We returned from our Spanish vacation almost a week ago. Spain was great. We spent most of the two weeks in Madrid. We attended holiday services at Synagogue Beth Yaacov. It was nice. The rest of the time in Madrid was spent couch surfing, shopping and seeing the sites.

Sadly, while visiting a park, we had our bag stolen which contained our laptop and a number of other item. The laptop is insured, but it really detracted from our vacation.

We concluded our trip with three days in Toledo. Such a beautiful city.

Now that we are back, we’re planning on spending a month-and-a-half at site reintegrating and beginning to plan the rest of our service. We’re both looking forward to the cool weather and gardening again. I say cool weather, but its relative. Highs are in the mid-80s, which is 40 degrees cooler than the highs in the hot season.

Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving. We’ll be back in Kita/Bamako around the first of December.

We’ve had a number of questions about how we make our wine at site. First I would like to say thank you to John Waters, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, who inspired us to make our own wine, and the Discovering Country Wine Making book available at Amazon.com.

OK!Plast bucket converted to secondary fermenter

We begin by choosing our ingredients. During mango season, this was simple. Now that fresh mango is no longer available, one must get more creative.

Mango Wine Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 kilos whole mangoes (4 large and 2 medium sized is what we used) ~750 CFA
• 1 kilo sugar ~600 CFA
• 1 gallon of purified water Free
• 1 tsp of tannin (can substitute with one bag of Lipton’s tea) ~50 CFA for tea
• 2 tsp citric acid powder (can use the juice from two oranges or a handful of small lemons, or a squirt of lemon juice) ~100 CFA for lemons
• 3 tsp peptic enzyme (this helps break down the fruit quicker and will result in a more translucent wine, not necessary and won’t effect the flavor, but makes it look better) ~$8 USD for 16 ounces (96 tsps), not available in Mali
• 1 Campden tablet (this will kill the natural yeast in the mango and help sterilize the materials listed below. Not necessary, but will ensure the quality of your wine.) ~$2 USD for 50 tablets, not available in Mali
• 1 yeast packet. Champagne or white wine yeast. You can use bread yeast from Mali, but it will taste bad. ~$1 USD for nice champagne yeast from the states

Total cost CFA for one gallon wine without optional materials: ~1500 CFA + $1 USD
Total cost USD for one gallon wine with optional materials: $4 USD (1500 CFA + $1 yeast) + $0.25 (cost of 3 tsp peptic enzyme) + $0.04 (cost of 1 campden tablet) = $4.29

Materials: These are all reusable

• 2x OK!PLAST bucket with secure fitting lid OR I-Heart-Africa bucket. These will be the primary and secondary fermenters. ~2500 CFA
• 1x Airlock bubbler. This lets the CO2 from the dying yeast escape while not letting in any non-sterilized substances (these can be purchased in the USA, or you can use an non-lubricated condom or a balloon; the latter two may effect the taste of your wine, giving it a latex-condom taste) ~$1 USD for the actual airlock
• 1x Short piece of clear hose, a meter or less will do. This is used to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter, and to the bottles. Available at hardware stores in Mali and at shops that sell insecticides and pesticides. ~1000 CFA
• 1x Bung (rubber stopper), You can also use the black rubber straps sold in village. This is used to secure the airlock to the secondary fermenter. ~100 CFA
• 4x empty liquor bottles Free, just ask your fellow volunteers for empties

To prepare the secondary fermenter, use a hot knife to cut a hole in the center of one of the bucket’s lids. Like in the picture.

Instructions

Mango wine after first week in primary fermenter

Wash your hands with soap.
Boil water and sanitize all your materials.
Wash the mangoes with bleach water.
Peel and pit the mangoes. The peels and pits can be discarded.
Use your hands to squish and smash the mangoes.
Toss mangoes into the primary fermenter.

Bring 1 liter water to a boil.
Add 1 kilo of sugar to boiling water slowly while stirring until the mixture becomes a syrup.

Add the tannin, acid powder, peptic enzyme and a campden tablet to the fermenter.
If you are using a Lipton’s tea bag instead of tannin, brew the tea with the syrup.
If you are using oranges or lemons instead of acid powder, then juice the fruits in a bowl, remove the seeds and add to the primary fermenter.

Pour the syrup over the mangoes in the fermenter.
Pour the remaining water over the mangoes.

Seal and let sit for one day. During this time the peptic enzyme will begin to break down the mangoes. Also, the campden tablet will kill the yeast if you add it during the first day.

After one day, add a packet of yeast to warm water (we place the water in a sealed glass jar and put it in the sun, but you could also heat on a stove). Add the yeast to the primary fermenter.

Bottled Mango Wine

Reseal.
After one week, use a sterilized utensil to remove the leftover mango bits from the top of the wine.
Then use the hose to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter in to the secondary fermenter. Try to avoid transferring any of the dead yeast. Consuming to much dead yeast will give you diarrhea.

