Emily Rockey

Gathering the Desert, and Gathering Around Honey Wine

/ Sister Emily / 2 Comments
Honey Wine with Saguaro Fruit, Summer Solstice 2025

Honey, the golden elixir of the bees, is famous for its impressive shelf stability, or resistance to spoiling. By its nature, it can remain edible for an extraordinarily long time. In grade school, I remember delighting in the fact that archaeologists found honey in King Tutankhamun’s 3,000 year old tomb. Cave paintings in Africa dated to thousands of years ago depict honey hunters who braved a defensive colony of bees (Hollmann 2015) to access the calorically valuable, medicinal, and tantalizing substance which could be consumed or stored long term. 

I love to think about the early honey harvesters of Africa and imagine the first time someone combined honey with water, and fermentation soon began–an exciting transformation took place! This is thanks to the action of microbes (as is commonly the case, at least with fermented foods). While humans crave the complex sweetness of honey, it turns out that honey is a favorite food of some microbes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast. The yeast consume the honey and convert it to alcohols and carbon dioxide. 

Honey wine, T’ej…sweet and warm like the solstice evening light.

It is thought that honey wine known as t’ej (say: “tedge”, with a soft d) originated in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and upwards of 5 million people consume t’ej on a daily basis (Belay n.d.). However honey wine variations are found in many parts of the world including Mexico and Poland (Katz 2012). You may know t’ej by its other name of mead, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water. It is truly simple and fun to make t’ej at home by adding raw unpasteurized honey (which contains natural yeasts that kickstart fermentation) with pure water, but you can also add an endless variety of edible botanicals like herbs and fruit to create a unique or medicinal mead. While mead can be aged for months, you can drink it “young” after only a couple weeks of high-energy fermentation. What kinds of honey wine will you make to share with family and friends?

I was inspired to make t’ej for the first time by my friend Andrias Asnakew, a Tucsonan of Ethiopian descent who established Brillé Mead Company here in 2023. I was honored to share homemade t’ej with him and his welcoming friends who hosted us on Easter, clinking glasses as they described the traditional recipe. They taught me that East African t’ej is traditionally made with honey, water, and the leaves of gesho (Latin name Rhamnus prinoides, a plant native to southern and eastern Africa) which adds a distinct bitter flavor and wild yeast to start the brew (Belay, n.d.). I am grateful for the family’s hospitality and generosity, and to Andrias whose knowledge guided me through the process.

Friends gathering with traditional t’ej (Ethiopean honey wine).

Around the time I was pondering which ingredient to include in my first mead, I was marveling at the crowns of white trumpeting blossoms on the haṡan (Tohono O’odham name for the native saguaro cacti). I wondered what saguaro fruit honey wine would taste like? It seemed that using fresh red bahidaj saguaro fruit would be a perfect way to celebrate the solstice on June 20th, and to harken for rain on Dia de San Juan on June 24th. (For more on saguaro traditions, enjoy reading about the Tohono O’odham’s beloved bahidaj saguaro fruit from teacher Muffin, known as Sister Marta here at Savor the Southwest blog: Summer Solstice, and Sister Carolyn’s It’s Saguaro Season.). This mead would be fully Sonoran desert, made from local honey and saguaro fruit…

Bahidaj (Tohono O’odham for saguaro fruit), June 2025

I am glad to report that my first batch of honey wine/mead/t’ej was a happy success (recipe to follow) with very little cost and effort. The tasters gave feedback that the flavor is more dynamic than they expected, with real body and interest. There’s a bit of liveliness, but it’s not bubbly. Many folks commented on its balance: a little citrusy, and not too sweet; a light fruitiness, and warmth from the honey. There is a pleasant yeastiness like fresh bread, though it doesn’t taste strongly of alcohol. We all noted the way it gently, pleasantly nudges you toward relaxation (I estimate the percent alcohol of my brew 4.5-5% ABV). If you prefer a stronger t’ej, you can increase the amount of honey, or a lighter less alcoholic brew can be made using less honey. 

The recipe is so flexible and invites endless experimentation. The ratio of honey to water is anywhere from 1:4 (one part honey added to four parts water) to 1:16 (for a very light mead, or if you’re adding a lot of sweet fruit also). The variety of creative optional additions is endless: fresh or dried fruit (berries, native fruits encouraged), herbs (lemon balm, rose, mint) or spices (ginger, cardamom, cloves, or cinnamon). Take notes of your selection, process, and quantities. Andrias started experimenting with different flavors: strawberry, carkeda (hibiscus), habañero. It is a natural beverage; you know exactly what went into it when you make it yourself.

