Homemade Watermelon Wine!
Apparently today is "National Watermelon Day". I had today's recipe all ready to publish, but I have the *perfect* recipe for watermelon day, so... Change of plans!
It's been a while since I've posted a homemade wine recipe. Homemade watermelon wine is not only tasty, it's easy to make and a unique choice for summer imbibing. Also, we're a little overdue on putting on this summer's batch.
What can I say, the tornado screwed with our summer brewing schedule when it turned our lives upside down!
Watermelon Wine
Homemade Watermelon Wine is easy to make, requires very little in the way of ingredients... but does require some time.
Once you wait it out, you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful, fruity wine that tastes like *summer*. It can vary in colour from a pale straw colour, to a pretty, pale pink... it just depends on the variety of watermelon.
It’s kind of fun in that you never really know what you’re going to end up with, for colour - some start out red and lose all colour - going almost yellow - and some start out pink and stay basically the same colour til the end!
Watermelon wine is a wine that is best made sweet. Dry watermelon wine... doesn’t really taste like much of anything. Like most fruit wines - especially the lighter coloured ones - you’ll definitely want to make this one at LEAST semi sweet.
The ABV on this wine comes out to around 19%, and - as is - it turns our a sweet wine, perfect for dessert.
It's lovely when served chilled on a hot summer day... just be careful, it will knock you on your butt if you're not careful. The sweetness hides its potency!
Wine Making Basics
If you haven't attempted making wine before, don't be intimidated! Check out our primer to home brewing, it starts here, with parts 2 and 3 here and here. Just a small handful of entries, and you'll be good to go!
Watermelon Wine Ingredients
This homemade watermelon wine recipe uses few ingredients, but it's important to make them the right ones. Most importantly:
Watermelon
First things first: You want to use fresh, ripe, juicy watermelon.
We used to recommend using only watermelons WITH seeds, but seedless watermelons have been as good - and sometimes better - in flavour than seeded watermelons lately, so we’re relaxing that stance.
I’d recommend tasting your watermelon as you cut it. If it is “meh” on flavour now, it’ll likely be kind of “meh” on flavour once fermented.
It’s always easiest to start out with flavour, rather than try to add it after the fact. Find watermelons that have a great, robust flavour, and you’ll be glad you did!
Sugar
While we tend to play fast and loose with the sugar choices at times, watermelon wine has a much more narrow range of sugars that work with it:
Granulated Sugar
Plain white granulated sugar is your best bet for Homemade Watermelon Wine, and it’s what we use every time, now.
It provides the most neutral flavour of all the sweeteners, which is important when the fruit being used - like watermelon - is a more subtle and easily overpowered flavour.
Honey
While we recommend exclusively using white sugar for the best results, you CAN substitute honey for all or part of the sugar.
Note: If you substitute honey for all of the sugar, you’re making a mead. More specifically, a “Melomel” - a mead made with fruit. File that one away for future trivia contests!
If you do decide to use honey with this one, use one that is lightly coloured and flavoured. Any of the darker honey varieties - such as buckwheat - or heavily flavoured ones (like wildflower) will overpower the watermelon flavour.
You may end up with something tasty, but it won’t be watermelon flavoured!
Yeast
We like to use Red Star’s “Champagne” Yeast for this one. It has a high tolerance for alcohol, which allows for a high final ABV.
You can use whatever wine making yeast you like, just know how it’ll impact your final product.
The main way that your yeast choice will impact the final product is in ABV. The higher a yeast strain’s tolerance for alcohol is, the longer they’ll live as they’re fermenting your watermelon juice - and the higher the ABV you’ll end up with.
The more sugar the yeast processes into alcohol, the dryer the wine gets, as well.
If you choose a yeast that has a lower tolerance for alcohol, it will die off before the ABV gets very high - or the wine gets very dry.
Yeast brands and strains can vary wildly depending on your store and where you live, so I definitely recommend talking to your local homebrew supply store. Let them know what you’re aiming for in terms of sweetness and/or ABV, and ask which of their yeasts they’d recommend.
Just don’t use bread or all purpose yeast for brewing, though. Stick to wine yeast!
Watermelon Wine Specifics
While the earlier mentioned “Wine Making Basics” posts have a ton of great information, there are a few things specific to Homemade Watermelon Wine that aren’t addressed:
Preparing your Watermelon
Chopping the watermelon is messy business. I recommend putting a cutting board in a baking sheet (the kind with rim/short walls), and cutting it up in there. Periodically dump the accumulated juice into the pot.
