Last year, a neighbor of mine gave me a 10 lb. bag of cranberries. My apple tree had born badly that year, so I had only enough apples for a couple of gallons of juice. A little creative combination let to a new wine that turned out rather interesting, CranZapple. This year I got 19 lbs of cranberries, so I thought I'd do it again.

The cranberries were cleaned and sorted to remove any berries with rot. Then they were chopped finely in a food processor. A fine chop helps to extract more color from the skins of the berries.

Once chopped they go into the primary fermenter. For a 5 gallon batch of finished wine, I add 2 gallons of apple juice, 3 1/2 gallons of water, and one 46 oz. can of Zinfandel Concentrate to add character.

Additives were as follows:
5 campden tablets
5t Nutrient Powder
5t Pectic Enzyme
1t Acid Blend powder
1t Super Energizer
1/2t Tannin powder

I'm looking to reach 12% alcohol in this wine, so I added sugar until the s.g. measured 1.90, in this case, 9 lbs. Here's the mix, ready to add the yeast.

After 24 hrs, I added one package of Red Star Premire Cuvee yeast, and the fermentation was on its way.

I had 9 lbs of cranberries left after getting this batch going, so I chopped them and started a smaller batch of 100% cranberry. These wines were started on the Winter Solstice, so I'm hoping that by the Summer Solstice they'll be ready to bottle. I think they'll make a refreshing treat for those late summer evenings.

Oh, and a Happy New Year to all who visit here!