Wine Labels The Easy Way

If you happen to stop by my house, you would find that I generally store my wine in gallon jugs. I'm just too darn lazy or getting too old to mess around with filling wine bottles.

Christmas time is a different story. I love to give my better wines away as gifts to friends and family. My problem is that I generally spend hours making the perfect wine label to make my bottles look professional.

This year my problem is solved. At Wine Label Builder you can make a professional looking label in less than a minute.

Not only did I find this as a real time saver but if your making several cases for that special occasion you can have professionally looking labels. Even though Wine Label Builder paid for this review, I found their collection of labels to chose from quite extensive.

Price wise, Wine Label Builder is very reasonable. You can also upload your own custom label and have them print them for you.

So, if your looking for some professional looking labels, give Wine Label Builder a try.







Having too much fun making labels since it was so easy.

Birch Wine

Soon it will be time for the sap to start moving up the trees. I thought that this would be one that would be kinda' neat to make. Very simple recipe.

1 gallon birch sap
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 oranges or 1 lemon, sliced thin
campden tablets
1 package wine yeast

Place birch sap in primary fermentor. Add sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add oranges or lemon. Let sit overnight.

Next day, Specific Gravity should be 1.090 - 1.100. Stir in yeast. Stir daily for 5 to 6 days or until Specific Gravity is 1.040. Strain out fruit and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Siphon into secondary fermentor and add airlock.

For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.

For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.

The wine is best if you can refrain from drinking it for one full year from the date it was started.

TO GATHER YOUR OWN SAP:

To get your birch sap without harming the tree:

Harvest in springtime. Cut only one or two low branches per tree, about the thickness of your thumb, with pruning shears. Attach a plastic food container (milk jug, margarine carton, etc) so it can catch the sap as it drips. You can cover the opening of the container with cheesecloth or nylons to keep out debris. Collect your sap daily and store it in the refrigerator until you have enough to make your wine. Add one crushed campden tablet each time you add sap to the refrigerator to kill any wild yeast and vinegar bacteria you may have collected.

Sack Mead

Last in the Series

If you like your meads sweet, light and true to their heritage, you'll love sack mead. The flavor is full of honey, you can almost hear the bees buzz!! Because this mead is only flavored with honey, the tannin is an essential part of the recipe. Leave it out, and you may find the end result a bit insipid.

Makes 1 gallon

3 pounds orange blossom honey

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 Campden tablet

1 package Montrachet yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 1/2 cups orange juice at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon grape tannin


In a large enamel or stainless steel pot, boil the hone in water (1 part honey to 2 parts water) for 10 to 20 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms. (the foam will contain water impurities and beeswax residue.)

Let cool, and then transfer the honey mixture to a 2 gallon fermenter. Add the acid, pectic enzyme and enough water to make 1 gallon. Add the campden tablet and let the mixture sit, well covered, for 24 hours.

In a jar, make a yeast starter culture by combining the yeast, yeast nutrient, and orange juice. Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand 1 to 3 hours, until bubly, then add to must.

Add the tannin and allow the mixture to ferment. We recommend racking meads after the most vigorous fermentation, siphon the wine into a 1-gallon airlocked fermenter. In about 3 months, rack again. In about six months, rack once again. Rack a final time right before bottling--about a year after fermentation started. Then bottle and cork the finished mead and store in a cool cellar.

Age for at least six months before opening a bottle.

Sweet Wheat Wine

Fifth in the Series

This wine is light and lively with hints of citrus and a nice, vinous character. The wheat supplies nutrients and sugars to enhance the fermenation process.

Makes 1 gallon

3/4 pound wheat berries

1 pound raisins or 1 pint white grape juice concentrate

2 1/2 pounds brown sugar

1 Campden tablet

1 package wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 1/2 cups orange juice at room temperature

1 ounce citric acid



Soak the wheat berries overnight in 1/2 quart of water to soften them. Mince the wheat berries and raisins and transfer to a 2 gallon fermenter. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, pour it over the wheat-raisin mixture, add the brown sugar, and let cool. Add a Campden tablet and let sit, well covered, for 24 hours.

In a jar, make a yeast starter culture by combining the wine yeast, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and orange juice. Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand 1 to 3 hours, until bubly, then add to the must.

Add the citric acid; then let the mixture sit, loosely covered, for ten days, stirring daily. Rack the mixture toa 2 gallon airlocked fermenter and allow it to ferment to completion. When fermeentation stops, bottle, cork and cellar the wine.

Wait at least six months before sampling.



Technorati Tags: Wine, Winemaking, Wheat, Recipe

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