Recipe for Honey Wine (T’ej or Mead)

This recipe was adapted from Sandor Elix Katz’s excellent book, The Art of Fermentation, with inspiration and guidance from Ethiopian t’ej maker Andrias Asnakew (Tucson, Arizona). 

This recipe yields about 2+ gallons mead (can be scaled), potentially 4-5% alcohol, approximately (a hydrometer can measure this precisely if you wish)

1 quart local raw honey (32 ounces)– my personal favorite is Tucson Honey Company from Tucson local farmer’s markets.  
2 gallons+ pure, filtered water (~260 ounces) (if tap water is the only option, see below**) 
~1 cup raisins, optional but recommended to feed the yeast–added a little at a time.
Optional ½ teaspoon mead yeast (such as strain EC-1118. Check your local brew shop or find online).
Optional fresh or dried fruit (local and native fruits encouraged), herbs or spices. Experiment with quantity: a few cups of fresh fruit, or maybe around one cup if of dried herbs. For spices, try a handful or so and see how it goes. 

Ripe saguaro fruit

1. Clean a ~2.5 gallon fermentation vessel (ideally glass or stainless steel, but food grade plastic works). Wide mouth is best. 

2. Pour the honey into the vessel, and add about half the water. Stir stir stir till it dissolves, then add the rest of the water, leaving just a few inches at the top for bubbles and stirring. Cover with a cloth or loose lid, and place on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Add optional yeast, and optional fruit or herbs/spices.

Dissolve honey in pure water to start the fermentation process.

3. This is Day 0. Leave in a cool spot in the house where you’ll walk by frequently. I keep a long stirring spoon next to the vessel and stir it often, daily (at least two or three times+ daily). This introduces air for the yeast. Sandor Katz recommends we stir a few revolutions, then reverse the stir quickly to introduce air (biodynamic style!). Delight in the bubbles and give your greetings to the millions of hungry microbes hard at work! 

Full quantity of water mixed with honey. Ready to ferment!

4. After a few days of frequent stirring, you should start to see more and more bubbles when you stir. The yeast is waking up. This is Day 3. Add a palmful of raisins (a special ingredient by Andrias- he says it provides food to the yeast!) (This is the point when I harvested and added ripe fresh saguaro fruit, but it can be added at the beginning, too.)

Red saguaro fruit has been added to the bubbling brew.

5. Continue stirring multiple times per day. On Day 5 or 6, add another palmful of raisins, and again at Day 8-9. 

6. At about Day 10-12, the bubbles will begin to reduce in number and fervor. The yeast quickly consume and ferment most of the natural glucose in the honey, producing the alcohol and delicious brew. (The natural fructose takes longer to ferment and only does so if you age your mead for weeks and months.)

Frothy bubbles of active yeast activity!

7. Taste the mead. If it is too sweet for your liking, you can continue to stir and ferment a bit longer to “dry it out”. If you prefer more sweetness, Andras suggests you can “back sweeten” (add a bit of honey) to taste if desired, ideally a day prior to drinking it. 

8. Strain out any fruit, and serve at room temperature or chilled. Try both! The typical serving vessel for t’ej is a narrow-necked bottle called a berele.

The best way to enjoy your homemade honey wine is with friends, of course. I bet that you’ll pique curiosities about your brewing methods and newfound skill, and bring smiles to everyone’s face. Andrias thoughtfully shared that “you can tell from the smile that the food or drink is good”.

Honey Wine with Saguaro Fruit, Summer Solstice 2025

In Appreciation: 

Thank you to my teachers, including the bahidaj (saguaros), for their ongoing generosity and cultivation of our minds and hearts. 

Thanks to my new friends Andrias and incredible hosts Tilahun and his wife Kidist who are sharing their culture from Ethiopia with all of us in Tucson, Arizona.

Thanks to my mother Judith for kindly copy editing.

—

**To remove chlorine from the water simply draw the necessary amount of water and leave it out overnight. The chlorine will naturally evaporate from the open vessel. 


Bibliography

Belay, T. B. (n.d.). Call for access and benefit sharing of Rhamnus prinoides (Gesho). Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, Genetic Resource Access and Benefit Sharing Directorate.

Jeremy C. Hollmann (2015): Bees, honey and brood: southern African hunter-gatherer rock paintings of bees and bees’ nests, uKhahlamba- Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2015.1079378

Katz, S. E., The Art of Fermentation: An In-depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012.

