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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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