Raisins

[MKG]

OH did a larder clearout. She found 3kg of out of date raisins. I had to whip her into submission - she was actually going to throw them out!!!

One gallon of what will be a very nice sherry-type thing is now bubbling away merrily, and will fall due for testing round about New Year's Eve. I'll just have to forego the festivities in the interests of science.

Mike

[Stoney]

Recipe please Mike?

[MKG]

Hi Stoney

This is an easy one - the ingredients are raisins (all 3 kilograms), water and yeast. Chop the raisins (use something like a mezzaluna, as a food processor overdoes it and you end up with a solid lump of mashed raisin). Get a BIG pan and put in the raisins, then pour a kettleful of boiling water over the top. Stir and then bring back to the boil and then boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Allow to go cold. Strain the resulting mess, giving the raisins a good squeeze. There will now be roughly 1.5 kilos of sugar in solution, together with loads of nutrients. Put it into your fermentation vessel, top up to a gallon with tepid water, sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast on the top. Normal stuff then - airlock etc.

It will throw a huge deposit, but you'll end up with almost a gallon of wine at about 15 to 16% ABV (so make sure you're using a good yeast). You'll be able to store this one for years if you want.

Now for the really good bit - all of those squeezed raisins can go back in the pan with another kettle of boiling water and left for 24 hours. Strain and press again, but this time you're going to need to add sugar, as most of the sugar from the raisins is in the first gallon. So make up a sugar syrup to the strength you want (one pound of sugar in a gallon equals 5% abv as near as damn it) but don't go overboard as there's not as much flavour as there is in the original gallon of wine, and add it to the strained raisin juice. Once again, you won't need to add nutrient, so simply top up, add yeast, and ferment as normal.

There you go, then - two gallons of wine as if by magic. Well that's the theory - I've never made it quite like this before, never having had a whole load of raisins all at once to play with. But as raisins are grapes, after all, the theory is sound.

Mike

[Stoney]

Hi Mike!

Thanks for this i well may give it a go, shame i didn't see it a couple of weeks ago as i will be buying sherry this christmas.

Is this wine drinkable as soon as its cleared? I imagine it gets better with age.

Thanks again.

Stoney

[doofaloofa]

More to the point, what technique did you use to whip her into submission?

[MKG]

Never got back to this one - sorry!

The heavy batch turned out well and reached drinkability very quickly. It did give me the impression that there was more to come, if you know what I mean, so there's still some left in store to mature. I was tempted to play about with the addition of some vanilla essence but I never got around to that. The second batch was OK, but if I did it again I'd add tannin in some form plus another ingredient to increase the body - a couple of bananas, maybe. It's now been blended with an insipid elderberry I made from the last scrapings of berries last year.

I think it was successful all in all, considering that the raisins were heading for the bin before being intercepted.

Mike

[MKG]

Duplicate post.

[ojay54]

Mike,excuse me asking simpleton questions,but how long from manufacture to quaff? (min) and would this work the same with currants and sultanas? Back of our storage cupboards are full of them(Doris has got short arms).

[Green Aura]

I remember reading this at the time and thinking that would be good.

Then completely forgot about it - is it too late to do it now for this Christmas, do you think?

[MKG]

Depends on your taste buds, ojay. Drinkability is a movable feast and hardened winemakers tend to dive in very early. In this weather, fermentation will be over and done with well within a month - but then you have to allow time for dissolved gases to dissipate (and I never advocate degassing mechanically, although lots of people do it). Also, the heavier the wine, the more it will improve with maturation. So the answer to your question is really a piece of string.

On the other hand, it's horses for courses. If you want a quick-maturing (or even no maturing) alcoholic drink, make a very light one which is intended to be cut with e.g. lemonade (my tea bag wine is such a thing and can be drunk after a month, start to finish). If you want something a bit special, be prepared to wait AT LEAST a year.

It would work equally well with sultanas, but currants not so much (I know they're all made from grapes, but currants tend to be better used as an additive rather than a main ingredient).

Tell you what, ojay. You tell me what you've got in that cupboard (with weights) and I'll give you back a recipe designed to mature as quickly as possible,

Mike

[ojay54]

Thanks mike.I found a bit over a kilo of raisins,half a kilo of dried california prunes,and about 3/4 kilo of sultanas and a congealed bag of glace cherries(but I've eaten quite a few of them).Any good?

[MKG]

You can eat all of the cherries if you like. I think I can come up with something for the rest of the stuff. Watch this space,

[Brewtrog]

Can't remember seeing you say this, but I've always been told to rinse raisins/sultanas as they're coated with veg oil to make them shiny and help stop them sticking together. I know the water looks horrible when you're rinsing them, but I don't know how much harm it'd do not bothering. Probably one of those better safe than sorry moments.

[MKG]

You're right, Brewtrog. I always assume that people do the basics as a matter of course, and washing solid ingredients (except flowers) should really be one of those basics. However, it never hurts to say so. I will amend my assumptions.

Mike

[ina]

OH did a larder clearout. She found 3kg of out of date raisins. I had to whip her into submission - she was actually going to throw them out!!!

What??? Tell her this story: My friend, who works for a food company, was given about 20 x 12.5kg boxes of raisins, out of date, 5 or 6 years ago (I think, if it wasn't more...). Since then I've been using raisins that are gradually getting older - they were still fine for baking last Christmas, and I've made wine with them, and I'm feeding them to the birds in winter. I'll be using another box or two or three this coming winter, no doubt! (Her family don't like raisins, and she reckons the birds in her garden don't want them either - nor do the hens, which I simply can't understand... So it's all down to me! The first couple of years I gave away a lot, too, but I don't dare any more.)