Thanks to Mr S there is now one area in our lives that we are completely self sufficient! Over past few months he has been in a brewing frenzy. Buckets, bottles and demijohns seem to be taking over our kitchen so last night as a reward for putting up with his brewing equipment taking over the kitchen space he presented me with a bottle from his first batch of orange wine.
Here’s the recipe he used – it should provide you with 6 bottles of dry white wine with a slight citrus flavour, cheers!
Here’s what you need to make 1 gallon of Orange Wine
1 litre White Grape Juice
1 litre Orange Juice, no bits, budget brands are fine but so is freshly squeezed
800g Sugar
1 tsp Pectolase
Tannin – 1/2 teaspoon or, make a mug of strong black tea and let it cool
1 tsp Glycerine (optional) -Glycerine gives body and mouth feel to the wine and makes it smooth
Yeast & Nutrient – You can buy the sachets of yeast or, pots which you would only use a teaspoon for this recipe. Not sure if the nutrient varies between brands but this brand uses 2 tablets crushed
Campden tablets – guard against infection and oxidation, you should use one per gallon whenever you rack your wine. Crush it to a powder between two teaspoons.
Potassium Sorbate or ‘Wine Stabiliser’ -This makes sure that no yeast can reproduce (this happens if there is any sugar left in or added to the wine)
Equipment
2 x gallon demijohns or, you could use 2 x 5 litre water bottles with a hole drilled for the bung
Airlock and rubber bung
Hydrometer and trial jar
Measuring spoons
Funnel
Meat baster (easy way of getting a wine sample out of the demijohn)
Thermometer
A syphon tube with a rigid plastic ‘racking cane’ and sediment cup
**All equipment must be cleaned and sterilised first **
Method
Boil around a litre of water and leave to cool (You will need this later)
Dissolve the sugar in 500ml water. It doesn’t have to reach boiling point but, will need to cool before putting in the demijohn
Pour the fruit juices into the demijohn
Add the sugar syrup, glycerine if using and tannin
Top up with the cooled boiled water to the bottom of the shoulder. (It seems like a large space but, initial fermentation can be vigorous, better to have a large space than it bubble over onto the floor)
Put your well washed hand over the neck of the jar and give it a good shake to mix everything up and to get some air into the must.
Check the temperature. If it’s around 25°C (give or take a bit), add your yeast, nutrient and pectolase. Cover and shake it again.
Fit the bung with airlock and put the demijohn somewhere out of direct sunlight, ideally with a fairly stable room temperature in the region of 17-20°C.
Now all you have to do is wait for fermentation to stop which can be anything from 1 to 4 weeks.
Racking
*Clean and sterilise all equipment*
Crush 1 campden tablet into the receiving demijohn then syphon
Put a well washed hand over the neck of this jar and give a gentle shake, ease palm away to release any fizz. Keep shaking and releasing until there’s hardly any fizz.
Add the potassium sorbate (wine stabiliser) as per brand instructions. (this will stop any yeast reactivating especially as you may need to back sweeten)
If needed, sweeten to taste using cooled sugar syrup then top up to neck with cooled boiled water.
Either use finings which will clear the wine quickly or, leave to clear of its own accord (this could take another couple of weeks) then bottle.
The wine can be drunk straight away but benefits from being left to mature.
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