Ginger wine

This one is super easy to make and great on a cold winter evening by the fire.

Ingredients:

• 50g root ginger

• 1.5kg granulated sugar

• 100g raisins

• 2 tsp of citric acid (or the juice and rind of 2 lemons)

• 4.5l water (boiled)

• 1 tsp of wine yeast

• 1 campden tablet (optional)

• 1 teaspoon fermentation stopper (optional)

• 1 teaspoon Bentonite (optional)

• Rum

Method:

Grate the ginger into a bucket, add the sugar, raisins, citric acid, and 2.5l boiled water and stir well.

Mix in 2 litres of cold water and finally add your yeast. Take a reading using a hydrometer. This is known as the Original gravity or OG.

Cover loosely for 1 week before straining into a demijohn with an airlock.

When fermentation ends (bubbles passing through the airlock at less than one a minute) take another hydrometer reading. This is known as the Final gravity or FG. Using a simple formula, (OG - FG) x 0.13 = %, you can then figure out the alcohol content of your finished brew

Finally, add a few capfuls of rum to your bottles, syphon the wine in and cork. Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking.

Marinated Fruit

Ingredients:

• A mix of fruits (berries, apples, pears etc)

• Mead or wine

• Honey

Method:

Wash your fruits and slice and core any apples or pears.

Pour over enough mead or wine to cover the fruit and stir in 1 tablespoon of honey for every 3 cups of liquid.

Leave to stew for a minimum of 24 hours before serving.

You can reserve the mead or wine for drinking. Mead flavoured with fruit is known as a melomel.

Getting started with homebrew

The first rule of making any kind of brew, is to make sure you sterilise everything. Buckets, bottles, siphons – everything that comes into contact with your brew. You can buy sterilising powder in home-brew shops, Wilko’s or online. Follow the directions on the packet and clean everything thoroughly.

Once clean, rinse the equipment well.

The next thing is to make sure you have a hydrometer. These are cheap to buy and will help you to know when your brew is finished fermenting. It will also enable you to estimate the alcohol content of your finished brew.

• Take a reading before you add your yeast. This is known as the Original gravity or OG

• Take another at the end. This is known as the Final gravity or FG

• Using a simple formula, (OG – FG) x 0.13 = %, you can then figure out the alcohol content of your finished brew

• For example if your original gravity is 1080 and your final gravity is 1000, then using the formula (1080 – 1000) x 0.13 = 10.4% alcohol content

The original gravity of most wines and meads should start at around 1050 – 1100

The original gravity for beer should start at around 1040

The higher the number, the higher the potential alcohol content of your brew, however this is also limited by the type of yeast used.

Your brew will either finish fermenting when the yeast runs out of food (sugar) or when the alcohol content is too high for the yeast to live in.

When your brew stops bubbling, or slows to less than 1 bubble a minute, use the hydrometer to see if your brew is finished fermenting. Move your brew somewhere warm and check the gravity over a period of 3 days and if the reading doesn’t change, fermentation has stopped.

At this stage there are a few optional things you can add to your brew. The first 2 things are fermentation stopper, and campden tablets. These are generally added at the same time to wine, mead and cider, and help to stabilise the alcohol by killing off any yeast that might still be hanging around. They also help to prevent any bacterial growth during the ageing process. Add these as per the packet instructions, usually you’ll need to stir your brew daily for 3 days after adding, which will also help to remove any trapped co2.

The next thing is bentonite. This is a naturally occurring clay that draws particles from the alcohol and settles it to the bottom of your container. This clears the alcohol, so you can siphon your liquid into a new container or bottle to prevent a hazy wine.

Taken from my book ‘Eat like a Viking!’ Available now on Amazon 

Elderberry & Blackberry Wine

This recipe is great if you heat, but not boil, a bottle, with a jar of honey, a few cloves, some grated nutmeg, ¼ pint of water and the juice and rind of a lemon. Add half a small bottle of brandy before serving. Drink whilst still warm.

We drink this every Christmas when family visit and we always run out!

You can also make this one with just elderberries or just blackberries.

Ingredients:

800g elderberries

800g Blackberries

4.5l water (boiled)

1.5 kg granulated sugar

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp of red wine yeast

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 campden tablet (optional)

1 teaspoon fermentation stopper (optional)

1 teaspoon Bentonite (optional)

Method:

Put all the berries into a large bucket and crush with a rolling pin. Add the sugar, and the pectic enzyme, and cover with 4.5l boiled water. Stir well.

Once cool, make a note of your gravity.

Add your yeast and nutrient and cover loosely for 1 week before straining into a demijohn with an airlock.

When fermentation ends (once bubbles pass through the airlock at less than one a minute) add a crushed campden tablet and fermentation stopper, if using, as per the instructions on the packet.

Nows the time to check your final gravity, if you haven’t already, and want to know the percentage of alcohol in your brew.

After 3 days clear the wine by adding bentonite, if using, as per the instructions on the packet. Alternatively you can wait until it clears naturally.

Finally, syphon the wine into bottles and cork.

Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking, but a year is better