Adventures in Wine Making
“Where there is no wine there is no love" - Euripides.
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water" - Galileo Galilei.
Wine making is pure magic, the kind akin to cooking. I make several types of wine each year, indeed it is one of the easiest things I make and yet perhaps the one that people think is the hardest, perhaps they too think it’s a kind of magic, one that’s out of their grasp, but I’m here to tell you everyone should try the art of fermentation at least once in their lives.
Now I know not everyone drinks alcohol, each to their own and all that jazz and for those of you who don’t then you should still have a go at making your own soft drinks. For every wine I make you can make a non-alcoholic version that tastes equally as good and the upside is you don’t have to wait months to enjoy them. For soft drinks you can simply follow the recipes but skip the fermentation process.
So, without further ado, let me share with you some of my favourite wine recipes.
Elderflower Wine
This one is perhaps my favourite wine to make and I always get good results with this. Elderflower is in season right now (I’m off out to pick some as soon as I’ve written this!) and is mostly seen as a weed. Take care not to over harvest though, you don’t want to strip away all of the flowers because then you don’t get berries later on in the year and I’m a big believer in only taking as much as you need.
For elderflower wine then, you will need:
Elderflowers, enough to fill a medium sized pan
The juice and zest of one lemon or orange
2 teaspoons of ordinary dried baker's yeast (you can buy special wine making yeast but if I’m honest, I can’t taste the difference between the two).
1kg of caster sugar (again you can use ordinary granulated sugar but it just takes a little longer to dissolve).
To begin, you will need to prepare the flowers by cutting away as much of the stem as possible. This can be a little tiresome with elderflowers because each spray has so many but it is worth the effort. You might be tempted to wash the flowers but don’t. Place them in a large pan and fill with water so that the flowers are just covered and bring to the boil before turning the heat down and allowing to simmer for around an hour. Don’t let the pan go dry and keep topping up with water. After, turn the heat off and leave the flowers to sit in the water for around a day or two. Strain into a large pan or sterilized bucket and add more water until you have 2 litres of liquid.
Fill a separate pan with two litres of water and add the sugar, heating the mixture slowly and stirring continuously until the sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon or orange zest and juice to this mixture then add the whole lot to the flower water. Now empty the yeast into a bowl and add a little water. When it starts bubbling, add it to the flower syrup and stir in. Then transfer the liquid into a demijohn and fit with an airlock. This allows the gases produced by the fermentation process to escape. You’ll know when it begins to ferment because it will bubble and foam. This can take anywhere between 2 and 6 months. When it’s finished fermenting (when it’s stopped bubbling and releasing gas) then it’s time to carefully syphon the wine into another demijohn or bottle, making sure you leave behind any sediment. Leave to stand again for a month and syphon off again. If you want to repeat this step then do so otherwise it’s time to bottle up your wine. Now the longer you leave the wine to mature, the better it will taste but I’m impatient and have to try at least one bottle! Be warned though, this wine can be pretty potent and if it is too strong then you can dilute it by adding lemonade or sparkling water to your glass. Enjoy!
Blackberry and Elderberry Wine
The process of wine making is pretty much the same no matter the type of wine however when making wine using fruits, there is a slight adaptation concerning how you prepare the fruit. Blackberry and elderberry wine is the perfect summer berry combination and spending the day out of doors picking berries is a great way to get the family out in the fresh air. To make this wine you will need:
2kg of blackberries and elderberries
The juice and zest of a lemon or orange
1kg of castor sugar
2 teaspoons of baker’s yeast
To prepare the berries, tidy them up by removing any stalks but do not wash. Place in a large pan with 2 litres of water and bring to the boil before turning the heat down. Allow to simmer and as it does so, with a spatula or back of a serving spoon or ladle, agitate the berries and press against the side of the pan. Allow to cool and then strain into a large pan or sterilized bucket using a clean piece of muslin to catch the berries. Squeeze as much juice from the berries as possible and leave the liquid to stand for a day or two then simply follow the processes from the recipe above by then preparing the sugar syrup and getting the yeast ready.
Now in some recipes you might see them adding the fruit to the demijohn as well but I really don’t like to do this. I tried it once and it went mouldy and so have never bothered again!
Ginger Wine
I love ginger wine! Use fresh ginger for this recipe and prepare it by peeling around two inches of fresh root and roughly chopping. You can add more for a spicier brew or use less if you like a mild taste. Pop the chopped ginger into a pan with 2 litres of water and follow the steps given in the elderflower recipe.
Apple Pie Cyser
This is basically apple flavoured honey wine and it can be quite sweet so you might want to dilute the finished product with lemonade. Cysers can be more complicated than normal wine making but this recipe I use is an adapted one, mostly because I don’t like fussy recipes and it still tastes good. To make apple pie cyser you will need:
4 litres of apple juice
1kg sugar
500g of honey
2 teaspoons of baker’s yeast
Cinnamon (either 2 sticks or a teaspoon of ground ginger)
Half a teaspoon of ground ginger
Pop half of your apple juice into a pan and heat gently, adding the sugar and honey until it has dissolved. Pour into your demijohn. Heat the rest of your juice gently until it is warm, then prepare your yeast as in the previous recipes and add this to the juice along with the cinnamon and ginger. Add this to the demijohn containing your sugared juice and give it a little jig so that it all mixes together, Seal with the airlock and leave until fermentation has finished before syphoning into a clean jar. Leave to stand for a week or two again before bottling up. Enjoy!
Flavoured Spirits
As well as making wine, you can also flavour spirits. One of the most common flavoured spirits is sloe gin. Sloes are the edible berries of the blackthorn bush, however, as edible as they might be they are incredibly sour and so are perhaps best used in cooking and in flavouring alcohol. Collect your berries in late summer and pop them into your freezer. Then place them in a large bottle and cover with gin. Leave for about three months, shaking every day then strain the gin into a clean bottle. Sloe vodka is also good.
The process is pretty much the same no matter the fruits or spirits used. Raspberry vodka is delicious as is strawberry vodka but my favourite of all is cherry brandy. The good thing about creating flavoured spirits is that you can experiment with different spirits and fruits. Some people may think this is a waste of fruit but it’s worth mentioning that you can use fruits that are slightly past their best, not off, but perhaps too soft to make pleasant eating. In this way then, flavoured spirits make the most of your harvest.
So there you have it, some of my favourite alcoholic home brews. Why not try your hand at wine making, you might just be pleasantly surprised. Cheers!
“In wine there's truth" - Pliny the Elder.
“Wine is the only artwork you can drink" - Luis Fernando Olaverri.
EMMA KATHRYN
My name is Emma Kathryn, my path is a mixture of traditional European witchcraft, vodou and obeah, a mixture representing my heritage. I live in the sticks with my family where I read tarot, practice witchcraft and drink copious amounts of coffee.
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