Rarámuri Corn Tesgüino: A Traditional Beverage of the Sierra Madre

/ Sister Emily / 2 Comments

A transporting 7 minute read…

Clay Olla with Tohono O’odham 60-day corn, and tesgiüino corn beverage

Greetings from Tucson, it’s Savor Sister Emily here with my first official post! I am excited to be here, and am looking forward to hearing from you in the comments below.
I first encountered tesgüino (tes-WEEN-oh) while learning about the traditions of the Rarámuri people at Mission Garden’s Rancheria (Beterachi) exhibit in Tucson, Arizona. I only knew a bit about the Tarahumara people who have lived since time immemorial in the rugged and beautiful mountains of Chihuahua in northern Mexico, called the Sierra Tarahumara. I soon learned to call them by their tribe’s own name for themselves: Rarámuri, as opposed to “Tarahumara” which was introduced by the Spanish. Many people have heard of the Rarámuri tradition of running long distances, but perhaps fewer people are familiar with another unique aspect of their culture which is found in a beverage called tesgüino. 

Tesgüino is the Spanish name for a fermented corn beverage, primarily made from corn and water. The written observations of ethnographer John Kennedy in 1959 describe the important role that the beverage plays in the spiritual and ceremonial traditions of the Rarámuri people. It is also commonly enjoyed in social and community life. Known in the Rarámuri language as batàri and suguí, tesgüino is so integral to the culture that the average Rarámuri family might use 200 pounds of corn annually just for making tesgüino (Kennedy 634). 

Clay olla tesgüineras with star pattern.

At least 4,500 years ago, corn became a vital crop for indigenous peoples in the Southwest, including the Rarámuri who developed and care-take many different corn varieties. Similarly, here in the neighboring Sonoran Desert, the Tohono O’odham have cultivated a fast growing 60-day corn for thousands of years and it still thrives today. I wondered if the 60-day corn indigenous to Cuk Shon could be made into tesgüino? 

I reached out to my fermentation-obsessed researcher and friend Cesar Ojeda Linares in Mexico City who described to me the thick, distinctive beverage he tasted on his journeys and exploration in northern Mexico. He provided an excellent guide on how to make tesgüino according to what he learned in the community there. He found it similar to a type of atole, but thicker and with a stronger aroma. It is possible to find recipes for making tesgüino (including in Sandor Elix Katz’s book, The Art of Fermentation). Here is a fun short video on Vimeo of Señora Chenta from Alamos, Sonora making tesgüino using her traditional methods. Variations between recipes are part of the fun–diversity is where it’s at! But the basic recipe for this corn beverage always begins with dry corn kernels which are sprouted and grow roots, a simple process known as malting. This malting produces sweet sugars which can then be naturally fermented in water with the aid of healthful microbes. Natural yeasts and bacteria are present on the corn, in the air, or in a trusty heirloom tesguinera vessel, but wild plants can also be added to introduce the preferred microbes which catalyze the process. Brome grass seed (Bromus arizonicus) and sweet stevia (Stevia serrata) are among the plants that could be used to inoculate the brew, according to Fermentaciones tradicionales indígenas de México. After brewing for three to five days, the tesgüino is a mildly alcoholic, mildly sweet, refreshing and healthful beverage, best enjoyed when shared amongst family and friends.

sprouting blue corn
Roots emerge from kernels of blue corn after three days.


I made the beverage with O’odham 60-day corn in a clay olla following the directions below, and once again using Navajo Blue corn fermented in a ceramic salt glazed crock.

An important note on sugar. Sugar cane came to the America’s in the 15th century. Piloncillo (raw brown sugar cone) is thus not a truly “traditional” ingredient, but it has been common in the region for a long time. Including it certainly excites the hungry microbes, and the resulting beverage is not very sweet. In a traditional Rarámuri tesgüino, the tesguinera pot instead carries the inoculating microbes that kickstart the process (much like yogurt).

Recipe and Directions for Tesgüino
Makes about 3 gallons tesgüino

3 pounds dry heirloom corn, preferably dent or flour varieties, organic and non-GMO.
3 gallons water, ideally filtered and de-chlorinated, *see note. 
3-4 cones or bricks piloncillo (unrefined pure cane sugar from international markets)
1-3 sticks cinnamon 
0.5-1 teaspoon brewers yeast (ale yeast or similar- not baking yeast), optional but recommended.
Palmful organic sweet stevia leaves, optional but recommended. Ask local farmers/gardeners.

Dry corn first soaks in water
Corn seeds sprout in a large vessel after
soaking and repeated rinsing.

