Recipe; Orange Wine

Really I should call this Citrus wine, but old habits die hard so I still call it Orange wine. This is the only sweet, strong, desert wine that I make. It looks like an old time recipe, the sort of thing that would come from one of C.J.J.Berry's books. Generally speaking I avoid those sweet strong wine recipes. I find they take an age to become good, like years. However this one works well in months, I guess it's because the acidity balances the sweetness and as both are big it means it can handle the high alcohol and the edge and oiliness from the zest too. It's all in balance.

I've blogged the recipe before, you can find it here, but as I made it a little differently this time I'm writing it afresh.

Ingredients for 3 Gallons;

30 Organic Juicing Oranges
9 Organic Clemantines
9 Organic Mandarins
6 Organic Lemons
2 Organic Pink Grapefruit
2 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
2 Teaspoons Citric Acid
4.5 Kg Sugar
Yeast Nutrient
4 Teaspoons Pectolase
Water to 3.5 gallons
2 Campden Tablets
Yeast, Sauternes.

OG; 1122

Some of the ingredients

So you'll notice a lot of organic fruit, this is mainly because you'll use lots of zest in making this wine. Organic fruit won't have a heap of chemicals on it, which is a risk with other farming methods especially cos using zest isn't usually a daily thing, and certainly not in large quantities. So do go for organic. It's more expensive but it's the best option by far. It'll probably taste better too. Also this is a wine for special occasions, not something you drink with your feet up watching TV, so you may aswell splash out. Even buying organic fruit it'll cost you less than £1.50 per bottle.

Method

Get a gallon of water on the stove with the sugar in it. While it is heating up and dissolving wash all the fruit well and then zest 24 of the oranges and 4 lemons. Be extra careful to avoid the pith, it'll make your wine bitter. I use a potato peeler followed by a very sharp knife to slice the remaining pith off, and then chop the zest finely. It takes an age but it's worth it. Put the zest into a muslin or nylon bag, tie it up and drop it into your fermenting bin. This will probably have the hot dissolved sugar solution in it by now.

Juicing oranges; the likes of Maroc or Helios are good.

Squeeze all the fruit. Don't be tempted to use a processor or juicer because it will result in pith getting into the juice. Again, it's laborious but worth it. Add the juice to the fermenting bin, and all the other ingredients apart from the yeast. Give it a sloshy stir to mix well and cover, leave overnight.

Other Citrus fruits used; Clementines and Mandarins (but you could use Satsuma, Tangerine, Mineola etc). Also lemons and pink grapefruit.

Next day give it another sloshy stir for a few minutes and then add the yeast. Cover and leave overnight. 24 hours later your brew should be on the go. It's always a bit nerve-racking starting a brew with such a high gravity, but I've never yet had a problem with it. I put that down to the yeast, sauternes is great. This time it was even 5 months past it's best before date and it still fired up no problem.

Everyday for the next few days, give it a sloshy stir for a few minutes and then cover again. After a week or so transfer to secondary fermentation vessel under airlock. If you have to use single gallon demi-johns then you'll probably have to remove the zest. If you have a bigger then you can leave the zest in. I do the latter, this wine is big in every department and it can take it. I'll usually remove zest about a week later.

When it's finished fermenting do all the usual stuff. Rack to demi-johns, degas, stabilise, fine if needed, rack when clear.

Thoughts

You may be wondering how much juice you get from all those fruits. Its between 2.5 and 3 litres. So you may be tempted to make the wine from bought juice. It'll save you a load of time and money, but you won't have any zest, and using a little won't be the same. Still, if your budget or time is constrained then you may want to give it a go.

Make sure to use mainly juicing oranges, certainly more than half of the fruit. After that use a mix of citrus fruits. I never do the same recipe twice, it just depends on what is available and/or a good price if there is a choice.

I think the pectolase helps with any pith you may have let get passed you! But don't depend on it, be fussy about getting rid of pith and then use the pectolase as a belt and braces precaution.

I haven't been able to find Sauternes yeast locally for a while. I could just mail order it, but i've decided to try a new yeast for next time. It will be GV3 (Gervin number 3). It looks to me like it's probably the same strain, but I don't know for sure.

Recipe - Rose Petal Wine

This wine has become one of our favourites, and it's very easy. It's also great for winter cos homebrew shops always have bags of rose petals. I'll crack on with doing the ingredients, method etc now because I've blogged chattier versions previously. See here for example, or see here for a different version. Personally I prefer the former version, so basically that's what I'm writing up here.

