Jay's Brewing

When I go on hikes and can start to smell the honeysuckles in bloom, I know that it is time to make this wine.  Honeysuckle wine usually turns out to be a pretty dry wine.  Over the years I have ended up making it more of a mead then anything else.  This one is pretty easy to make though.

It’s best to use the flower part of the honeysuckle not the stem.

One suggestion that I don’t include in this recipe is that you might want to back sweeten this wine with more honey. 

Yield: 1 Gallon

6 cups honeysuckle flower petals (loosely packed)

7.5 pints of water

• 2 lbs Honey

2 tsp acid blend

• 1/8 tsp tannin

• 1 tsp yeast nutrient

• Champagne wine yeast

Directions

• Take flowers and rinse off
• Put flowers in a small pot
• Add 1 quart water and bring to a simmer.
• Let pedals steep for 3 hours  
• Bring water and honey up to boil (2 parts water 1 part honey)
• Remove from heat and cool.
• Add honey mixture and flower mixture into primary while straining out flower pedals
• Add all remaining ingredients
• Let wine ferment until vigorous fermentation is completed
• Rack into secondary and fit airlock
• Let wine sit for 30 days, rack
• Set aside for 6 months
• Rack again in 3 months
• Bottle and put into wait for 6 months to drink

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When it starts to get warmer outside, it means one thing for wine makers – it’s easier to get good fruit.  Cherry mead is a refreshing mead that is a light red color, and has a slight fruity flavor.  I’m pretty sure that you won’t find this mead at a wine store so it’s an opportunity to try to make one.  This is the recipe I use for my cherry meads.   It’s simple, refreshing, and a favorite among my friends.

Yield: 1 Gallon

Ingredients

3 lbs clover honey

1 lb dark cherries, halved

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package champagne yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

Instructions

• Boil honey in large pot (1 part honey 2 parts water)
• Put cherries in a 2 gallon plastic container
• Pour the honey mixture over the fruit and let it cool
• Add acid blend, pectic enzyme and enough water to make 1 gallon
• Stir
• Add yeast nutrient and yeast to mixture
• Let it ferment for 1 week
• Rack into 1 gallon fermenter
• Let it sit for 3 months
• Rack again
• Let it sit for about 6 months
• Bottle and let it age for 6 months

Around Virginia when spring time comes around it’s pretty easy to find red clovers.   They have a sweet tasting flower and has a great base for wine with the nectar.  The clover heads aren’t going to change the color of the wine to much though.  This is a great wine recipe to impress your friends with.  Flower wines are always so easy to make but the biggest thing is that you just need to be on top of the season.

1 Gallon Yield

Directions:

1 gallon clover head

3 lbs sugar

8 ounces light raisins

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 package wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1.5 cups orange juice at room temp

Directions

• Remove the stems and the base from the clover heads
• Place the petals in a stainless steel pot with 1 gallon of water
• Bring the mixture to a boil
• Remove the heat and add half the sugar mixture and the raisins
• Cool down
• Add yeast with wine yeast, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and orange juice
• close up the top and add the air lock
• After 5 days rack
• After 7 days rack again
• Then let it sit for 3 months then bottle

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Last year I put up a dandelion wine recipe – it’s a favorite of mine.  This year I wanted to do another flower wine.  The thing with some of these wines is that you really have to stay on top of it.  If you don’t, the season for getting that particular fruit, flower, or vegetable is gone before you know it and you have to sit around for another year.  This wine is a Marigold wine.  I have these in my garden so it’s pretty easy to make this wine.  This is a light golden wine, sometimes it may be red.  If you want a pale wine use a yellow or white marigolds.  The easiest ones to use are the giant marigolds.  You can expect it to have a citrus flavor because of the oranges and lemon that is added to it.  Enjoy!

