Heh.
Well sports fans, let me assure you - you can make orange wine, and it DOES work (recipe here soon to follow, don't have time to type it right now) - though it's not a process for the exacting or faint of heart. I've done it the EXACT same way twice, and each time received a different result. Much of the success of orange wine depends on the oranges; specifically, the acidity of the oranges. My results came up sweet - super sweet. So much so that I was accused of making a brandy or a dessert wine. Balancing tart and sweet took a lot of *ahem* trial and error, but when I found the mix, it worked. I've never tried carton orange juice, I imagine that would produce a much more consistent product though.
Additionally, I've never done this without including some heavy spicing - cloves, nutmegs, peppercorns, cinnamon, etc. Think Christmas and you've got a good mix for orange wine.
I'll post the recipe tonight when I get home from work.
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Home from work....
Okie dokes. Here's something for you - a derivative of 'the purple book' orange wine recipe. Understand that I'm not a pro - I'll just offer what I did and how it worked for me.
Spiced Orange Dessert Wine (on scale for 6 gallons)
*45 fresh oranges (Juicing kind work best)
- flesh out 32 of these, removing pith (all of the white fleshy parts) and as much of the peel and seeds as you can. Of the remaining 13, I used a microplane (grater) to take the zest off of them and put the zest into the must. I removed the leftover white pith and seeds and put the fruit flesh into the must with the rest of the mix.
*2 lb bag of frozen mixed berries (from Walmart - blue/black/rasp/strawberries, presliced).
*Cloves
*Nutmeg
*Black peppercorns (x12)
- Special note here - from chefs school, I learned that when you toast a spice you bring out the oils in the spice. I toasted the pepper (whole), a small handful of cloves (1/8 a cup, maybe less) and 2 nutmeg pods, allowed them to cool, added the pepper and cloves whole and then grated the nutmeg into the must. Adjust to your tastes, but be cautious. Toasted spices are a bit stronger than their untoasted counterparts. If you can, avoid toasting on a metal tray - it will impart a 'tang' to the toasted spice and burn them quickly. Instead use stoneware (and I don't mean buy pampered chef - head to Lowes, buy yourself a kiln brick or ceramic tile (non-sealed, not varnished, etc) and stick it in your oven. Bake on that - it ain't pretty, but it works and is about $30 less.)
*15 lbs (yes, that's a right number - one five) of sugar. I used the walmart standard issue white granulated stuff. It takes a LOT of sweet to overcome the acid in the oranges, so I went for broke and got very heavy handed with this (and I don't like half open bags of sugar laying around the joint). 15 is about as far as I would go - I've had better results with 12 or 10. Really, it depends on the oranges and how bitter/bruised/green they are.
*6 Campden tabs. Duh.
*~3 tsps yeast nutrient
*Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast. Trying to catch that bouquet. Tolerance up to 13%. I knew I had potentially rocket fuel on my hands, so I wanted to have some restraint in the brew.
*Water to make six gallons
Methodology:
Toasted spices, spent about three hours making a sticky mess of myself peeling and squishing oranges. Thawed berries. Put stock pot on stove, heated water and sugar to dissolve (it will work). Allowed to cool to ~85 F, mixed with oranges and added berries. Added campden tabs (crushed), and yeast nutrient. Covered, let rest overnight in fermenter.
Next day, dipped a small bowl (~ 2 c. worth) of must, added yeast. Covered and left to start overnight.
Next morning, added yeast to primary. Tested SG: 1.14 (Finding the limits of the hydrometer...). Stirred must.
Next day, stirred must. SG: 1.15
Next day, stirred must. SG: 1.15
Next day, stirred must. SG: 1.15
Next day, stirred must. SG: 1.15
After 5 days of stirring, covered primary and ignored it for 24 hours.
Checked for fermentation - was running like a top. SG: 1.15
Two weeks: SG: 1.10
Two more weeks, SG: 1.085 - potential ABV, ~8%
I let it go another week, then I stabilized it, let it settle and racked it to secondary to clear. Final product is right around 10 - 11% ABV.
It cleared to a color similar to honey, had a wonderful nose of oranges and cloves, a good mouthfeel, and a smoothness going in - and a pepperiness going down. The citric acid is what makes this wine so 'sharp'. I think if you let it age some it will mellow, but I have to say that none of what I made lasted longer than 6 months. It was a strong dessert wine - great after a big meal in smaller amounts. My wife liked it a lot - her tastes lend themselves to the sweeter wines, I prefer more dry varieties.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
- abe
