Mulled Wine Idea

I posted this on the recipes forum and got no takers so I'll give it a try here....


I am new to home brew so forgive me if the following seems like a daft idea....

I was making some mulled wine the other evening (I usually just bake an orange studded with cloves, add a liter of wine 1/2 liter of water, a dash of sherry or brandy a cinnamon stick and some mixed spices). I got to thinking would it be possible to "brew" a batch of mulled wine ?

I am thinking of say combining along the lines of the following in a fermenter:

5L store bought wine
3L Water
1Kg dextrose (to sort of 'fortify' the wine)
Oranges
Sultanas
cinnamon sticks
Spices

Maybe Yeast and Yeast Nutrient (not sure if there would still be yeast active in the store bought wine ?)
Maybe one of those little bottle of essence (like a brandy essence) ?

Leave it for a couple of weeks and then bottle or rack to secondary to clear.

I would be aiming for an end result of a bottle of mulled wine that you just heat up and you are ready to go ?

Does this sound feasible or am I off my rocker ?
Would the wine turn to vinegar in the fermenter ?
Would I need to add yeast or just yeast nutrient ?

TIA,
JC

Yes you are off your rocker (most of us are).....But give it a try and let us know how it works.
Sometimes ideas like this are a bit hard to work through in your head. Mostly, when you post a recipe...unless you are asking for us to make changes....I'ts up to you to give it a whirl and report back.

Also...you might get a better reception if a moderator (Yooper???) moves this to the wine forum.

JNJC said:

I am new to home brew so forgive me if the following seems like a daft idea....

Click to expand...

Well..yes.

If you want mulled wine, mull wine. Take a variety you think would taste good (preferably a full bodied red), add a bit of sugar, spice to taste, heat, and serve.

Here's a recipe.

I was sort of thinking of this as a gift idea. A bottle of ready to heat mulled wine....

My main concerns are:

1) If I put a store bought wine into a fermenter will it go "off" ?
2) If I add dextrose to it will fermentation kick off again or should I add yeast or yeast Nutrient ?

Thanks,
JC

1. No.
2. No, unless you pitch yeast and nutrient...but why would you do that? Fortify it with brandy instead.

If you want to make a mulled wine, then why not ferment your own wine? Get either a wine kit or fine a recipe for a nice full bodied red wine. Then to that add your mulling spices, I would recommend adding them in secondary. Let it ferment out, absorbing all those wonderful flavors. Then bottle it, then it is your wine and not just some store bought wine you bottled with spices added in.

I did something very similar to this with a cider and it turned out great. I think it would make a much cooler gift if you made the wine yourself, instead of just doctoring and rebottling some you bought at the wine shop.

Ultimately I think I will do it with my own wine, but for the initial tests I thought the store bought stuff would be a quick way to test things out...

Well, I have a couple of concerns with your plan. The main one is oxidation. Since you're planning to use already fermented grapes (wine), oxidation is a very real possibility, which will lead to sherry-like flavors. I'm not sure how to prevent that in this case. Usually, I use some sulfite when racking, but that is during/after fermentation, and no pouring is involved (opening bottles and putting them into the fermenter, etc). Think about wine that is left out overnight- then think about it being left open a couple of weeks. It won't turn into vinegar if you airlock it, but it'll be severely oxidized and not tasting as you hope.

I think the idea is good, but in practice I can't see how it would work. Unless you could put the mulling spices in a "tea" and then package that in a nice bottle and present it with the wine, or just the spices along with the wine.

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll give this a shot anyway and I'll let you know how it goes. I have to admit my gut instinct is that this is going to taste a bit "odd" at best, but you never know.

I like the idea of the "tea", that you could use with a bottle of wine, I think that is worth experimenting with also.

I'll keep you guys posted....

Thanks again,
JC