# Ginger wine recipe #2



## St Allie

This wine is quite strong and should be used as a tonic. serve as a warming welcome to guests on a cold night, or drink a glassful when you feel a cold coming on or have a sore throat. It is not suitable as a tablewine.

1 gallon recipe.

3oz/ 75grams root ginger minced
3 lemons
1 lb /450grams raisins
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
7 pints/ 4 litres boiling water
all purpose wine yeast and nutrient
3lb/ 1.35kilos demerara sugar
campden tablets.

put the ginger through the grater on the food processor.take the zest off the l;emons and squeeze the juice and set aside. Wash and chop raisins. put ginger, lemon rind and raisins into a bin with the cayenne and pour on the boiling water. stir the mixture thoroughly and cover, leave to cool. Add the lemon juice, activated yeast and nutrient . Loosely cover the bin and ferment on the pulp for 7 days keeping pulp submerged. strain out, press and discard the solids.Stir in one third of the sugar. record SG .Fill your carboy and any excess into a bottle for top ups later. Ferment for a week, remove half the wine from the carboy .. add another third of the sugar .. dissolve and then add back to the carboy.Record SG. After a further week add the last third of the sugar. Record SG. leave the wine to finish fermentation, then siphon wine off the sediment. Top up from the bottle, add one crushed campden tablet bung tight and store wine til bright. Store wine for 6 months before bottling and six months in the bottle before drinking.

posted by Allie from her book 'country wines and cordials'


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## St Allie

This came out very well.. and I will make it again.

Made a 3 gallon batch..varied the recipe slightly as below..

used twice as much root ginger as the recipe required
added eight ripe mashed bananas to the bin.
used a champagne yeast
used one third dark muscovado sugar and one third demerara sugar
replaced one third of the sugar with an equal quantity of honey.
and beyond the recommended amount I added half a cup of sugar to the fermenting wine fortnightly til the yeast gave up and died.

I wanted a sweet ginger wine for cold winter nights .. it's not overly sweet but not dry and rocket fuel either!

Allie


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## arcticsid

Sounds great G, gonna have to try it. I have seen other recipes that call for adding the sugar at various stages of the process. Is there a particular reason not to add it all at once?
Troy


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## St Allie

Because it is so much sugar, if added all at once it will overpower the yeasts ability to cope with it all.. so you add it in stages instead. Adding in stages also allows you to drive up the alcohol level of the wine by coaxing the yeast to keep going. Taking the SG each time will enable you to work out the final abv at the end.

Allie


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## arcticsid

Fresh root? Peeled?
Sounds really nice, I really enjoy ginger, and I like the addition of the nanas, I am assuming this is as much for body as it is for taste. I really want to make some of this, as you know I have plenty of winter nights here, I may need to TRIPLE the recipe. LOL 
Troy


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## St Allie

I didn't peel it, just chucked the whole root through the grater on the food processor. Yes bananas for body.. you can add glycerine at the end too if you feel it needs more smoothness. however I don't think you'd really be able to decide on the glycerine til you've stored it for 6 months before bottling. Make a 5 gallon batch next time.


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## St Allie

Solids are dropping out quite quickly. Have reracked this morning and topped up with whiskey. Am going to bulk age and top up with whiskey at each racking. Expect to bottle it about aug-sept. 

Ready for xmas!

Allie


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## Ian_Scott

St Allie said:


> Solids are dropping out quite quickly. Have reracked this morning and topped up with whiskey. Am going to bulk age and top up with whiskey at each racking. Expect to bottle it about aug-sept.
> 
> Ready for xmas!
> 
> Allie



You've spelled it "whiskey" with an 'e' - so are you using Irish Whiskey? What whiskey are you using? This is giving me some ideas! Personally, I prefer Bushmills Black Bush which is always found in my flask when fly fishing - but it might be interesting to experiment with a variety of Scotch and Whiskies.


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## St Allie

ahh.. you spotted it... ( I thought no one could see me)

I am born welsh. Irish, Scots and Scouse parentage. You really don't want to split hairs with the Celts. Tomorrow I may paint myself blue and claim your house as my historical rights.

Ensure you have a great supply of beads and blankets to trade... I'm fussy...

Anyway....Where I live... Whiskey is spelled with an 'e'. 

Allie


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## BurbankJoe

*Use for young ginger wine*

Used 2 gallons white grape juice in lieu of raisins, doubled ginger and brewed five gallon batch. Ginger Mac cocktail with blended scotch 50/50 young ginger wine is a nice summer cooler. Cheers.


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## JeanVin

Has any one thought of making this into a sparkling wine? It wouldn't be nice warmed up but might be better enjoyed ice cold and in the summer...


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## anakeimai

Hi chaps, this is not a useful comment except to say I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your creative additions to what sounded like a fairly standard recipe to start with. 

I think you're all quite mad, but I can't wait to have a go ;-)


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## anakeimai

Hope someone can offer me some guidance on this one - I followed the ginger wine recipe (above) as accurately as I could (so far minus the whisky), and as per one of the suggestions I added 1lb sugar first week, then second week same, 1lb honey the third week. After less than 4 weeks however, the wine has emphatically stopped fermenting. I'm not used to this happening - did I do something wrong?