Ingredients (for 3 Gallons);

2.4 Kg Sugar
3 Litres White Grape Juice
3 Litres Apple Juice
3 Teaspoons Acid Mix (50:50 Citric and Tartaric)
2 Campden Tablets
Yeast Nutrient (Nutrivin)
Pectolase
1 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
Water to 3 Gallons
Yeast (Gervin D)
1 Bag Rose Petals (50g)

OG 1086

The fruit juice is nothing special at all, just the cartons you find on supermarket shelves. The only thing to look out for is preservatives, avoid Potassium Sorbate (E202) like the plague, it stops yeast from breeding and is a commonly added preservative. So your brew will never get going. Luckily that still leaves you with lots of choice. After that it's your choice, pure pressed juice, from concentrate, or the fresh ones in the chill counter. I use Sungrown. It's not from concentrate and has no additives, best of all it's very cheap, around 80p/litre. You could also use red grape juice instead of white, I love the delicate colour I get with using white grape juice. That's probably the only difference it makes.

Method

Simply combine all the above (apart from yeast and rose petals), stir well and put the lid on. I like it to be a little warm, 25'C say, but check what the instructions say on your your enzyme tub. Then leave it overnight.

Next day give it a sloshy stir to get plenty of air in, measure the gravity, came in at1086 (just a little lower than last years). Now add the yeast, cover and leave overnight. Each day for the next few days, give the must a sloshy stir for a few minutes and then cover again.

After about a week transfer to a secondary fermentation vessel with an airlock. Now add the rose petals, in a tied muslin or nylon bag. Adding late means that you don't need as many. So my 50 grams will do 3 gallons rather than 1.

Leave this to finish fermenting then remove the rose petals and rack to demi-johns. Do all the usual from here, degas, stabilise, fine (if needed), rack.

Thoughts

Gervin D chosen cos it's acid reducing, referring to malic acid which apples have plenty of. Malic acid is harsh tasting so reducing it will do no harm at all. It's also low foaming and a quick starter.

I used an acid mix because sometimes rose petal wine catches my throat like white pepper does. The citric acid counters this effectively. Tannic compliments rose petals in my opinion, hence I added a little. This wine, like all those made with 2 litres of juice per gallon of wine, is all about balance. A little tannin is sufficient.

If you're into doing things in an eco way then homebrew can be a great ... erm ... self-congratulatory pat on the back. How about trying beet sugar instead of cane? The brand I know is Silverspoon. In terms of food miles it may be a lot better than cane sugar, all depends on where you live. Some say it gives the wine a very slight earthy taste. I think they're wine ponces. Both cane and beet go through a very simple process to result in refined sugar, and that's basically what you get in the bag, precisely the same stuff to the same very high level of purity. My chemistry degree leads me to being very confident on this.

Young's Black Cherry (Definitive Country)

There are some kit's that are great because you pay the money for them, and there are some cheap and cheerful kit's too. Young's do a range of definitive country wines. My personal favourite is the Black Cherry. I like others such as blackberry but I much prefer to forage for them. Ever tried foraging cherries?

There's not much to say about this wine. It is very easy drinking and red. Usually turns out medium. The kit comes with everything you need except sugar. And costs around £7 - 8. Give it a few months and it'll be nice, drinking it sooner is not worth it because a little patience makes for a big improvement.

So you know what it looks like.

If you want to drink stuff early, like 6-8 weeks after starting brewing it, then take the link to my brew list and check out the "quickie" wines. They'll either be called "quickie" or will have a "Q" to identify them. You'll get a bottle of table wine quality. Not bad for about 30-40p per bottle and a 6-8 week wait.

Vieux Chateau Du Roi

My favourite brewing involves getting out into the lanes, onto the river banks and into the countryside. Foraging for ingredients of course. But winter is no time for that, there's nothing to gather, well nothing that I'm interesting in brewing with anyway. If you have a freezer then you can dig into it for stuff gathered earlier in the year, but if your freezer space doesn't allow for that then what? For me the solution is get the wallet out, buy in some ingredients or buy a kit.

Every winter I splash out on a good quality kit. The brand I like best is Beaverdale, they do a range so you can pick the wine you like. I've really enjoyed the Shiraz kit, infact tonight I opened one that was 3 years old and it was simply delicious. I'm not talking a £5 bottle quality either, this would have worth £15 no problems.

But they do more, last year I made a Vieux Chateau Du Pape, this is said to be a Chateau Neuf Du Pape clone. I opened a bottle about a week ago, it was just a year old, but it didn't disappoint. So I bought another one, just a gallon (my usual quantity). It weighs in at some like £13 for the kit, but you get 6 bottles that are worth every penny of that price ... each.

Just so you know what to look out for.

The beauty of these kits is that you just add water. Really. The juice is complete and it's the real deal, specially selected grapes and everything else you need to get the style of wine on the label. Yeast, oak chips etc. So you follow the clear instructions and you get cracking wine. I recommend that you try one, even if you're on a budget. Treat yourself, one single gallon kit per year. You won't regret it. Of course if you're already buying your favourite brand quality kit then you'll know what i mean, and you probably won't want to take a chance on another. Nothing wrong with that ... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.