Holywell-cum-Needingworth Beer and Wine Society: RECIPES

Here is a collection of winemaking recipes gathered together by George and other members. These have all appeared in past newsletters at one time or another. Members are invited to send in any favourite recipes they would like to share.
Clicking on the heading will take you to the appropriate section.

Christmas and Yuletide Recipes

Christmas Punch

Ingredients
Red wine - 1 bottle
Fresh lemon - 1 only
Sugar - 100 g
Honey - 1 tbs
Cloves - 10 only
Root ginger - 1 large piece

Method
Pour the wine into a saucepan, add the thinly pared rind of the lemon (well chopped)the honey, cloves and root ginger (well bruised) and the sugar.
Place on the heat a gently warm to temperature of no more than 60ºC. Hold it there for a few minutes, add the juice from the lemon.
Strain off the solids and serve in heated glasses.

Negus

Ingredients
Large fresh lemon - 1 only
Whole cloves - 6
Small stick of cinnamon - 1
Blade of mace - 1
Sweet red wine - 1 bottle
Sugar - 85 g (3 oz)

Method
Wipe lemon and insert cloves. Slowly roast in a casserole; low over for 10 - 15 minutes till golden brown. Warm wine to 60ºC, add sugar and spices and the sliced lemon. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Strain and serve.

Bishop

Ingredients
Large sweet orange - 1 only
Whole cloves - 12
Red table wine - 1 bottle
Sugar - to taste

Method
Wipe the orange and insert the cloves through the skin. Place in a small casserole, cover with the lid and roast slowly in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes - until it is golden brown.
Remove the orange and cut into six or eight pieces. Place these in a saucepan with the wine and gently to 60ºC.
Hold for a few minutes. Strain into a warm jug and add sugar to taste. Serve immediately.

Wassail Bowl

Ingredients
Apple Wine - One bottle
Cooking apples - 3 small
Powdered ginger - 1 level teaspoon
grated nutmeg - to taste
Sugar - 85g

Method
Wash, core and bake the apples until they are soft enough to mash. Remove the skins, mash and mix in the ginger, sugar and grated nutmeg (enough to taste).
Heat the wine gently (60ºC max) and pour it over the mash. Stir it all and serve in heated glasses.
Waes Hael is old English meaning " be of good health "

Wine from Fruit

Apricot Table Wine

Ingredients
Apricot pulp - 1 Kg (1 can or £2.80 in market)
White grape juice concentrate - 250 g
White sugar - 700 g
Tartaric acid - 2 tsp
Grape tannin - ½ tsp
Water - 3 litres
Pectic enzyme and Campden tablets
Yeast and nutrient

Method
Thoroughly cook and pulp fresh apricots or pulp canned fruit, and poor into a mashing bin. Pour in the water then add the acid, tannin, pectic enzyme and a Campden tablet. Cover and leave for 24 hours.
Stir in the grape juice, nutrient and yeast. Ferment on the pulp for 4 days.
Strain out the pulp and stir in the sugar. When fully dissolved, pour into a fermentation jar. Top up with cold water, fit airlock and ferment out.
Rack into a sterile jar and keep for three months before bottling.
This wine matures quickly and is a delightful light summer wine - worth making in large quantities.
Gooseberries (1 kg) can be substituted for the apricots.

Rhubarb, Banana and Date " Sherry "

Ingredients
Prepared rhubarb stalks - 2 kg
Fresh lemons (small) - 2
Ripe bananas - 450 g
Chopped dates - 225 g
Grape juice concentrate - 500 g
Sugar - 900 g
Gypsum - 28 g
Cream of tartar - 14 g
Water - 3½ litres
Pectic enzyme and Campden tablets
Sherry yeast and nutrients

Method
Top, tail, wipe and chop the rhubarb and place in a mashing bin. Peel and mash the bananas, chop up the dates, discarding any stones. Thinly peel the lemons and add all these to the bin.
Pour boiling water over the fruit and, when cool, stir in the gypsum, cream of tartar, pectic enzyme, one Campden tablet and the expressed juice of the lemons. Cover the bin and leave for 24 hours.
Stir in the grape juice, activated yeast and nutrient and ferment on the pulp for five days, pressing down the fruit cap twice daily.
Strain out and press the solids, stir in half the sugar and continue fermentation in the covered bin.
After seven days stir the rest of the sugar, pour the must into a fermentation jar, fit an airlock and continue fermentation.
When fermentation stops, stir the wine and check the S.G. If necessary, stir in more sugar to raise the reading to 1.010 or a little above.
Rack and store with the airlock for at least a year. Check regularly to make sure airlock has water in it. Otherwise bugs will find their way in!
This wine will continue to improve for the next two years - so do be patient!