1. Place dry corn in a large glass or plastic container (6+ quart size) such as a Cambro. 

When corn seeds grow substantial roots, it is ready for grinding.

2. Cover with water and allow to soak overnight. 

3. The next day, strain off the water, then cover opening with a breathable cloth or mesh lid and lay on its side, just like when sprouting seeds for eating. Store in a well lit, warm spot, avoiding direct sun. 

4. Rinse and drain the corn in its container at least 2 times a day–more often is better, especially in warmer conditions.

5. After a couple days, the corn will grow a little radical (root) and first shoot. This is very exciting! In three or four days, when nearly all the corn’s roots are about ½–1 inch long, it’s ready to grind. 

60-day corn ground in a molino, in preparation for cooking and fermentation.

6. Pass the sprouted corn through a hand mill molino grinder on a coarse setting, so it resembles very coarse grits, or about the texture of cooked quinoa. If you don’t own a molino, pulse small batches in a food processor.

7. Place the ground corn in a large pot, ideally large enough to hold three (3) gallons of water and the corn together. Otherwise, you’ll need to work in two smaller batches (half the mixture at a time). Add the cinnamon, and gently boil the corn in water for 1-1.5 hours to extract its natural sweetness and flavor. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. After the time has passed, add the piloncillo sugar and simmer to dissolve.

Ground corn boiling in water with piloncillo

8. Cool the mixture and carefully strain to keep all the liquid in a 3+ gallon non-reactive fermentation vessel, *see note. The strained liquid will be thick and smooth in texture. Cover lightly with a tea towel, cloth napkin, or cheesecloth. (Compost the strained corn at this point, or feed to chickens.)

9. Once the liquid is completely cool (or the next day), add ½ to 1 teaspoon dry ale yeast, and fresh stevia leaves. Stir to dissolve. Keep covered with cloth. 

Tesgüino fermenting, with the natural yeast visible on the surface (harmless).

10. Each day, wash your hands and visit your tesgüino, stirring well with a clean spoon. You will find increasing effervescence. Delight in the unique texture, aroma, and color. 

11. On the fourth day, it should be ready to drink. Strain if desired to remove stevia leaves (if using). It’s time to taste and enjoy! Try both chilled and at room temperature to your liking. 

Invite many friends to partake in the celebration, and raise a glass of appreciation to our Rarámuri neighbors who created this beautiful beverage. 

Please write in the comments below about your experiences with fermenting corn, travel in Rarámuri lands, and tesgüino!

-Savor Sister Emily Rockey

Clay Olla with Tohono O’odham 60-day corn,
and tesgiüino corn beverage

*Notes: 

Water- Tap water can contain chlorine which can be counterproductive to fermentation (chlorine kills good beneficial microbes). Dechlorinating is easy: simply draw the water in a vessel and allow it to sit open at room temperature for a few hours. The chlorine naturally evaporates. Or boil water for 20 minutes and let it cool. Water is now ready to use for fermentation. 

Vessels- This can be glass, ceramic, a clay olla, stainless steel, or food-safe plastic. Natural materials like clay will impart an earthy flavor on the tesgüino, while glass or ceramic does not. 

Storage- Although it is best to enjoy all the tesgüino amongst friends at once, it is possible to refrigerate the drink for several days, or even freeze with good results. 

Welcome to 2025

/ Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

Savor Sisters (from left) Emily Rockey, Amy Valdes Schwemm, Martha Burgess, and Carolyn Niethammer gather to plan out the Savor year. We sampled a mesquite apple cake that may show up in a post.

As the Savor the Southwest blog enters its 13th year, we are so grateful to you, our readers, for following along and indulging us as we share our love of the flavors of the Southwest using both wild and cultivated plants.  During those years we have entered 370 posts sharing recipes for everything from Christmas cookies (mesquite gingerfolk, anyone?) to how to cook quince. Our readers hail from nine foreign countries as well as the United States. 

This year, we are thrilled to welcome a new Savor Sister, Emily Rockey. Emily has worked as a professional gardener for public gardens including most recently Tucson’s historic Mission Garden. Now as she returns to the university to learn even more about the soil that supports both wild and cultivated plants, she has time to share with us her expertise and creativity. Read her full bio on the Authors page. She has already shared her method for making prickly pear wine in a guest post last year. From now on she will be a regular and we are thrilled to welcome her. 

Wild Wine of the Southwest

/ Savor Blog Partners / 2 Comments

At the end of a year of simple steps, a refreshing glass of pomegranate wine.

