Home Made MELON Wine

Thanks to high content of sugar and acceptable acidity melon has proven to be a good product for making homemade wine. It’s great for creating unique flavored beverages with soft aroma. That’s why I recommend making sweet or fortified wine. We’ll discuss the recipe, proportions, and preparation technology further.

Ingredients:
Plump melon – 17.5 lb / 8 kg

Sugar – 3.3-4.4 lb / 1.5-2 kg

Water – 0.15-0.25 gal / 0.5-1 liters

Raisins – 5.3 oz / 150 gr

2-3 days prior to making wine prepare some wine broth. If you don’t have any, you can simply add unwashed raisins to the container on the 4th stage, but this will cause the fermentation to be less active.

Cut the melons into pieces. Remove seeds, peels, and uneatable white parts, leaving only the pulp for the wine.

By any means available squeeze the juice from the pulp. You can squeeze it through several layers of cheesecloth or using a juicer. If the juice is very thick, you should dilute it with some water (up to 0.25 gal / 1 liter).

Pour the juice into the fermenting bottle, 20-25% of volume should be left free. Add broth (raisins or wine yeast). Install a water lock or a medical glove with a hole in the finger.

Move the container with the soon-to-be wine to a dark place with a temperature of 64-73°F (18-23°C). After 4 days add 17.5 oz / 500 gr of sugar. In order to do this pour 0.15 gal / 0.5 liters of gyle in a separate container, dissolve sugar in it and then pour the syrup back. Repeat this procedure every 3-4 days.

After few weeks the fermentation will stop (showings: the water seal is not bubbling for 2-3 days, the glove is deflating, there’s sediment at the bottom, and the wine itself is getting brighter). This means that it’s time to pour the new wine into another container through a thin tube. It is important not to touch the sediment at the bottom.

Taste the wine. If necessary, add sugar to taste.

Seal the container lid and transfer it to a room with a temperature of 64-73°F (8-12°C). Leave the wine there for 45-70 days for aging.

Pour the melon wine into bottles and seal them with corks (not necessary). You can keep the beverage in the same container it was ageing in.

You’ll have a wine with an original taste. Its color depends on the variety of melons used.