Ginger Wine 2016 - The Making Of ...

In choosing to make ginger wine, I may have created a monster. The demijohn looks as if it holds a nascent life form, waiting to burst forth and devour everything in its path. But more of that later.

It's Alive

I wasn't sure what wine I would make this January, it being the traditional month to experiment. Tomato and Carrot were both possibilities. The Fforde Greene Continental Supermaket, however, had a small selection of manky carrots and a large selection of expensive tomatoes. Not having made Ginger Wine for some time (and being a huge fan of the Whisky Mac) I decided to play safe (or so I thought). I bought a large amount of ginger, four lemons and a pound of sultanas.

The raw ingredients of a whisky mac

On past occasions when making ginger wine, I have never thought the end result gingery enough. This time I weighed out a five ounce piece of root ginger, which is twice what I have used before, skinned it and sliced it very finely. This went into my bucket. I then finely peeled the lemons, trying to avoid the pith, and put this peel in as well. Next I minced the sultanas, added these and poured over three and a half pints of boiling water. I squeezed all four lemons and added the juice. This was all done on Sunday, 17 January.

On Monday evening I boiled another three and a half pints of water and added this with two and a half pounds of sugar - my last batch of ginger wine used 3 lbs and was too sweet. Then, on Tuesday morning I added the yeast and a teaspoon each of nutrient and pectolase. The wine sat in the bucket until Friday, giving very little evidence of any fermentation. I decided that this was a stuck wine and that Something Needed to Be Done. So, I put the liquid into one demijohn, throwing out the solids, and put a cork and airtrap in. I then started a new yeast going in half a pint of water and 3 oz of sugar and put this in another (stoppered) demijohn, and left both overnight.

Ginger slime making its bid for freedom

That night the ginger wine decided it was going to ferment afterall, and was having none of this "being trapped in a demijohn" nonsense. It has put out a massive froth, which has slimed its way through the airtrap, and there are brown small clumps floating around. I will throw out the new yeast solution (at a cost of £1.50) and watch this wine carefully, in case it decides to murder us in our beds.

If you want to see how this wine turned out, click here