Fruit Wine from a Tin

Method
Pour syrup into a bucket. Mash the fruit in a plastic bucket. Dissolve sugar in boiling water and pour over fruit.
Cool and add acids (Citric/Malic/Tartaric), tannin and pectic enzyme. Stir and leave for 24 hours. Stir and pour the whole lot into the fermenter. And add yeast and nutrient. Leave space for expansion!
Fit airlock and leave in a warm place for 10 days - shaking daily. Strain off liquid in a fresh fermenter, top up with water and ferment out.
The secret for a quick brew is to keep the fermenter in a warm place aid the chemical activity.

Wines from Fruit Juice Cartons

Cranberry wine

Ingredients

3 litres Cranberry juice (Tesco’s)
: 500g Sugar (White castor)
: 3 small bananas
: Yeast
: Yeast Stabiliser

Warm 500g sugar in ½ litre of water in a pan on the stove until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is clear.

Boil three small bananas (chopped), with skins on, in 1 litre of water (place the banana’s in a muslin bag in the water) for ½ hour. Boil until the bananas are soft and mushy. Squeeze the muslin bag into the dissolved sugar water to extract as much juice as possible into the water, Pour the banana infused water into the demijohn.

Pour 2 litres of cranberry juice into a sterilised demijohn and then add the ½ litre of dissolved sugar/ banana juice in water.

Top up the demijohn to just below the ridge with the additional cranberry juice. Allow the water to cool to approximately 23 degrees centigrade. Add the yeast stabiliser and 2 teaspoons of yeast powder (Young’s).

Place the airlock in the neck of the demijohn and place in a warm place. When the vigorous fermentation has settled down top up the demijohn with cranberry juice to just below the neck of the demijohn.

When fermentation has ceased, decant the liquid into another sterilised demijohn and leave to settle for a month or so.

Add finings at an appropriate time for the wine to clear.

Once cleared decant the wine into wine bottles and cork.

Wine should be ready to drink in a month or so.

Recipe supplied by James Wigglesworth

Wine from the Hedgerow

Elderberry table wine

Ingredients
Freshly picked Elderberries - 900 g (2 lb)
Ripe Bananas - 250 g (9 oz)
Red grape concentrate - 250 g (9 oz)
Sugar - 900 g (2lb)
Tartaric acid - 10 g (2 tsp)
Water - 4 litres (7 pints)
Pectic enzyme & Campden tablets
Bordeaux yeast & nutrient

Elderberry dessert wine

Ingredients
Freshly picked Elderberries - 900 g (2 lb)
Chopped raisins - 450 g (1 lb)
Ripe Bananas - 250 g (9 oz)
Dried Apricots - 125 g (4½ oz)
Grape concentrate - 250 g (9 oz)
Sugar - 700 g (1½ lb)
Tartaric acid - 15 g (½ oz)
Water - 4 litres (7 pints)
Pectic enzyme & Campden tablets
Port yeast & nutrient

Method for both wines
Boil fruit together. Cool, add Pectic enzyme and crushed Campden tablet. Leave for 24 hours. Stir in grape juice, yeast and nutrient. Ferment 4 days (7 days for dessert wine). Strain out fruit, add sugar (half for dessert) and ferment under airlock. Add remaining sugar in stages for dessert wine. Rack and add Campden tablet. Store till bright.

Wine from Vegetables

Parsnip wines

Parsnip & Orange " Sherry "

Parsnips - 1.75 kg (4 lbs)
Seville oranges - 4 only
Concentrated grape juice - 250 g (9 oz)
Sugar - 1¼ kg (2¾ oz)
Water - 3½ litres 6 pints)
Sherry yeast & nutrient -
Pectic enzyme

Parsnip & Fig " Madeira "

Parsnip - 2 kg (4½ lbs)
Dried figs - 225 g (½ lb)
Raisins - 450 g (1 lb)
Brown sugar - 1.1 kg (2½ lbs)
Citric acid - 14 g (½ oz)
Grape tannin - ½ tsp
Water 4 litres - (7 pints)
Madeira yeast & nutrient

Method
The method is essentially the same for the above:- Scrub the parsnips, dice and boil. Strain off to get the basic liquor and add the remaining ingredients. Ferment in a bin with some of the sugar for a few days to avoid a mess with the early vigorous fermentation. Strain off again and add the rest of the sugar before placing in a fermentation jar. Leave to ferment out, rack and leave till bright. Rack again and store for six months before bottling. Where other solids are used, include them at the boiling stage.
It really is quite easy this wine making!