Seasonality
This is very much a seasonal wine, and it will NOT turn out anywhere near as good if you make it with winter produce. Ake more than you think you’ll need, because you’re not going to want to start another batch in 6 months or whatever!
We made the mistake of only putting on 1 gallon the first time, and 5 next time. This year, we'll likely make 10 gallons - plan accordingly! Watermelon wine makes a great gift.
Also, as we're finding out... it makes a great tip for contractors that take care of you!
Water
One question that we’re asked often is “But how much water do we add?”
It’s no mistake that we don’t call for water in the recipe - we don’t USE water for this. Unlike most fruit, watermelon breaks down almost completely when heated.
You start out with chunks of watermelon - and the juice that comes out as you cut it - but it quickly breaks down to a liquid.
Because the watermelon flavour is relatively subtle compared to most fruits, we don’t add any water at all, and just ferment straight watermelon flesh / juice.
More Wine Recipes
While you've got your Homemade Watermelon Wine fermenting away, why not consider putting a batch of something else on, to occupy your wait time?
Here are a few of my other wine recipes:
Homemade Banana Wine Recipe
Homemade Blackberry Recipe
Homemade Blueberry Recipe
Homemade Cherry Recipe
Homemade Clementine Mead Recipe
Homemade Cranberry Clementine Christmas Wine Recipe
Homemade Faux Lingonberry Wine Recipe
Homemade Hard Apple Cider Recipe
Homemade Mango Wine Recipe
Homemade Mint Wine Recipe
Homemade Newfoundland Partridgeberry Wine Recipe
Homemade Strawberry Wine Recipe
Anyway, on to my Homemade Watermelon Wine Recipe!
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How to Make Watermelon Wine
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Large, Ripe Watermelon
- 3 lbs Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Acid Blend
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
- 1 packet Red Star “Champagne” Brewing/Wine Yeast
Instructions
- Slice up watermelon, discarding rind. Chop watermelon flesh into 1″ cubes, placing into a large pot. Once all watermelon flesh and juice is collected in the pot, heat over medium, stirring and mashing frequently, until watermelon flesh has broken down into liquid. Remove from heat.
- Measure about 3.5 L / 14-15 cups / 120 oz of juice, reserve any remaining – you can drink it straight, or make cocktails from it! In large pot, combine measured watermelon juice (straining the seeds out as you measure!) with the sugar. Heat to almost boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, cover with sanitized pot lid.
- Once mixture has cooled to room temperature, add acid blend and yeast nutrient.
- Using a sanitized funnel, transfer cooled mixture to a sanitized 1 gallon carboy, until carboy is almost full.
- Using sanitized equipment, take a gravity reading. It should be in around the 1.16 area. Keep track of the number! (This is an optional step, but will allow you to calculate your final ABV %)
- Sprinkle yeast into carboy, cover with sanitized air lock. Let sit, undisturbed, overnight.
- Within 24 hours, you should notice fermentation activity – bubbles in the airlock, carbonation and /or swirling in the wine must. This means you’re good to go! Put the carboy somewhere cool (not cold!), and leave it alone for a month or two.
- Using sanitized equipment, rack the clarified wine off the sediment, into a clean, freshly sanitized 1 gallon carboy. Cap with sanitized airlock, leave it alone for another 2-3 months. r
- Repeat racking process. Leave wine alone for a month or two. By 6 months in, your wine should be very clear, and VERY tasty!
- When your wine has been racked a few times and shows NO more fermenting activity for a month or so (no bubbles in the airlock, no more sediment being produced, you can move on to bottling:
- Using sanitized equipment, take a gravity reading*, then rack the wine into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork. (We like to use these for corking our homemade wine. Easy to use – no special equipment needed! – easy to uncork, and – should you have any wine left in your bottle after serving (pfft!), the “cork” is easily replaced for temporary storage!)
- Enjoy.. and start planning for next year’s batch(es)!
When you make a 6 gallon batch do you multiply even the yeast and acid blend by 6 ? Let me know.
Multiply the acid blend, but you don't need to multiply the yeast. You can toss a second packet in for good measure, but I wouldn't bother with any more beyond that.