(We are continuing our series of guest posts. Today it is Emily Rockey, who for many years was the  garden supervisor at Mission Garden and in charge of the health of dozens of pomegranate trees. This post is a bit longer than we usually send, but if you’ve ever wanted to learn to make wine, Emily will take you on that journey.)

There’s something so sweetly satisfying about sitting down to enjoy a delicious treat that you made from scratch with your own hands. Better yet, something that you wild harvested or grew yourself. For some folks, that might be homemade sourdough bread, prickly pear jelly, or a meal prepared from the garden or desert. But have you ever tried making your own wine? 

Perhaps you’re thinking that you need specialized, expensive equipment, or a degree in oenology (the study of winemaking). It’s possible you don’t have grapes with an impressive provenance which keeps you from crafting elegant fermented beverages. Or that you simply don’t have free time for long brewing processes, bottling, and years for aging wine to perfection. All these are misconceptions! The homebrewing process is quite fun–anticipation slowly building over many weeks as the bubbles of the beverage quietly gurgle away. It’s true that wine takes about a year before it’s ready to drink, but as they say, time flies, and before you know it, it’s time to pop the cork and gather friends to savor the moment. With regard to equipment or ingredients for winemaking, these things can come quite inexpensively, or DIY freely! Continue on for a basic step by step guide from me, guest contributor Emily Rockey. You, too, dear reader, can be a winemaker. 

Winemaking, quite simply, is a natural process of live yeast consuming sugar, converting it to carbon dioxide (bubbles) and alcohol. This process is called fermentation, and with wine it takes place in two basic stages: the first fermentation occurs when fruit or plants are combined with water and yeast in an open container. Soon it becomes active and bubbly. When it slows, a second round of fermentation takes place in a closed container (less oxygen). After about eight weeks, the lively party is over and the wine shifts to a period of relative tranquility, resting in a cool dark spot such as a closet or interior room. After it settles, we’ll siphon the wine (called racking) to separate it from the yeast particles at the bottom, and let it sit for nine months. At last, your calendar will remind you that it’s time to bottle and finally taste your finished wine!

Ingredients: 

To start, look around for what exists in abundance, or what’s in season. We can make wine from anything that contains sugar: fruits of all kinds, herbs, and even flowers. Prickly pear wine, elderberry, or wolfberry wine? Sure! I happened to have frozen pomegranate arils from Mission Garden. 

Sugar. Organic cane sugar is the most versatile, but if you like you can experiment with other natural sweeteners (and their flavor profiles).

Brewing yeast: It is possible to make wine without adding packaged yeast, but for a home winemaker like you and me, yeast is easy to find and a reliable way to kickstart fermentation. Brewing yeast is sold at brew shops or online for $2-$3. Experiment a bit, or start with a neutral ale, cider, or champagne yeast. 

For the recipe below, I used a neutral yeast strain called EC1118 which contributes very little flavor or aroma to the finished product. It is quite flexible, thriving in cool or warm temperatures (50-86°F). It also tolerates higher alcohol content.

For easiest and most reliable results in making your wine, use commercial yeast.

Time to produce: Regarding the preconception that wine requires significant time to produce, it’s mostly waiting time. My actual hands-on time to make a batch of wine totaled only about four fun hours…spread out over 12 months! The vast majority of the winemaking time is the wine doin’ its thing by itself. 

Supplies for a 3-gallon batch:
The good news is that you may already own or have easy access to the basic equipment. If not, everything is inexpensive or easy to make at home.

  • A 3-5 gallon vessel for first fermentation. Non-reactive: preferably glass, stainless steel, but many folks use food-grade plastic. Also ceramic crocks in good condition work well.
  • Two or three 1-gallon glass jugs (carboys). The glass jars containing commercial pressed apple juice with the handy little finger handle work perfectly.
  • Airlock and rubber stopper. $5 from your local brew shop or online. Allows CO2 from the brew to be released, but prevents outside air from entering the vessel. (Here’s how airlocks work.) 
  • Siphon. Purpose-made ones go for $15, or make your own for cheap! How-to videos (and siphoning tips) are helpful.
  • Sanitizer. Please use well-cleaned hands, surfaces, and tools, but don’t worry too much about sterilization–I’ve never had a problem. (There were no sanitizers 6000+ years ago in the Mediterranean region where wine was first made.) However, this is an often discussed topic for brewers. I do use inexpensive sanitizer (such as Star San brand) because it’s quite easy, quick, and safe to use.
  • Optional: bottles for finished wine. Or just drink it when ready with a group of friends. 