Unusual Wines

Coffee wine (1)

Ingredients
Coffee essence - 125 g
Concentrated white grape juice - 500 g
White sugar - 1 kg
Citric acid - 10 g
Grape tannin - ½ tsp
Water - 3½ litres
Yeast and nutrient

Method
Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a fermentation jar. Fit airlock and ferment out.
Rack and add crushed Campden tablet. Sweeten to taste.
Mature for six months.

Coffee Wine (2)

Ingredients
Instant coffee - 1 level tablespoon
Sugar - 1.25 kilos
Citric acid - 15 g
Water - up to 4.5 litres
Yeast and nutrient

Put coffee, sugar and citric acid into a mixing bowl and pour on 2 litres of boiling water. Stir until dissolved.
Allow to cool and pour into a fermenting jar. Add water to bring the level to the shoulder of the jar. Make a yeast starter with yeast and nutrient in tepid water. Cover and allow to stand until ‘foamy’ - about an hour in the warm. Pour the starter into the fermenting jar and fit an airlock.
After five days, top up the jar to the neck and allow to ferment out.
There should not be much residue but it is worth racking once to get a clear result.
Bottle when ready.

Mead

Ingredients
English Honey - 2 kg
Orange - 1
Lemon - 1
Water - 1 gallon
Yeast (all purpose) & nutrient

Method
Put the honey into some of the water and bring to the boil; stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When all the honey is dissolved, pour off into a plastic container and add the rest of the water, the juice from the orange and lemon. When cool, add the yeast and a good nutrient. This is needed because honey is deficient in essential minerals.
Pour into a fermentation jar and fit an airlock. Ferment in warm conditions because Mead takes longer than most country wines.
When fermentation is complete, rack into a clean vessel.

Melomel

Ingredients
Blended honey - 1.360 g (3 lbs)
Blackcurrant syrup - 340 g (12 ozs)
Tartaric acid - 15 g (½ oz)
Water - approx 3 litres (5 pints)
Nutrient - 1 tsp
Yeast
Campden tablet

Method
Dissolve the honey in warm water and, when cool, stir in the other ingredients. Pour into a fermentation jar, fit an air lock and ferment out.
Rack into a clean jar, add one Campden tablet and store in a cool place until the Melomel is clear. Rack again and store for six months.
Sweeten to taste. and serve as a social wine.

