Hop Wine

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Caplan

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Lazy Sunday Afternoon here trawling through a few books etc and found this recipe in a 'Country Wine' Book. Now i know what to do with any 'leftover' hops from my beer brewing! This might be worth a go - anyone ever tried making one?

Hop Wine

3oz Hops
1oz Ginger (Bruised)
1 UK Gal (4.5Ltr) Water
8oz Raisins (Chopped)
2.5lb Sugar
2tsp Citric Acid
Yeast and Nutrient

Bring water to the boil, add hops and ginger and simmer for an hour. Strain the hot liquid onto the raisins and sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool. Add the citric acid, yeast and nutrient. After about 5 days rack it off the raisins. Standard 'ferment out, add campden and rack til clear' instructions after that. Recommends not drinking it until 6 to 9 months after bottling.
 
Well I took the plunge yesterday and started one! I've varied the recipe as i didn't have enough hops (I only had just over 1.5 ounces of hallertau that i needed to use up - I know they're an aroma hop but i don't think it'll matter in this odd ball! ;)) and chucked in an extra half ounce of ginger (as i had that).
Bubbling nicely now. I'll see if it's worth it. No loss if it turns out rubbish as it was all ingredients I had in anyway from other brews and it's only a 1 UK gallon batch :)
 
Made a batch 5/2006. I'm trying a sample right now. The bitterness is subdued, almost an aftertaste. Nose is mainly raisin. not surprising after 18 months. SG was 1.125, 1.030 at 9 months, FG of 1.008. Still somewhat sweet, reminds me most of a port. I think I'll bottle it without priming.

After sipping about 1/2 ounce, my upper lip is numb.

How'd everyone else's turn out?
 
Just attempted a version of this with our backyard hops. (Can't remember if they're Cascade or Chinook.)

2.5 us gallons water (10 cups)
2 us pounds fresh hops, divided into thirds
15 oz. raisins "chopped "
8 oz. ginger " sliced thin"
4 us pounds regular cane sugar (bag)
1 us pound fancy organic sugar (bag)
~4 tsp canning powder (citric acid and dextrose)

Brought the water to boil
Add all ginger, one set of hops
Boil 15 minutes, reduce heat to active simmer
Add one set of hops, stir until their green turns wooden.
Simmer 20 minutes
Add remaining hops, same stirring
Simmer 20 minutes
Remove heat
In a separate pot, add raisins
Forcefully strain contents over raisins
Stir in sugar until all is desolved
Pour wort (or whatever I'm supposed to call it) into primary fermentation vessel.
Add ice to bring up to 2gal. (I added about 3 cups of ice.)
Add yeast/nutrient
Add citric acid

SG measured at 1.115
(Actively bubbling two days later, woohoo!)
 
I often make a hopped mead - using honey rather than sugar and making a tea of the hops and using that tea to dissolve the honey. But I use perhaps 1 oz of hop pellets. Eight oz of ginger in what 3 gallons? sounds almost painful. Just made a "ginger beer" using 2 oz of ginger in a gallon and I need to find some way to dilute the spiciness...
 
I just cooked up a 3 gallon batch -- maybe 2-3 lbs of wet hops, half of them added after flameout, a lb of raisins, 3 navel oranges, six limes, 12 oz of ginger, 8 lbs of granulated sugar to reach an SG of 1.2. After a 30 minute steep, I strained through muslin and cooled to room temp, then pitched a packet of rehydrated Nottingham. Smells and tastes fantastic so far.
 
This is tasting really pretty good, although the bitterness is a little overwhelming. The ginger is very present, and the citrus is also strong. Still a lot of sweetness, which seems well suited to the other flavors.
 
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