I’m in a Jam

I recently found a large batch of Mustang Grapes growing along the dirt road and entrance to our new Homestead.  I was thrilled to get picking but didn’t know how best to use these grapes.  I researched and verified that they were safe to eat, then proceeded to peel the skins and start eating.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that eating Mustang grapes straight from the vine is a prickly venture.  My face felt like I had eaten a cactus.

Let’s Wine!

With a little more research, I found these instructions for making wine in 3 easy steps. (You had me at easy)

I wasn’t looking to win any prestigious awards, I just wanted to use my newly found bounty.  So Jim and I got to mashing. We found that we had more grapes than we could mash and decided to make a jam with the remaining grapes.  We figured we would have to wait months to see if the wine worked, but jam would be a success or failure pretty immediately.

(BTW, I learned that we did not make a jam.  We used on the juice of the grapes with no fruity bits, so this makes it a jelly)

We had no pectin on hand, so we just followed our hearts added some sugar to the juice (1:1 ratio) and proceeded to, as Bill Burr might say, boil the hell out of it!

It worked! We put the piping hot juices into a couple mason jars and within minutes heard the sweet sounds of the popping of the lids.  We didn’t have enough to actually “can” so we refrigerated the jelly for pretty immediate consumption.  This was not a problem since the kids came from for a visit from College Station and made quick work of the jelly.  They especially liked it on pancakes.

As for the wine, we will have to wait till Christmas to see if this works.  The first few days were pretty nasty…uhem, interesting.  We cleaned out a few bits of mold and now the mash seems to be liking its environment. It smells kinda wonderful and I am looking forward to Step 3.

How about you?  Have you ever tried your hand at making wine?  If so, how was that experience? If not, would you dare try someone’s home brewed concoction?