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	Homepage	Club History	Forthcoming Events	Contact Us
Newsletter Gallery Recipes Past Events Links	Members' Own Recipes Here is a collection of winemaking recipes gathered together by George and other members. These have all appeared in past newsletters at one time or another. Members are invited to send in any favourite recipes they would like to share. Clicking on the heading will take you to the appropriate section. Christmas and Yuletide Recipes Wine from Fruit Wines from Fruit Juice Cartons Wine from the Hedgerow Wine from Vegetables Unusual wines Christmas and Yuletide Recipes Christmas Punch Ingredients Red wine - 1 bottle Fresh lemon - 1 only Sugar - 100 g Honey - 1 tbs Cloves - 10 only Root ginger - 1 large piece Method Pour the wine into a saucepan, add the thinly pared rind of the lemon (well chopped)the honey, cloves and root ginger (well bruised) and the sugar. Place on the heat a gently warm to temperature of no more than 60ºC. Hold it there for a few minutes, add the juice from the lemon. Strain off the solids and serve in heated glasses. Negus Ingredients Large fresh lemon - 1 only Whole cloves - 6 Small stick of cinnamon - 1 Blade of mace - 1 Sweet red wine - 1 bottle Sugar - 85 g (3 oz) Method Wipe lemon and insert cloves. Slowly roast in a casserole; low over for 10 - 15 minutes till golden brown. Warm wine to 60ºC, add sugar and spices and the sliced lemon. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Strain and serve. Bishop Ingredients Large sweet orange - 1 only Whole cloves - 12 Red table wine - 1 bottle Sugar - to taste Method Wipe the orange and insert the cloves through the skin. Place in a small casserole, cover with the lid and roast slowly in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes - until it is golden brown. Remove the orange and cut into six or eight pieces. Place these in a saucepan with the wine and gently to 60ºC. Hold for a few minutes. Strain into a warm jug and add sugar to taste. Serve immediately. Wassail Bowl Ingredients Apple Wine - One bottle Cooking apples - 3 small Powdered ginger - 1 level teaspoon grated nutmeg - to taste Sugar - 85g Method Wash, core and bake the apples until they are soft enough to mash. Remove the skins, mash and mix in the ginger, sugar and grated nutmeg (enough to taste). Heat the wine gently (60ºC max) and pour it over the mash. Stir it all and serve in heated glasses. Waes Hael is old English meaning " be of good health " Back to recipe list Wine from Fruit Apricot Table Wine Ingredients Apricot pulp - 1 Kg (1 can or £2.80 in market) White grape juice concentrate - 250 g White sugar - 700 g Tartaric acid - 2 tsp Grape tannin - ½ tsp Water - 3 litres Pectic enzyme and Campden tablets Yeast and nutrient Method Thoroughly cook and pulp fresh apricots or pulp canned fruit, and poor into a mashing bin. Pour in the water then add the acid, tannin, pectic enzyme and a Campden tablet. Cover and leave for 24 hours. Stir in the grape juice, nutrient and yeast. Ferment on the pulp for 4 days. Strain out the pulp and stir in the sugar. When fully dissolved, pour into a fermentation jar. Top up with cold water, fit airlock and ferment out. Rack into a sterile jar and keep for three months before bottling. This wine matures quickly and is a delightful light summer wine - worth making in large quantities. Gooseberries (1 kg) can be substituted for the apricots. Rhubarb, Banana and Date " Sherry " Ingredients Prepared rhubarb stalks - 2 kg Fresh lemons (small) - 2 Ripe bananas - 450 g Chopped dates - 225 g Grape juice concentrate - 500 g Sugar - 900 g Gypsum - 28 g Cream of tartar - 14 g Water - 3½ litres Pectic enzyme and Campden tablets Sherry yeast and nutrients Method Top, tail, wipe and chop the rhubarb and place in a mashing bin. Peel and mash the bananas, chop up the dates, discarding any stones. Thinly peel the lemons and add all these to the bin. Pour boiling water over the fruit and, when cool, stir in the gypsum, cream of tartar, pectic enzyme, one Campden tablet and the expressed juice of the lemons. Cover the bin and leave for 24 hours. Stir in the grape juice, activated yeast and nutrient and ferment on the pulp for five days, pressing down the fruit cap twice daily. Strain out and press the solids, stir in half the sugar and continue fermentation in the covered bin. After seven days stir the rest of the sugar, pour the must into a fermentation jar, fit an airlock and continue fermentation. When fermentation stops, stir the wine and check the S.G. If necessary, stir in more sugar to raise the reading to 1.010 or a little above. Rack and store with the airlock for at least a year. Check regularly to make sure airlock has water in it. Otherwise bugs will find their way in! This wine will continue to improve for the next two years - so do be patient! Fruit Wine from a Tin Ingredients 1 - 1.5 kg tinned fruit in syrup 1 kg sugar Method Pour syrup into a bucket. Mash the fruit in a plastic bucket. Dissolve sugar in boiling water and pour over fruit. Cool and add acids (Citric/Malic/Tartaric), tannin and pectic enzyme. Stir and leave for 24 hours. Stir and pour the whole lot into the fermenter. And add yeast and nutrient. Leave space for expansion! Fit airlock and leave in a warm place for 10 days - shaking daily. Strain off liquid in a fresh fermenter, top up with water and ferment out. The secret for a quick brew is to keep the fermenter in a warm place aid the chemical activity. Back to recipe list Wines from Fruit Juice Cartons Cranberry wine Ingredients 3 litres Cranberry juice (Tesco’s) 500g Sugar (White castor) 3 small bananas Yeast Yeast Stabiliser Warm 500g sugar in ½ litre of water in a pan on the stove