Recipe: Sorrel Wine, quickie

I've never tried making this wine before, but have long fancied giving it a try. As a result you'll have to wait a while for me to report back on how it turns out. I've stuck to two principles tho, first the quickie wine method. It's such a good base that it's pretty much a no brainer to use it when it comes to trying something new that is effectively an infusion. Using sorrel flowers need be little different to the method I use for elderflowers.

On that note the other principle is late addition, i.e. adding the flowers late. It's not only economical as you need less flowers (the flavour extraction is improved) but also less flavour is blown out of the must during the vigorous primary fermentation stage. So you maintain a greater range of flavours, the more volatile molecules staying dissolved.

Onwards then, the recipe!

Recipe: 3 Gallons

3 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3 Litres Apple Juice (Rio D'Oro)
2.1 Kg Sugar
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
3 Teaspoons Pectolase
1 Teaspoon Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
Yeast (GV11, Lees from Green Tea and Ginger)
50g Sorrel Flowers

OG 1075

Method:

It's the same as any generic quickie wine. Keep the gravity low (1070-1080 is fine), lower probably better. We're aiming to keep the alcohol content, acidity, body etc in balance. Which means rapid conditioning so you can drink your table wine quality homebrew in 8 weeks from start-up. If you up the alcohol content then you need to up everything else, and then you need to wait months or years before it's worth drinking.

So dissolve your sugar in a pan of water on the stove. While that's happening pour the fruit juices into your fermenting bin, add the acid, pectolase and yeast nutrient. Allow the sugar solution to cool then add to the fermenting bin. If you don't let it cool then you will probably kill the yeast in the fermenting bin. That's assuming you're doing a fermentation on the lees of the previous brew. If you're not then make sure the must is cool enough before adding the yeast. Make up to 3 gallons with cold water.

Give it all a good sloshy stir, record the specific gravity, cover. You probably won't need to stir it daily because the yeast in the lees will be a big healthy colony. So after a few days (5-7 ish) transfer your must to a secondary fermenter fitted with an airlock. Then add the sorrel flowers in a muslin bag. I put the bagged flowers into a pan containing a little  water and brought it to the boil. Then added a little sugar to make a solution roughly equal in gravity to the original must. Then added the bagged flowers and sugar solution to the must. It was roughly a litre of water with 230g of added sugar.

Now follow the normal procedure, remove flowers and rack to demi-johns after a week or so. Stabilise etc when the time is right.