Grapefruit Wine

Photo: flickr user Andreas Kollegger

Ingredients

4 quarts of fresh grapefruit juice

6 cups of sugar

2 lemons cut into 1/4" slices

8 peppercorns

1 pkt of dry granulated yeast

Preparation

This wine is best made in a glass container, such as a gallon sized wide mouthed jar. Squeeze juice from grapefruit. Strain to avoid seeds and white membrane, which impart bitterness.

Dissolve sugar in 2 cups of the grapefruit juice over a low flame. While still hot, pour into original juice.

Add sliced lemons and peppercorns. This makes more than a gallon of juice; reserve balance in a clean sterilized lightly corked botttle to fill the jars as the wine works over the top. Sprinkle dry yeast over the surface and cover with ordinary table saucers, bottom side down, so the the wine is free to work out from under them. Set in a warm place to ferment for three weeks. Stir twice a week.

At the end of the three weeks, siphon off carefully into another clean gallon jar, avoiding any settlings at the bottom of the original jar. Let ferment for one week longer.

Then siphon into clean sterilized bvottles, cooking lightly. When fermentation is over, cork tightly and seal with paraffin. Keep for six months.