until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is clear. Boil three small bananas (chopped), with skins on, in 1 litre of water (place the banana’s in a muslin bag in the water) for ½ hour. Boil until the bananas are soft and mushy. Squeeze the muslin bag into the dissolved sugar water to extract as much juice as possible into the water, Pour the banana infused water into the demijohn. Pour 2 litres of cranberry juice into a sterilised demijohn and then add the ½ litre of dissolved sugar/ banana juice in water. Top up the demijohn to just below the ridge with the additional cranberry juice. Allow the water to cool to approximately 23 degrees centigrade. Add the yeast stabiliser and 2 teaspoons of yeast powder (Young’s). Place the airlock in the neck of the demijohn and place in a warm place. When the vigorous fermentation has settled down top up the demijohn with cranberry juice to just below the neck of the demijohn. When fermentation has ceased, decant the liquid into another sterilised demijohn and leave to settle for a month or so. Add finings at an appropriate time for the wine to clear. Once cleared decant the wine into wine bottles and cork. Wine should be ready to drink in a month or so. Recipe supplied by James Wigglesworth Back to recipe list Wine from the Hedgerow Elderberry table wine Ingredients Freshly picked Elderberries - 900 g (2 lb) Ripe Bananas - 250 g (9 oz) Red grape concentrate - 250 g (9 oz) Sugar - 900 g (2lb) Tartaric acid - 10 g (2 tsp) Water - 4 litres (7 pints) Pectic enzyme & Campden tablets Bordeaux yeast & nutrient Elderberry dessert wine Ingredients Freshly picked Elderberries - 900 g (2 lb) Chopped raisins - 450 g (1 lb) Ripe Bananas - 250 g (9 oz) Dried Apricots - 125 g (4½ oz) Grape concentrate - 250 g (9 oz) Sugar - 700 g (1½ lb) Tartaric acid - 15 g (½ oz) Water - 4 litres (7 pints) Pectic enzyme & Campden tablets Port yeast & nutrient Method for both wines Boil fruit together. Cool, add Pectic enzyme and crushed Campden tablet. Leave for 24 hours. Stir in grape juice, yeast and nutrient. Ferment 4 days (7 days for dessert wine). Strain out fruit, add sugar (half for dessert) and ferment under airlock. Add remaining sugar in stages for dessert wine. Rack and add Campden tablet. Store till bright. Back to recipe list Wine from Vegetables Parsnip wines Various suggestions and ingredients:- Parsnip & Orange " Sherry " Parsnips - 1.75 kg (4 lbs) Seville oranges - 4 only Concentrated grape juice - 250 g (9 oz) Sugar - 1¼ kg (2¾ oz) Water - 3½ litres 6 pints) Sherry yeast & nutrient - Pectic enzyme Parsnip & Fig " Madeira " Parsnip - 2 kg (4½ lbs) Dried figs - 225 g (½ lb) Raisins - 450 g (1 lb) Brown sugar - 1.1 kg (2½ lbs) Citric acid - 14 g (½ oz) Grape tannin - ½ tsp Water 4 litres - (7 pints) Madeira yeast & nutrient Method The method is essentially the same for the above:- Scrub the parsnips, dice and boil. Strain off to get the basic liquor and add the remaining ingredients. Ferment in a bin with some of the sugar for a few days to avoid a mess with the early vigorous fermentation. Strain off again and add the rest of the sugar before placing in a fermentation jar. Leave to ferment out, rack and leave till bright. Rack again and store for six months before bottling. Where other solids are used, include them at the boiling stage. It really is quite easy this wine making! Back to recipe list Unusual Wines Coffee wine (1) Ingredients Coffee essence - 125 g Concentrated white grape juice - 500 g White sugar - 1 kg Citric acid - 10 g Grape tannin - ½ tsp Water - 3½ litres Yeast and nutrient Method Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a fermentation jar. Fit airlock and ferment out. Rack and add crushed Campden tablet. Sweeten to taste. Mature for six months. Coffee Wine (2) Here is a simple recipe : Ingredients Instant coffee - 1 level tablespoon Sugar - 1.25 kilos Citric acid - 15 g Water - up to 4.5 litres Yeast and nutrient Method Put coffee, sugar and citric acid into a mixing bowl and pour on 2 litres of boiling water. Stir until dissolved. Allow to cool and pour into a fermenting jar. Add water to bring the level to the shoulder of the jar. Make a yeast starter with yeast and nutrient in tepid water. Cover and allow to stand until ‘foamy’ - about an hour in the warm. Pour the starter into the fermenting jar and fit an airlock. After five days, top up the jar to the neck and allow to ferment out. There should not be much residue but it is worth racking once to get a clear result. Bottle when ready. Mead Ingredients English Honey - 2 kg Orange - 1 Lemon - 1 Water - 1 gallon Yeast (all purpose) & nutrient Method Put the honey into some of the water and bring to the boil; stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When all the honey is dissolved, pour off into a plastic container and add the rest of the water, the juice from the orange and lemon. When cool, add the yeast and a good nutrient. This is needed because honey is deficient in essential minerals. Pour into a fermentation jar and fit an airlock. Ferment in warm conditions because Mead takes longer than most country wines. When fermentation is complete, rack into a clean vessel. Melomel Ingredients Blended honey - 1.360 g (3 lbs) Blackcurrant syrup - 340 g (12 ozs) Tartaric acid - 15 g (½ oz) Water - approx 3 litres (5 pints) Nutrient - 1 tsp Yeast Campden tablet Method Dissolve the honey in warm water and, when cool, stir in the other ingredients. Pour into a fermentation jar, fit an air lock and ferment out. Rack into a clean jar, add one Campden tablet and store in a cool place until the Melomel is clear. Rack again and store for six months. Sweeten to taste. and serve as a social wine. Back to recipe list

Members' Own Recipes