Plum Blueberry Apple Jasmine Tea Wine
OK ok, so you might be thinking, WHAT THE HECK? WHY?! and the answer to that is, because it is GOOD and I made up the recipe too!This recipe makes a 3 gallon batch.
AS WITH ALL BREWING, STERILIZE, STERILIZE, STERLIZE!!
Ingredients:
Add first 5 ingredients to large
pot (I use a stainless steel pot with
stainless steel utensils). Do not allow
must to boil. Add the
blueberries and the
jasmine tea to a rather large straining bag. If you have no straining bag,
cheesecloth tied in a knot should work too (boiled first to kill
nasties if you like). Add the strainer bag to the pot. Heat long enough to thaw the
blueberries and extract color and flavor from the tea also (mixture will turn dark
bluish/
purple).
Take straining bag from
must. Allow the
mixture to cool to a siphon-able temperature (with lid on top of pot, gotta keep out those nasties or your
wine may turn to
vinegar!)
Siphon the must into a
carboy. Add 3 crushed
campden tablets to the must if you prefer (if you don't like
metabisulfite or have an
allergy to it, please don't add the campden tablets!) Cap the carboy with an
airlock.
Shake vigorously to
dissolve sugar into
must.
12 hours later pitch the
yeast. Shake (aireate) the must so the yeast gets some
oxygen to do its thang.
In 3-4 weeks, rack (re-siphon) the baby wine to a secondary
carboy. Add 2 cups plain white sugar and 1.25 cups
lactose to
warm water (heat until almost boiling, then take off heat and cool to tepid). Add quickly to secondary fermenter,
secure the
airlock and shake vigorously.
In another 3 or so weeks, the fermentation process (noted by lack of bubbling air coming up in the airlock) should have slowed to an almost stop if not complete stop. (At least it did when I made the wine!)
This wine can be enjoyed
young, or
aged. As with all wine, store in a dark, cool place, well sealed off from air in proper bottles or carboys until enjoyed!
You may add pectic enzyme if you are anticipating a
pectin haze, or don't and just try your luck. I've never had problems, but I usually use it too. I just didn't in this recipe.
In enjoying a glass of this quite young wine at the moment, I am noticing
nice body and slight
effervescence, perhaps caused by the adding of extra sugar during the secondary fermentation process. Wow. This is ACTUALLY GOOD WINE! I gave some away for
Christmas this year even. I serve it at room temperature, and even non-wine drinkers will drink it, so far.. except my future
in-laws who are wine snobs who think that wine can only be made from grapes. I am going to make them Rhubarb wine this
spring. :)