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## cocroach

Anakeimai, I'm relatively new to winemaking, but from what I understand, there could be a few causes - not being in the ideal temperature range, too much sugar, or it might have to do with the raisins you used. If the raisins have preservatives in them, it can result in fermentation that either doesn't start up or stops part-way through. I only learned this was relatively common problem recently. Fortunately the Ginger wine I made, very similar to the recipe listed in the post, turned out perfectly. I also rinsed the raisins I used, as apparently this helps to remove some of the preservatives. If you do a search for raisins and preservative, I'm sure you'll come across more information on this.

Maybe others have suggestions that might be able to help you nail down cause.


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## chasemandingo

Also 3 pounds of sugar added to one gallon of must would get you a wine of around 17% abv if fermented to dryness. If you didnt use a yeast strain with a high alcohol tolerance your yeast may have drowned in their own waste! Im a noob myself though so take what I say with a grain of salt.


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## anakeimai

Hi Team,

Thanks for your help so far. I should have asked: is there any way to resurrect what I've done? Can I add something else to make sure it's fermented properly, or have I failed utterly on this occasion?


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## brewski09

anakeimai said:


> Hi Team,
> 
> Thanks for your help so far. I should have asked: is there any way to resurrect what I've done? Can I add something else to make sure it's fermented properly, or have I failed utterly on this occasion?



What yeast did you use? As someone else pointed out, it may not be tolerant to the high alcohol content. I would probably try making a starter with some sugar, water, and yeast nutrient, pitching a champagne yeast (I think the red star premier cuvée has an 18% ABV tolerance and also gives me a nice clean flavor) and just see if it works. Can't hurt at this point, right? Good luck.


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## anakeimai

So is there no way to rescue what I have (I can't just bang in some more yeast??)


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## YourCaptain

I had the same problem with my ginger wine. When I removed the mash including the raisins, it started fermenting again. It's now fermenting away in the secondary very happy. But it did nothing while those raisins were in there.


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## chasemandingo

Cant wait to start a batch of this soon! Gonna be a great sipper during the cold weather months!


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## chasemandingo

Got my ingredients. 30 oz. ginger root, 5 lbs dark brown sugar, 4.5 lbs demerera, 3 lbs turbinado, and 4 lbs. of white sugar to make up the difference. Not gonna use lemons but just add a tsp. of acid blend per gallon. Also got 20 oz. of Zante Currants and 8 ripe bananas.


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## chasemandingo

Now need to decide between scotch, cognac, rye for fortification


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## chasemandingo

So my wine ended up having 3 lbs dark brown sugar, 2 lbs light brown sugar, 3 lbs demerera and 2 lbs white sugar IN 5 gallons wine for an O.G. of 1.11. That was on 10/4. Checked the gravity this a.m. was at 1.064 so I added the remainder of the energizer and added 3 lbs dark brown sugar and 2 lbs demerera TO the five gallons which brought the gravity up to 1.09. Looks about perfect. Will rack when it is close to 1.02 and feed some more demerera until it gives up topping off with some kind of hard liquor along the way.


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## Jericurl

chasemandingo said:


> Now need to decide between scotch, cognac, rye for fortification




Ohh...now I think rye would be quite interesting.
But then again, I'm partial to a good sazerac...


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## chasemandingo

I know! However, I know of no generic rye so a fifth is gonna run me at least 30-40 dollars!!!! Maybe it is worth it. Canadian Club is a nice smooth whiskey with a high rye content and is not too expensive but seems too pedestrian for this batch.


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## Jericurl

chasemandingo said:


> I know! However, I know of no generic rye so a fifth is gonna run me at least 30-40 dollars!!!! Maybe it is worth it. Canadian Club is a nice smooth whiskey with a high rye content and is not too expensive but seems too pedestrian for this batch.



lol....we are such snobs!

But, if you are making a 5 or 6 gallon batch of this, then adding a 40 dollar high quality ingredient adds an average of $1.50 per bottle.
It's worth a $1.50 to have a kick *** drink, don't you think?


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## chasemandingo

True. Just hope I'll be able to steal a few oz. to make a nice Manhattan!


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## chasemandingo

So I got me the rye......gonna be so good in a year from now lol


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## Jericurl

Now I'm going to have to try this....


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## chasemandingo

Well only I could mess up a good thing. I tried to push my EC1118 too hard. I thought I could get 20% out of them and had my wine fizzle out around 1.02. It is hovering at 1.042 and ~17%. That is gonna be way too sweet for anyone to drink!!! I'm probably gonna have to bulk age this stuff till I can make another batch and shoot for ~17% at 1.00 and blend them. Also, my temps have been in the 60's here in Ohio so I may have to buy a brew belt soon lol. Gonna give it a few more days. If there is no change in the gravity it is going in a carboy.


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## chasemandingo

In the carboy.....stalled at 1.042.....tastes boozy but according to my calcs should only be at 16 percent....I think I may be doing something wrong like not adjusting for temp


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## chasemandingo

1.042 way too sweet I'm gonna feed it a bottle of scotch as I emptied the rye into my belly lol....might make a dry batch to blend as well


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## brewski09

Warm it up to the low 70's for more attenuation. Also, you can try a strong starter of champagne yeast to try to complete attenuation. I've seen this happen in Ohio during the fall before when I lived there.


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## Jericurl

Could you beat the crap out of it with a drill mixer and then dump in a super starter of yeast and see if that takes it all the way home?


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## chasemandingo

Too late I used my new all in one wine pump to rack to a carboy.....I'm gonna feed it a bottle of scotch and let it age a bit while I mix up another drier batch lol


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