Now you’re ready to make wine! 

The basic recipe is inspired mostly by Sandor Elix Katz in his book Wild Fermentation. 

This batch was made with Sonora White Pomegranate (Punica granatum), but I’ve successfully made Elderberry-Blueberry Wine (from Sambucas mexicana), Wolfberry Wine (Lycium pallidum), Fig Wine (Ficus carica), Mission Grape Wine (Vitis vinifera), and a funky Quince Wine (Cydonia oblonga) which we quickly transformed into brandy…

Instructions:

*Note: The ultimate ratio of fruit volume to water is approximately 1:1, so for ~3 gallons of fruit (fresh or frozen, defrosted), add ~3 gallons of water. The finished wine will be about 5 gallons. You can make smaller or larger batches by keeping the same basic ratio.

1. Place 1.5 gallons pomegranate arils into a clean container or crock (at least 3 gallons/11+ liters in size), followed by 1.75 gallons boiling water. Cover with a clean towel. Set the container on the counter at room temperature on a cookie sheet to catch drips.

2. The next day, ladle out about 1 cup of liquid in a glass and add to it 3 grams of yeast. I used strain EC1118; see above). Allow it to dissolve and get bubby and active for a few minutes. 

Then add it to the main fermentation vessel, also known as the wine must. Stir well and recover with towel. 

Note: A 5g yeast packet will satisfy a 5 gallon batch. For a 1 gallon batch, use only about 1/4 of the packet, and so on.

3. Within hours, the must will be bubbling vigorously! Use a ladle or spoon to “punch down” the fruit and stir it from the bottom. Recover with towel.

4. The next day, the brew will be bubbling excitedly (audibly!) as the yeast devours the fruit sugar. Each morning, midday, and night (or up to 5 times daily), punch down and stir. Keep covered with towel.

Here is the yeast bubbling vigorously devouring the fruit and water mixture.

5. On Day 3, the yeast have consumed much of the natural fruit sugar, and we need to feed them more. Heat 5-6 pounds pure cane sugar with just enough water to dissolve, cover and cool completely. Add this sugar/water mixture to the wine must, stir well, and cover. (If this seems like a lot of sugar, don’t worry, the yeast will consume most of it.) 

6. Continue stirring 3-5 times daily as it continues to bubble and froth. A taste of the liquid will be sweet with a little alcohol detectable, and some zingy fruity flavors. 

7. On Day 5-6 (or when bubbles are less vigorous upon stirring), it’s time to strain the fruit from the liquid and compost the spent fermented fruit. Using clean hands and tools (strainer, funnel, airlock, carboys), strain the wine to fill 2-3 carboys, avoiding empty space (oxygen) if you can; a few inches headspace is ideal. Properly fill airlocks with water (or vodka) and install. 

8. Keep in a cool spot for one month. I use my laundry room which stays fairly cool (~70F). Active bubbling resumes and the airlocks gurgle happily, letting carbon dioxide escape. 

Carboy with an airlock. This will sit undisturbed for a month.

9. After a month, check the sugar content by carefully adding a spoonful of sugar onto the surface of the wine. If it doesn’t immediately respond with active bubbling, the sugar content is just right–replace airlock and wait another month. 

If the wine does react excitedly, add ½ cup sugar, and recheck in a few days (totaling no more than 2 cups). Then, wait another month.

10. After these two months, clean supplies again because it’s time for the second and final siphon/rack! We’ll separate the yeast sediment on the bottom (called lees) from the finished wine. My batch made a little over 2.5 finished gallons, so I used pint sized flip-top bottles (Grolsch) for the partial gallon–just take care when opening these later due to possible pressurization.

11. Now go do something else for nine months. Periodically check that the airlock liquid hasn’t evaporated. When it’s time to sample the wine, try it both chilled or at room temp, and savor the complex and subtle flavors of the fruits of the desert.

Gallons of delicious finished wine!

Congratulations, winemaker! If the process is fun and you want to try more, there are wonderful books on home winemaking and fermentation. I am partial to Sandor Elix Katz’s guides because of their simplicity and use of natural ingredients. Sometimes I hesitate to embark on a new endeavor because I worry I’ll mess it up. I then remember that wine is a very forgiving process, and I have little to lose if anything goes truly awry. If wine gets exposed to too much oxygen, it will become vinegar (acetic acid), so the worst case scenario is you have some really interesting vinegar with which to cook. Salud!

(Please share below in the comments any wine adventures and experiences you embark upon.)