if you have it. Not essential.
Variation for the Peach wine
3 x 16 oz tins of sliced peaches in light syrup instead of the ribena.
Skip the tea bag.
Method.
Bring the Ribena (or peaches in syrup) along with the sugar, to the boil and simmer 15 mins. For the Ribena, this drives off the preservatives and for the peaches, it helps them break up.
If using peaches, blitz with a stick blender, or otherwise smash up.
Add at least 1 Litre cold water, to stop damage to your 5L bottle.
Pour into your 5L bottle. For the Ribena variant, make a cup of tea, no milk or sugar, and add that.
Add the citric acid or lemon juice.
Top up to within 2 inches of the top of the bottle.
Sprinkle on the yeast, and fit the airlock.
Set aside in a warm room for one or two weeks. Keep on a deep dish or tray in case it bubbles over.
After 2 weeks, bubbling should stop. if you have a hydrometer, it should measure less that 1.000
Ideally syphon off from the sediment into another 5L bottle and let it settle for another week, to clear.
Syphon into your clean bottles. Let it mature maybe a month, then drink it, while you make another batch.
This generic recipe could use equivalent amounts of other tinned fruits or fruit juices. go for ones with syrup or light syrup and avoid those with artificial sweeteners or e numbers or preservatives. You could use 1kg of dried fruit instead. Though you COULD add more sugar to make a stronger wine, it may not ferment so easily, may not be so tasty and will probably give you a worse headache.
Initial hydrometer readings for me were 1050 for the Ribena wine and 1042 for the Tinned Peaches wine. That will not be overly strong as a wine. MAYBE add up to another 500g of sugar. But really. Stronger may not be better.
If you try this, please report back, even if you didn't enjoy it.
