Between fruit growing season being around the corner in my neck of the woods as well as having more time than usual on my hands , I'm seriously thinking about potentially trying my hand at making my first batch of fruit wine ...

Since I'm a total newbie I'm also curious as to the opinions of experienced people with respect to such overly general topics as ( f.ex ) which type of fruit wine is the most advisable for a newbie to try their hand at making for the very first time ...

FWIW I'm not at all fishing for recipes or any other information that can easily be found on the Internet , I'm merely interested in the sort of personal opinions regarding the general topic that aren't found in online guides .

Unless you're the lottery winning type of person there's about a 99.999% chance your first batch is going to taste godawful. Takes some trial and error (leaning heavily towards the latter in the beginning) to get things right.

Yup I imagine so ...

Do you have any insight with regard to the easiness of distilling liquor from fruit as opposed to making wine out of it by the way ? I've actually heard people say making drinkable liquor is a far simpler endeavor than making drinkable wine , which is why I'm asking ...

Thank for your input by the way !

That's a question of legality in your country, here you need a license to do it, and you can't really do it in secret without a license because you can smell it in the entire neighbourhood. Parents of a past friend used to do it, or friends of his parents, I don't remember, and none of their creations tasted bad to me. Only downside is that when you give three young punk rock type of people a dozen bottles of homemade spirits for free there's some bad tasting things happening the next morning.

And yeah fruit wine and wine in general you gotta pay attention to a lot of things because not everything fermenting in there is something that should ferment.

What? The only thing that is fermented is sugars (generally glucose). The yeast converts it into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. I think you are confusing fermentation and contamination.


OP – Ive been brewing beer, mead and wine for a decade now and the number one thing you must pay attention to is cleaning, sanitation and sterilization (when possible). For example, first clean your fruit with soap and water then sanitize the fruit by soaking in some cheap vodka (because it is food grade/safe to consume) before adding it to your must. When ive used fruit I always froze it overnight as that breaks open cell walls and helps to ensure a more complete fermentation.

Your fermentation vessel should be made of glass instead of plastic. Plastic scratches easily which makes it harder to sanitize. In the states liquor stores sell a 4L bottle of wine for ~$5 and that can be used for fermentation instead of buying from homebrew supply companies if cost is a concern.

I would recommend reading how to guides on brewing beer and wine to get the basics down or buying a book on the subject.

It's thankfully perfectly legal to make any type of alcoholic beverage at home here in Hungary , though in the case of liquor you are required to register your still with the appropriate authorities and buy tax stamps for every bottle you produce ...

Thanks for the further input by the way !

Not confusing, I was just using the latter "fermenting" as a euphemism for things rotting in the vessel which is not the thing that should be happening.

Your description is good, for most fruit I'd also recommend holding it against the light because there could be some shit in there. Entire batches get spoiled by shit being in a piece fruit that shouldn't be there.

Would you say certain types of fruit wine are easier to make for a beginner than others ?

Thanks for the answer by the way !

Well as for me I'm mostly speaking from experience with cider/apple wine, and homegrown apples, unless they're sprayed with some Monsanto Zyklon-B, all kind of creepy things want to eat them from the inside before harvest, so it's not recommended for beginners unless you want to check a lot if all your apples are fine. Pretty sure the same applies to all larger fruit like plum, peach, etc. I have no experience with making wine from grapes even though I used to have grapes in the garden, I usually just ate those instead of using them for anything other than eating.

Youre welcome.

Its best to think of fruit wine as a recipe with the fruit being a single component. Each fruit is a little bit different but most of them will work as long as you amend the must with ingredients the fruit is lacking. Grapes are naturally great for winemaking because they have enough sugar and acid by themselves. Most other fruits dont have enough of either to make wine on their own so you have to add them (increasing cost). The fruit will provide color, flavor, some acid and some sugar. The added water, sugar and acid will build up these ingredients to actually make wine.

I have always just used whatever fruit I can get for free or minimal cost.

Thanks for the further input !

I haven't had any experience with making alcohol from fruit, but I've been making beer for a few years.

My advice would be to give making beer a crack first. It's easy and, as Musick said, if you sanitize everything and use good, non chemically water, then it's hard to to mess up.

You could then try adding peel and even some juice to your mixture. The peel can offer some flavour. I've never used fruit juice in my beer, but I imagine it would make it more alcoholic. I've added honey and maple syrup to my brews. It can be hard to get the actual taste in there because a lot of the sugars are broken down.

Anyway, I actually know a dude from Hungary who brews beer, it looks like all the materials are readily availible.

Having said all that, I've looked into making apple cider before. It seems like if you can make a press (there are plenty of guides out there) it's not too hard either.

I appreciate your input !