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Ripe Gooseberry Wine

Put the ripe and well picked red gooseberries into a tub or pan, bruise the fruit well, and leave it uncovered for 24 hours. Squeeze the juice from the pulp through a hair or canvas bag. Put the residue of each squeezing into a vessel; pour upon it 1/2 gallon of boiling water for each gallon of fruit used, and stir well for a quarter of an hour. Let it stand for 12 hours, squeeze the pulp through the bag, and add the liquor to the juice of the fruit obtained. Add 2½ pounds sugar to each gallon of the liquor, and stir it well. Let it stand to ferment. When it has done fermenting, draw it off and add 3 pint brandy to each gallon.

Let it stand to settle for 4 or 5 weeks, then draw it off carefully into a cask that will just hold it; keep it in a cool cellar for twelve months or more, when it may be bottled.

Choose a clear, dry, cold day. It ought to be a splendid wine in 2 years.