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Alcoholic drinks from United States

Fruit and country wines (home fruit winemaking)

These wines are made at home from fruits other than grapes, such as apples, cherries, currants, strawberries and rhubarb. Unlike grape juice, which is used full strength, the fruit juice is made up with water, and sugar is added until a hydrometer gives the reading the recipe asks for. Wine yeast then ferments it in a pail and a glass carboy over several weeks, and the wine is racked clear, bottled and aged.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks4.7 months – 16 monthsFamily: White wine

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe cherry wine recipe for one US gallon (about 3.8 L) from NDSU Extension publication FN1638; the guide also gives recipes for apple, black currant, rhubarb and strawberry wine.
Cherries3 lbWashed and sorted; pitted, or crushed without breaking the pits[ndsu-fn1638]
WaterTo fill 1 gallon[ndsu-fn1638]
Sugar2¼ lb, plus or minusEnough to bring the must to a specific gravity of 1.085 to 1.09[ndsu-fn1638]
Acid blend (malic, tartaric and citric acid)1 tsp[ndsu-fn1638]
Tannin¼ tsp[ndsu-fn1638]
Yeast nutrient1 tsp[ndsu-fn1638]
Pectic enzyme½ tspBreaks down pectin so the wine does not stay hazy[ndsu-fn1638]
Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite), crushed1Supplies sulfur dioxide against wild yeasts, moulds and bacteria[ndsu-fn1638]
Wine yeast, such as EC-1118 or K1-V11161 packet[ndsu-fn1638]
Starterinoculated wine yeast

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.7 months – 16 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Crushed fruit is squeezed through a nylon bag and the juice runs out

Step 1 of 6
Crush the fruit and strain the juice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Freezing and thawing softens many fruits and helps the juice run. Heating is avoided because it releases too much pectin and leaves a haze. Output: fruit juice, with the pulp held in a straining bag.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

These wines are made at home from fruits other than grapes, such as apples, cherries, currants, strawberries and rhubarb. Unlike grape juice, which is used full strength, the fruit juice is made up with water, and sugar is added until a hydrometer gives the reading the recipe asks for. Wine yeast then ferments it in a pail and a glass carboy over several weeks, and the wine is racked clear, bottled and aged. Made in 6 steps over 4.7 months – 16 months. The longest step, bottle and age, takes 2–12 months (Sagaser S 2026). Wine yeast (strains such as EC-1118 or K1-V1116), not baking yeast does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–12 monthsReported[ndsu-fn1638]Bottle and age
Temperature18.3–26.7 °CReported[ndsu-fn1638]Primary fermentation in a pail

What makes this one different

Grape wine is made from undiluted grape juice. Many NDSU fruit wine recipes use 3 to 5 pounds of fruit per gallon with water making up the rest, and sugar, acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrient are added to balance the must.

Fruit
3 to 5 pounds of fruit per gallon of wine in many recipes; grapes are the exception and are used without water
Acidity
Most wine is fairly acidic, pH 3.3 to 3.7, which helps keep out most microorganisms

Related ferments

Variants

  • Apple wine7 to 16 lb of apples per gallon; less fruit gives a lighter wine.
  • Black currant wine2¾ lb of currants with 6 to 7 pints of water, fermented on the pulp, to a starting SG of 1.090 to 1.095.
  • Rhubarb wine3 lb of rhubarb, frozen and thawed, with ¼ pint of preservative-free white grape frozen concentrate.
  • Strawberry wine3 to 5 lb of strawberries per gallon.
  • Regional fruit winesCherry, elderberry, mulberry, pomegranate and plum wines made in other regions have their own entry, Regional fruit wines.

Made the fruit and country wines way

Safety

Do not break the pits of cherries, plums and other stone fruits. They contain cyanogenic compounds. EFSA sets an acute reference dose of 20 µg cyanide per kg of body weight, and EU Regulation 1334/2008 limits canned stone fruits to 5 mg cyanide per kg. For rhubarb wine use only the stalks; the leaves are toxic and contain oxalic acid [ndsu-rhubarb].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Making wine from grapes and other fruit is among the oldest production processes still used. Traces of wine production date to the Caucasus about 6000 BC, to Egypt and Sumeria in the 3rd millennium BC, and to India from 1500 BC; these dates are for wine in general. Piquette, a fizzy drink pressed from grape pomace and water, has been known since Roman times, and its apple counterpart is called ciderkin (Čakar et al. 2026).

  1. [ndsu-fn1638] Sagaser S., Garden-Robinson J., Smith R. FN1638, From the garden or orchard to the table, getting started with home winemaking, NDSU Extension, North Dakota State University (reviewed August 2026)gov
  2. [ndsu-rhubarb] McGinnis E.E., Dakota Gardener, is frost-damaged rhubarb toxic?, NDSU Extensiongov
  3. [efsa2019] EFSA CONTAM Panel 2019, Evaluation of the health risks related to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in foods other than raw apricot kernels, EFSA Journal 17:e05662, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5662gov
  4. [cakar2026] Čakar U., Ilić T., Hinojosa J.Y.N., Acuña C.L.C., Belović M. 2026, Bioactive compounds in fruit wines, a narrative review, Foods 15(19):3505paper