How To Make Easy Homemade Wine ~ Making Blackberry Wine
There is no need for a hydrometer, carboy, fermenting chamber or air lock. Heck, I didn’t even need to buy yeast! The fruit has it’s own yeast in it naturally, and I’m just using it’s natural yeast to ferment. The ingredients are just simply fruit, sugar and water.
In this case, I’m making homemade Blackberry Wine, but I could have used this method to make apple, grape, pear, peach, strawberry, muscadine… probably just about any kind of fruit wine.
Now, to be sure, I’m not expecting any wine making awards, or Ernest and Julio to hire me any time soon, but it WILL amaze my friends and family.
Here are 5 uses for wine…
Heal bruises
An old folk remedy recommends soaking a piece of bread in wine and then applying it to a bruise to help it heal faster. Does it really work? It’s hard to say, but there may be some science to support this theory. Wine is rich in flavonoids, which are antioxidants that have a number of beneficial effects on the body, including soothing inflamed tissue.
Meat marinade
Not only does red wine make steak extra-flavorful, it may reduce cancer-causing compounds naturally found in meats. Frying and grilling meat at high temperatures turns sugars and amino acids of muscle tissue into carcinogenic compounds, but marinating steak in red wine for at least six hours before cooking can reduce two types of carcinogens by up to 90 percent. Use about a cup of red wine, a cup of olive oil and the seasonings of your choice like garlic, parsley and peppercorns.
Relieve dyspepsia
While wine itself can be the culprit of heartburn in some people, it can actually cure it in others. At least, that’s according to old European folk wisdom, which advocates drinking a glass of light white wine, which has low alcohol content. Some types of white wines contain added sodium bicarbonate – otherwise known as baking soda, a proven heartburn remedy – to temper acidity, so that might explain it.
Turn it into vinegar
If all else fails, you can always let nature take its course and turn that leftover wine into vinegar. Just leave an opened, 3/4 full bottle of wine out for a few weeks and it will transform on its own. You can also make vinegar from wine in larger quantities by pouring a quart of wine and a cup of vinegar into a sterilized wide-mouthed glass jug, capping it off but opening it for 30 minutes per day. It’s ready when the thick, jelly-like ‘mother’ sinks to the bottom. Just keep adding more wine as you use it.
Remove grease stains
Pour leftover white wine onto grease and oil stains on garage floors and driveways, and the alcohol and acidity will help them dissipate.