At this point the wine should be drinkable, ours tasted like a low-alcohol mango-flavored beer. It was translucent and yellow colored.

Let sit in secondary fermenter for a few weeks.

Sterilize the glass bottles with boiling water.
Siphon the wine to the bottles.
It should turn a nice golden color after about 3 weeks.
The wine ages better when in mass than in bottles, so the longer you leave it in the fermenter the better.
The older it gets, the better it tastes.

We’ve also made banana-mint wine and basil wine. The banana-mint wine is the recipe from the Discovering Country Winemaking book.

The Basil wine is based on the infused rose-petal wine from the book, but we substituted basil and used oranges instead of lemon.

Infused Basil Wine Recipe

Ingredients

• 1lb basil leafs (we filled a grocery bag full) ~Free, grows like a weed during all seasons
• 1.5 kilos sugar ~900 CFA
• 1 gallon of purified water, only need 3 liters for the first day, the rest is added 4 days later Free
• 1 tsp of tannin (can substitute with one bag of Lipton’s tea) ~50 CFA for tea
• 2 tsp citric acid powder (can use the juice from two oranges or a handful of small lemons, or a squirt of lemon juice) ~200 CFA for oranges
• 1 Campden tablet (this will kill the natural yeast in the mango and help sterilize the materials listed below. Not necessary, but will ensure the quality of your wine.) ~$2 USD for 50 tablets, not available in Mali
• 1 yeast packet. Champagne or white wine yeast. You can use bread yeast from Mali, but it will taste bad. ~$1 USD for nice champagne yeast from the states

Total cost CFA for one gallon wine without optional materials: ~1150 CFA + $1 USD
Total cost USD for one gallon wine with optional materials: $3.5 USD (1150 CFA + $1 yeast) + $0.04 (cost of 1 campden tablet) = $3.54

Materials: These are all reusable

• 2x OK!PLAST bucket with secure fitting lid OR I-Heart-Africa bucket. These will be the primary and secondary fermenters. ~2500 CFA
• 1x Airlock bubbler. This lets the CO2 from the dying yeast escape while not letting in any non-sterilized substances (these can be purchased in the USA, or you can use an non-lubricated condom or a balloon; the latter two may effect the taste of your wine, giving it a latex-condom taste) ~$1 USD for the actual airlock
• 1x Short piece of clear hose, a meter or less will do. This is used to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter, and to the bottles. Available at hardware stores in Mali and at shops that sell insecticides and pesticides. ~1000 CFA
• 1x Bung (rubber stopper), You can also use the black rubber straps sold in village. This is used to secure the airlock to the secondary fermenter. ~100 CFA
• 4x empty liquor bottles Free, just ask your fellow volunteers for empties

To prepare the secondary fermenter, use a hot knife to cut a hole in the center of one of the bucket’s lids. Like in the picture.

Instructions

Wash your hands with soap.
Boil water and sanitize all your materials.

Bring 3 liter water to a boil.
Add all the basil leaves to boiling water (we placed the leaves in a bag made of loose knitted fabric so they would be easier to remove later)
Let boil for 3 minutes.
Pour basil leaves and water in to primary fermenter.
Seal and let sit for four days, during which time the water will become infused with the basil.

After four days, remove the basil leaves.
Bring one liter of water to boil.
Add the tea bag and 1.5 kilos of sugar to the water slowly while stirring. It should become a simple syrup.

Pour the syrup in to the primary fermenter.
Add the juice of two oranges (or lemons).
Add one campden tablet to kill any natural yeasts.
Reseal and let sit for a day.

After a day, add the yeast to a cup of sterilized warm water and add to the primary fermenter.
Reseal and let sit for 14 days.

Then use the hose to siphon the wine from the primary fermenter in to the secondary fermenter. Be sure that the hose is sterilized with boiling water. Try to avoid transferring any of the dead yeast. Consuming to much dead yeast will give you diarrhea.

At this point the wine should be drinkable, ours tasted strongly of basil with a low alcohol content. It was a cloudy white color with a slight yellow tint.

Let sit in secondary fermenter for a month.
The wine ages better when in mass than in bottles, so the longer you leave it in the fermenter the better.

Sterilize the glass bottles with boiling water.
Siphon the wine to the bottles.

Tips:
Be sure that everything is kept as sterile as possible. Wash everything well, and sterilize with boiling water.

Write all your steps down, that way you can reproduce the recipe or make changes if something goes wrong.

The time has finally come for our first vacation back to civilization. Early Monday morning (or late Sunday night, depends on how you look at it), we depart for Madrid. We’ll be spending two weeks in Spain. Most of the time will be in Madrid, but we will also spend a night in Toledo.

We’ve arranged to stay with people through couchsurfing.org for most of our stay. It should be a lot of fun. Wine and tapas, here we come!