Recipe: Green Tea & Ginger Wine

Well I resolved to brew a lot this month, and so far i'm keeping up. I started this wine last night and pitched the yeast tonight. It's an old favourite, but with a twist. As much as the previous versions we're all delicious i reckon it can still be improved. I know it doesn't have to be perfect to be excellent, so i'm doing anything radically different, just tweaks. You can see previous versions on my index page here my brew list (and there's also a link on the right if you're new here and need a pointer).

Recipe, 5 Gallons

5 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
5 Litres Apple Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3.45 kg Sugar
200g Green Tea (Sencha)
200g Root Ginger
Zest of 3 Lemons and 2 Limes
5 Teaspoons Citric Acid
5 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme (pectolase)
4 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (tronozymol)
Yeast (Gervin 11, GV11, formerly known as GV D)

OG 1064 (see method section below)

Couple of ingredients piccies,
first the green tea (yup splashed out on the posh stuff!)

... and second the zest, lemons and limes, the knife evidence of removing the pith that the potato peeler left behind. painstaking work, but worth it.

Method:

Put a pan of water on the stove, a gallon sized pan or bigger. Add the sugar and dissolve it on the heat. While that's on the go put 100g of green tea in each of two muslin bags and tie them up. Use 2 bags rather than one to give the leaves plenty of room. Tip the hot sugar solution into your primary fermenting bin, then cover it. Now refill the pan, put it back on the hot stove, get it good and hot and then chuck in the muslin bags of green tea. Bring to the boil then turn off heat.

While the tea is coming to the boil add the 10 litres of fruit juices.  Now add the tea, but keep the muslin tea-bags in the pan. Re-cover the brew to be. Refill the pan with water and make another brew on the stove. Rinse out the cartons and add rinsings to the fermenting bin. Then add the second batch of tea, including the tea-bags.

This will all be very warm, even hot. So don't even think about adding the yeast. Cover it up. Next day add the pectolase, citric acid (or lemon juice) and yeast nutrient. Stir sloshily to get plenty of air into the must, yeast needs oxygen to multiply (bud) and that's the most important thing for it to do initially. It'll form a good sized colony quickly and help to ensure it's the dominant yeast. Measure the gravity and adjust with sugar solution or water to make it up to 5 gallons and your desired strength. And then and the yeast.

My gravity was 1064 but not quite 5 gallons. I decided to go ahead with pitching the yeast anyway. When i transfer to secondary fermentation i'll make the volume up to 5 gallons with a number of sugar solution additions. I'll be aiming to up the gravity by about 20 points (equivalent to an OG of about 1084) which will produce a wine of 12-12.5% ABV.

After a few days finely chop or grate the root ginger, and zest the citrus. Add both zest and ginger to another muslin bag and drop them into your secondary fermentation vessel. transfer the happily fizzing must to secondary fermentation under airlock. And proceed as usual from here. i.e. racking, degassing, stabilising at the appropriate times.

Discussion:

I've decided that i want a pretty robust and full flavoured wine with texture. But i don't want a sweet strong wine. The late addition of ginger should ensure a proper unmistakable ginger kick. And the zest should give a slight oily liquer-like texture as well as flavour. I'm using lemon and lime because i think they'll enhance the ginger, and the mix will hopefully add to the flavour mix. I do want this complex, but not confusing, and clean but complex is something i'm very interested in achieving. You could try other zests, if i were to try another it would be grapefruit. I think orange would be confusing, but that's just personal. Ginger and orange do go well together as flavours. I splashed out on some expensive green tea because i want to capture a little more flavour.

Tannin or oak chips? hmmm, good question. This will be a wine that can take either, but probably not both unless you halve the usual quantity of each. I think i'd steer clear of doing both tho, it'll be complex enough. Both will add astringency, the straight tannin more so. I think i'll add some oak chips, cos i have an open packet. It's not a 5 gallon dose, but that suits me, adding a subtle little extra will be just about right. I don't anticipate drinking this for 2 years.

The yeast is chosen because it's acid reducing. This refers to malic acid that will be in the apple juice. It's a harsh tasting acid and while the ginger may mask it i don't want to chance it. Gervin 11 (GV11 for short) is the yeast of choice. It used to be known as Gervin D (GV D), but has undergone a name change. Muntons (the supplier in the UK) assures me that it's the same yeast, even tho it doesn't say "acid reducing" on the sachet. It's also a thoroughly reliable yeast, quick starter, and low foaming.

Juices ... you could use grape juice alone, but make sure to use 10 litres. The juice content needs to be 10 litres in 5 gallons. If you do then your wine will be very similar. It may even clear a little faster. It'll probably be a little cleaner tasting, the apple juice adds some other flavour to the finished wine. The results are barely distinguishable, but i slightly favour the flavour of the one with both apple and grape juice. It's very marginal tho and if this is your first stab at the wine you'll probably not notice anyway. This wine is different, but delicious, and that will be your lingering first impression. Especially if you drink it with spicy food. This is a must try, especially anything with both chilli and ginger in it. It is the perfect drink for this sort of food. Try it and see, i reckon it's better than beer with a curry. But if you can get your hands on some Blandford Fly (a real ale) then you have to try that too!