Making my 2025 Lemon Wine

[Rojoguio]

Totally prepared for the deep freeze. Got 10 pounds of pork shoulder to grind up for tamales, more pizza dough proofing, boats to work on in the shop, and now Lemon wine to ferment.

First I scrub the very ripe, plump, Meyer Lemons. Our Citrus gets a little black something on it during the wet season, comes right off, but I'm not going to Zest a dirty Lemon.



Nice and yellow now. So after cleaning up all the water drips from the Lemon bath I get a new dish rag out then setup for Zesting & Squeezing.




I've started Zesting the Lemons here, I zest them all before juicing.



While this is going on 1-1/2 gallons of Distilled water is warming on the stove with 9 pounds of sugar mixed in.



The Juicer we bought really gets all the seeds out catching them for easy cleaning. I put all the fruit hulls in the freezer in a Bucket till the garbage runs.



I have the Syrup added along with all the Zest & Lemon Juice.



I have not made Lemon Wine without the Tea but like the English Breakfast Tea the best in my wine.



Chopping a box or two of Golden Raisins is kinda a pain as they stick to everything but again I like the quality of fermentation I get using them. As far as eating fresh when they taste as good as they do they must contribute to the overall wine taste in a positive way.

 

[Rojoguio]

Dropped in the essentials before the Campden Tablets.



Here the Must is ready to move to the Fermentation area till tomorrow evening when I pitch the yeast.

 

[Rojoguio]

Here is a link to the Owari Satsuma that I made 10 days ago. I will blend both of these wines together before bottling. Makes a outstanding summer drink.

 

[KaptKanga]

Here is a link to the Owari Satsuma that I made 10 days ago. I will blend both of these wines together before bottling. Makes a outstanding summer drink.

wow there is a lot of activity happening there, be very interested in the final result. I made a batch of limoncello a while back using 55% vodka and raw honey as a sweetener....pure ambrosia. I get a lot of lemons on my tree so will try to replicate your wine. I use oolong tea.

 

[Rojoguio]

wow there is a lot of activity happening there, be very interested in the final result. I made a batch of limoncello a while back using 55% vodka and raw honey as a sweetener....pure ambrosia. I get a lot of lemons on my tree so will try to replicate your wine. I use oolong tea.

I've found I didn't need the amount of golden raisins I was using. 1 box for a 3 gallon batch works great. The Lemon was racked into a 3 gallon carboy yesterday. When I make a citrus wine the starting SG is around 1.130-1.135. I use a yeast hydration booster with a 1/2tsp of sugar to get the yeast foaming before tempering with the must twice. Once that's done I pour the yeast started to one side of the primary fermenter and let it further acclimate to the harsh environment. I always get a churning fermentation that way. I stirred too soon once and my fermentation crashed. As far as the tea used I have always used a black tea. Never thought about using Oolong, I do like that tea a lot.