How much water is added to the watermelon juice e.g 3.5 letres of juice
None - per the recipe 🙂
How much water do you add? I fo not see it.
None, you break the watermelon down into juice by heating it.
Ok great I'm all in for a six gallon batch. Do you use anything to kill the Yeast? Any other Chemical additives? Thanks for taking the time to write this guide and answer our questions..
Nope, we tend to figure that by the time the watermelon has broken down, it's been heated enough to kill any remaining yeast.
When I heated the melon it never turned into a liguid completely. I could strain but along with the seeds I am getting a lot of flesh containing lots of sweet. Could I leave the seeds and all? Do you think I am doing something wrong, maybe not stewing it long enough?
do you have issues with the yeast bubbling out of our airlock when it is just put on top? I did exactly as your recipe states and I kept having the yeast foam out the airlock so I had to stir it in. Thanks for your reply!
what if you use rind and melon flesh would the wine taste awful ?
Peel the green skin from the flesh and make watermelon rind pickle! Everyone loves it !!!
Can I use a 5 gal plastic water jug as a carboy or does it have to be glass?
Ideally glass - plastic can impart weird flavours on your wine, if you keep it on plastic too long.
It says add yeast nutrient in step 3 and then add yeast in step 6 is there two things of yeast I need?
Yeast nutrient isn't yeast. It's yeast nutrient!
how big of a difference will it make if you don't use that yeast and what is an acid blend (vinegar)
Using any of the winemaking yeasts will work, it'll just affect the final alcohol content, more than anything. Some yeasts have a higher tolerance, will take the wine much drier. If that's the case, you'll want to add more sugar after fermenting - watermelon wine really does need to be a sweet wine.
Acid blend is a common additive, found at homebrewing supply stores. Don't use vinegar!
Marie, my husband and I bottled our first gallon of watermelon wine yesterday, using your recipe, and it is beautiful and very good! You are correct about the high alcohol content...I think ours ended up being between 16 and 17 percent!! We look forward to Summer and growing more watermelons and making more wine. Thank you so much for your delicious recipe!
Thank you for your kind words!
How amazing that you can make it with your own home grown watermelons! Consider me jealous.
Hello Marie,
Me from India and it is the water melon season. And I intend to make water melon wine from your recipe.
However, some difficulties and some questions.
1) We don't get acid blend here. So, I intend to mix lime juice and tamarind juice (citric and tartaric acid). Because a blend is also citric and tartaric acid. Do you think it should work well?
2) Can I turn the water melon into a fine juice using a juicer instead of crushing?
3) Also, in your recipe you have asked to strain out the seeds. But I wonder how is that possible. Once you strain, are you also not going to strain out the reminder of the flesh which hasn't been converted into juice?
4) No need to add any water to this, right?
5) Should I boil? Instead can't I use potassium metabisulphite (we don't get campden tablets here in India) and leave it for 24 hours before adding the yeast.
And last question:
6) when I add yeast, will it get dissolved automatically or is there a need to stir it?
I appreciate your patient replies Marie.
Thank you.
Hi Prit!
1. OK... do you have a brewing supply store near you? Personally, I'd ask them what's used for acid in brewing over there, if you can't get actual acid blend. I have no idea if tamarind and lime are acid enough to be a stand in, or what the ratio would be.
2. You can, but that's definitely more work / mess.
3. You'll get a bit of flesh with it, but most will have liquified.
4. Nope. No water.
5. You can use that, but I prefer to boil.
6. Just add it, it doesn't need to be stirred
Leaving it on the sediment before the first racking for a month or two doesn't cause off flavors? Ill fallow the recipe exactly but thought ide ask the question. I usually tack for the first time after two weeks, just because thats how i learned. Ive never made watermelon wine before.
Thanks.
We've never had any off flavours from it
Marie, this looks like a great recipe! One that I am looking forward to trying once watermelons are in season. I have a question though, after you mash the watermelon and measure out the liquid; do you strain it or include the watermelon flesh as well?
The watermelon flesh basically liquifies as you cook it, so I leave it all in.
I didn't find your recipe until a month after I started my 5 gallon batch. My local home brew store was out of the champagne yeast so my wife picked up some turbo yeast. The turbo yeast was intended for using 13 lbs sugar and 5 gallons of water to make a 26% alc mash. I assume to further distill. The mixture started working within 2 minutes of placing the airlock on. I will let you know how it comes out when it's finished. I will be using you're recipe next year. Thank You.
