Golden Raisin Yeast Fermentation Wine Experiment

After several years of making home-brew fruit juice or honey mead wine. I wanted to exemplify the permaculture and survivalism principles of stacking functions, redundancy, and doing more with less. I like the idea of multiple uses for every element in a designed system, that way if one part fails, others can be relied on when needed. To be making wine with honey, while honey can be great for a condiment and some first-aid applications, it's not really viable as a dish in a meal. However other fermentables such as fruits and even raisins can both be eaten as a dish and be fermented. I had extra raisins outside of my normal custom trail mix batches so I decided to experiment with making a wine out of them.

I had great luck, they fermented well, though understandably not as fast as honey. It actually produced two yields. I could harvest the raisins and have a mildly intoxicated desert dish, and with the remaining fluid, bottle it up as a wine beverage. It was not lacking at all in potency either! I did enjoy the golden raisin batches much more than the Thompson raisins both as a food product and as a beverage. However I've been unable to find organic golden raisins which sadly defaults to a market standard of chemically treated golden raisins. This was a deal breaker as I found that I had a significant allergy to sulfites added to golden raisins to prevent their rapid discoloration after harvest. Just another reminder that the best way to do anything with food is to grow it yourself so you have full control over the whole process.

Until I grow or find for sale organic golden raisins, I'll have to keep experimenting with other varieties, as well as keep exploring other dried fruits. It's worth noting that there's extra value to me in having proven that dried fruits can be successfully made into wine. This gives me confidence than when times are good and plentiful, I can justify the luxury of having an adult beverage on hand, though if times get tough and I have to shift to more austere living, than my wine making supplies become long term storable emergency food supplies.