Thursday 11 December 2014

Lemon Wine Home Made

At out recent amateur beekeeping Christmas party we were discussing home made wine and liquers.

I congratulated Paula who was my inspiration to make wine last Summer.  Paula had taken along two bottles to last year's Christmas party, offering us each a small glass of her amazingly good home made wine.

"I used champagne yeast to make this one" she said and it was very, very good.

So I reasoned that if Paula, a school teacher, could make wine, so could I.



I mentioned a lemon wine I make and offered to send her the recipe, which she happily accepted, so I thought I should share it with you.   Anyone can make this and the ingredients are easy to source.

Paula also makes mead with her wine and I am looking forward to her gifting this recipe to me ....  it only takes six months to mature, so that will be interesting. (Having never tasted mead I don't even know if I will like it).  We have raw organic honey, the essential ingredient and three young men living here to taste test. 


Note the bubbles!
This measures 10% alchohol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lemon Wine Recipe

This should be bottled in screw topped containers so that the fizz can be controlled when the bottles are opened.  If it is too fizzy you can reduce the quantity of raisins.

6 - 8 lemons, depending on size, preferably organic
1 cup raisins
2 kg sugar
1 litre boiling water
15 litres cold water

Wash and let the lemons dry.  Slice the lemons into a large container, add the raisins and sugar then stir in the boiling water.  When the sugar is dissolved add the cold water and mix well.  Cover and leave 4 days.  Strain, bottle and cap.  Leave 1 - 2 weeks before using and chill before opening.
Open bottles carefully.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buon appetito, enjoy Merryn xx

10 comments:

  1. I absolutely love all of your kitchen experiments Merryn! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lorraine, you have to enjoy yourself and have fun in everything you do (when possible) :D

      Delete
  2. What a great idea! Can you describe the flavour? I am intrigued!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Today Kyrstie I found an impartial judge in the guise of hubby's mate Mick - he is Maltese and brews his own beer (I give him credit as he and his wife also like wine). Firstly he had a taste of my grape based white wine then a glass of chilled lemon wine brewed two years ago. He described it as being very drinkable, quite pleasant and with a plum flavour, fruity and wtih almond overtones. I hope this helps :D

      Delete
  3. Mmmm - sounds delish Merryn - love the caution "Open bottle carefully."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All care taken - no responsiblity offered :D I opened a bottle today and it was a bit fizzy.

      Delete
  4. wow, i'm a fans of homemade brewing, fermentating and charcuteries...
    just bookmark this and gotta try soon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dedy I am honoured by your comment, you have so much talent and skill in the kitchen.

      Delete
  5. "open bottle carefully' makes me think of school projects making ginger beer; there was usually at least one exploding bottle !
    but where do the plum and fruit flavours some from, when you make it with lemons? intriguing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the flavours developed over the year as when you drink it early one (after two weeks' aging) it tastes a little sweet. It must be the raisins that create the plummy flavour. Like a good woman, wine improves with age :D

      Delete