Does anyone make wine? How do you do it? I've been playing at it a little bit.(purely for medicinal purposes, in the winter with a rotten cold or the influenza, a small glass of deep red will help you get better, or maybe you just don't care any more??;-)

But I would like some recipes and some advice. Got any?? Mrs. K

Go buy a book with recipes and basic info on the topic. Each type fruit is different, and a book will give pointers on the equipment you need and what numbers to look for in all the different measurements you take with the equipment. It's been years since I tried making wine, and even then I never did like the results much. I recall buying about $100 worth of this and that including all the yeast, sugar, acids, bungs, and a sugar measuring device and so on. I tried red wine, white wine and assorted fruits. I sure wish I had the exact recipes for some mighty tasty homemade wines I had back in my youth. Even though I followed the book's recipes, the flavors I wanted just didn't happen. To me, the high sugar in the fruit resulted in a high alcohol wine, rather than a somewhat sweet wine which is what I really wanted. And the raspberry wine tasted like cough syrup.

Maybe it was just my own taste buds rebelling, as other folks who tried my wines drank them up and got happy about it....

Beer making was much simpler. Same cost in materials to get started, but results happened in a month or two as opposed to the year or two it took for wine.

Good luck though!

What a challenging hobby but o so rewarding. Began several years ago - living in and near grape areas. Not being a "drinker" I did like a glass of wine to wind/whine down with at night. Cost is a factor your first year but most is equipment which can be used over and over year after year. There are several items such as yeast - sugar - and either - fruit,grapes or squeezed juice that are an annual expense. Concord grapes are common in my area, which to me, makes acceptable sipping months later and cost about 25 dollars per five gallons which makes up approx 25 bottles (750 ml bottles) of wine, which is about a dollar a bottle. Add in however the sugar, yeast and you may at most add another dime or two, justifying the fun and work in wine making. Fruit wines rank high on my list of desirable wines with rhubarb/dark raisin one of my favorites, costing about 75 a bottle to make. This week thirty dollars each for blue berries and the same for wild black berries, I should be able to make ten gallons of each. Bite the bullet and check with a local hobbist for the equipment required - recommend also a web site for tons of information on the hobby called www.JackKeller.com
One final thought - early wine makers seem to be drawn to sweet wines - however in all my wines I aim for an alcohol content of 11% which is sort of an industry standard. If the wine is not sweet enough to satisfy taste, a container of sugar/water can be kept in the refrigerator to sweeten to taste. Another trick - super sweet wines - when ready to drink can be mixed with dryer wines, I mix alot of various wines to create new taste and enjoyment.

Wow, I did try rhubarb wine, without raisins and my family didn't like it. I am not quite in your catagory. I has access to a lot of wild fruit such as chokecherry, and currents and this year I am going to get wild plums. My mom always just mixed about equal amounts of sugar, fruit, and water and covered with a rag, stirred it everyday and kept it in a warm place until it quit foaming up when stirred. Then bottled it. Sometimes pretty good, sometimes not so good. I like the idea of "adjusting" the taste of the homemade wine with the sugar water, or the dryer wine.