You will need
1 Kg of mixed dried fruit or Raisins ................ about £1.50 from a supermarket
4 Kg of ordinary sugar ................................... about £3-4 from the same supermarket
A spoon full of brewers yeast
Finings (to clear the wine) ............................... from your local homebrew shop or Wilkinson's
Campden tablets .............................................. from your local homebrew shop or Wilkinson's
5 Gallons of water ......................................... from the tap
2 tea bags and 1 Litre of white grape juice (optional)
Hardware
5 Gallon brewing bucket
5 x Demijohns (1 Gallon brewing jars) with bungs and airlocks
Bleach (for sterilising equipment) I recommend Lidle's thin bleach, about 80p a gallon
Funnel, Jug and Siphon tube.
Some plastic 2 Litre Coke / Lemonade bottles
Before starting work sterilise ALL equipment with bleach, not forgetting to rinse off the bleach before using.
It only takes one nasty germ to get in and the whole brew can be spoiled.
Lets do it
Dump the dried fruit and the sugar into a 5 Gallon brewing bucket
Pour on boiling water to make it up to about 5 gallons
Add the tea bags (not sure why but I read somewhere that it's a good thing to do)
Leave to cool overnight.
Meanwhile make up a solution of lukewarm water and about half a cup of sugar in a bottle
Add the yeast to this, shake it up and leave in a warm place until it froths
Once you are sure the yeast is alive and kicking (usually overnight) pour it into the bucket. When the yeast is alive it starts "eating" the sugar and turning it into alcohol. This also produces bubbles of C02, causing an obvious frothing effect. If it's frothing, it's alive.
Stir it all up and leave it covered for a week, then remove the fruit using a (sterilised) colander or sieve.
The fruit can be left in but it might give a slightly bitter taste to the wine. I prefer to remove it, squeezing out the juice as I go.
Leave the bucket covered in a warm place for another week, stirring occasionally.
After a week, scoop it out with a (sterilised) jug via your (sterilised) funnel into "Demijohns" with airlocks and leave for as long as necessary to brew. About a week if it's warm.
The cooler you store it = longer the brewing time.
It's fully stopped when the bubbles stop rising but this could take months. Just keep tasting it and when you think it's about right add a crushed Campden tablet to stop it fermenting.
To aid clearing you might want to siphon the Demijohns back into your (sterilised) bucket, leaving some of the crud behind. Add finings to the stirred up bucket of wine, then pour back into demijohns.
Clean out the DemiJohns, then refill from the bucket, topping up with a Litre of white grape juice. (£1 a Litre in Asda's). No need to sterilise the Demijohn as the only germs present should be yeast. And that's quite good.
The grape juice is not at all vital but will give it more body and should make it taste a bit better.
Give it another week or so and the bubbles will have reduced to a trickle. When you have successfully taste-tested it, add the Campden tablet to stop fermentation.
Once it has cleared it can be siphoned into (sterilised) 2 Litre Coke bottles, put in the fridge and then drunk.
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