How to make wine from tinned fruit

Making wine from tinned fruit is a easy way to make some interesting wines – especially as it is so easy to buy a wide variety of tinned fruit in supermarkets these days.

This is a basic method that you can use to make 1 gallon (4.5l) of wine from a couple of standard sized (approx 550g) tins of fruit. (You actually use just 1 tin and adjust the sugar accordingly, but I find better tastes a produced using two).

Equipment needed:

• fermentation bin/bucket
• fine sieve
• 1 gallon demijohn
• bung and airlock
• sterilizer

Ingredients:

• 2 x 550g tins of fruit
• 225g chopped raisins
• 900g sugar
• 1tsp pectin destroying enzyme
• 0.5 tsp wine tannin
• 1tsp wine yeast
• 1tsp yeast nutrient
• campden tablet

Strain the syrup off the fruit (but keep it for later!), put the fruit in your bucket and mash it well. Then add the chopped raisins – this will increase the body or “vinosity” of the wine which can be a bit watery otherwise.

Dissolves half the sugar in 3 litres of boiling water, add it to the bucket and leave to cool. Then add the syrup, pectin-destroying enzyme, tannin, yeast, yeat nutrient, and the crushed campden tablet. (If the pH is greater that 4 you will also need to add some citric acid or lemon juice).

Cover and leave to ferment for four days, stirring daily. (To cover, I use florist cellaphane tied round with string).

Strain through the sieve into the demijohn. Dissolve the rest of the sugar in 0.5 litres of boiling water and at to the must. Top up with water to the gallon mark if necessary.

Fit bung and airlock and leave in a warm place until fermentation finished (about 3-4 weeks). You can test with a hydrometer that the specific gravity is close to 1.000.

Clear and rack as necessary and them bottle. Leave for at least three months before drinking it.