No problem!
I've never used turbo yeast, so I'm curious to hear about how it turns out!
Hello ma'am,
I live and work on a fully operational farm in south GA. I've made watermelon wine a few different times using a very similar recipe. I've always only made 5 gallons at a time, just for personal consumption. The owner of the farm I work on found out about my wine through word of mouth. Needless to say, he was a fan and wants me to make 100 gallons this year and will fully fund the operation. My question is, in your professional opinion, how much yeast should I use total? I have asked my elders that was generous enough to teach me to make it originally, yet that was almost a year ago and no one seems to have a straight answer for me. I sure would greatly appreciate any and all advice and insight you May have on this.
Thank you for your time,
Brad
Well, I have NO experience at all with commercial, large batch wines, so I'm really not the person to ask. If I were to guess, it'd be a packet per 5 gallons... but for all I know, commercial wineries use yeast in larger packets.
How did John snyders wine come out? I think the turbo yeast will give it some off flavoring because it's mostly used for higher alcohol content mash for distilling.
is lalvin all purpose wine yeast ok to use instead of the red star... i am very new to this wine making... and after reading this watermelon recipe i have to try it... so any extra tips would be great... going to try for making a 5- 6 gal batch. thanks
Should be fine!
I want to make 5 gallons for a party im having I was wondering would i multiply the ingrediently for 1 gallon by 5 or is that to much sugar and yeast just w/o dering new to wine making ive made small batchs never this big
You can just multiply by 5 for everything but yeast. You CAN multiply yeast by 5, but you really don't need to. I'll usually just double the yeast for a big batch.
quick question. making a 5 gallon batch in fermentation buckets, do I multiply everything except the yeast by 5?
More or less, yes!
If using champagne yeast does this have to be bottled like champagne?
Nope
how long can I store the wine.
We've stored it for a couple years. Not sure beyond that, it's always gone before it can get too old.
Would a steamer juicer work? I have had good luck with strawberry and blueberry just curious
I'm not even sure what that is, so can't really give any advice there.. sorry about that!
To give you an idea of how much liquid you will end up with. I would say that I extracted at least 95% of the watermelons juice. I had six watermelons that I recently worked up to make wine and when it was all said and done I had maybe 3 to 4 cups of watermelon pulp left over. Watermelons are something like 95% to 99% water. The hard part is extracting the water. I used everything in the kitchen with holes in it trying to find something the worked well. I found that a "new or at least clean" sock was best way to go.
If you allow the yeast to fully ferment the mash where does the sweetness come from??
There's more sugar than the yeast can ferment.
Just a tip from an old lady: Buy a package of knee high nylons. 6 pairs-12 disposable drip strainers!
Love it!
Easy enough recipe to follow I’m on the second day of fermentation first time making wine so I wanted to check something . Yeast is very active looks to be a fifth or sixth way down the bottle just making sure that’s normal basically where the neck almost reaches full bottle diameter. Thanks!
If the yeast is active, you're all good! It'll go where it goes, as it digests the available sugars
Follow up! Third day woke up to bubbled over airlock. I’m assuming very active 3-7 days? Also assuming this happens and I’m being an over protective parent but details below...
Anyway, I cleaned up, sanitized outer jar and the rim. Put in other sanitized airlocks. My question, any concerns about proceeding? I’d rather start over now then have something bad in 4-6 months. Temp 75f or less, smell off lock gives hint of wine or wine slushy I’ve had at weddings with hint of yeast. Thanks!
Really excited to try this! Do you think it would be OK to freeze the watermelon in chunks first or best to make it fresh? I like to do all my wine-making in the fall with frozen fruit once I've put the garden to bed...
Thanks!
Frozen will be just fine, as long as you're careful to not let it get freezerburnt!
How is the clarity on your final product? And what were your fermentation temperatures? I think light carbonation would add a nice dimension to something like this. What do you think?
The wine ferments out very clear. We've never measured temperature, we just brew everything in our basement (across 3 different houses over the years).
Carbonation could be fun with this, for sure!
Is it normal to be boozy tasting after primary? I assume it needs time to mellow during secondary? First time wine maker
Definitely normal!
Most wine needs to are a bit before it's really potable.