Yield: 1 Gallon

Ingredients

• 1 lemon
• 2 oranges
• 3.5 quarts of Marigold flowers without the sepals and stems
• 3 pounds sugar
• 1 package wine yeast
• 1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1 teaspoon acid blend
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

Directions

1. Grate orange and lemon rinds.
2. Reserve the fruit
3. Place the rinds and the flower petals in a 2 gallon plastic container
4. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and pour over the petal mixture
5. add sugar
6. Stir until the sugar dissolves
7. Cool down mixture
8. Add yeast, pectic enzyme, acid blend, yeast nutrient
9. Add juice of the lemon and orange
10. Put lid on top
11. Ferment for 7 days
12. Rack and put into 1 gallon fermenter
13. Rack after 4 weeks
14. Let it sit for 4 weeks and then bottle
15. Wait 6 months before you drink

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This wine is very much like ginger ale.  It is a white wine that has a bit of spice as well as some sweetness from the banana’s.  This type of of wine is really good for spring and summer.  One of those that I’m sure you will never forget.

Ingredients

3 ounces of whole ginger root

1 cup white grape juice concentrate

1.5 lbs of banana

1 package wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1.5 cup orange juice

2 lbs sugar

Directions

• Break ginger root into pieces and mix the pieces with grape juice concentrate 
• Put into a 2 gallon plastic container
• Add 2 quarts of boiling water
• Peel bananas and force them through a strainer
• Add to the ginger mixture and cook
• Add wine yeast, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and orange juice
• Add sugar and enough water to make 1 gallon
• Let ferment
• After 10 days switch over to 1 gallon fermenter
• Fill with water 2 make 1 gallon
• Ferment for 3 months
• Rack necessary to clear
• When fermentation is complete bottle
• Celar wine and let it sit for about 6 months

Vegetable wine is always a weird one to make.  Usually when you say something like, “Ya, you are drinking beet wine” most people will raise an eyebrow.   The only reason why I started to make this one is because I grow beets in my garden.  I usually get so many that I don’t know what to do with them.  I mean honestly there are only so many days where I can make, “Beet Soup” and still have a smile on my face (even though it’s my favorite soup – no lie).  Either way, this wine is one that is  red in color and not too dry.  A really good one if you are a beet fan.

Yield 1 Gallon

Ingredients

3 lbs Beets with green part removed

12 oz Orange juice concentrate

2 pounds white sugar

1 pound honey

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons fresh orange zest

1 package montrachet wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1/4 teaspoon tannin

Directions

• Wash beets and put them in a large pot
• Cover beets with water and simmer on low heat until the beets are tender and soften up
• Remove beets from liquid
• Add orange juice concentrate, sugar, honey and spices to liquid
• Bring to boil
• After boil has been reached, simmer for about 10-15 minutes
• Crush the beats into a paste and put them back into the liquid
• Add the orange zest and transfer into a 2 gallon fermenter
• Add water and bring up to volume of 1 gallon
• Add, enzyme, yeast nutrient, yeast, and tannin
• Let it ferment for about 5 days
• Rack into 1 gallon container
• Fill up to 1 gallon.
• Let mixture ferment for 3 months
• Rack if it’s needs clearing
• If not, bottle, and let sit for 6 months

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This is a wine/mead that I’ve made in the past and it turns out pretty well.  I can remember making this with my uncle when I was just a kid.  Today a lot of people call it, “Apple Jack”.  I’m not really sure if it’s the same thing, I just call it, “Apple Mead”.  It has a citrus like flavor to it and it is a bit sweet because of the honey.

Yield: 1 Gallon

Ingredients:

3 lbs honey

1 gallon apple cider

1 teastpoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package champagne yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

Directions

• In a large pot, boil the honey (1 part honey 2 parts water)
• Let mixture cool down, and transfer it to a 2 gallon plastic container
• Add cider, acid and pectic enzyme.
• Rehydrate yeast and add nutrient to mixture
• Once yeast starts bubbling add to must
• Put on air lock and lid, let it ferment
• After 7 days, rack into another fermenter
• Refill with water if needed.
• Rack after 3 months
• Rack again after 6 months
• Then bottle
• Don’t drink for 1 year

It’s  a pretty simple recipe, but one that is worth making time and time again.  Hope that it serves you well!

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As of late I’m on this Sangria kick.  There is as house warming party this weekend and guess what I’m bringing… beer and sangria.  I’m a big dude (6’4 210 lbs with a shaved head), it may seem unsuspecting that I dig some sangria, but I can’t get enough of it as of late.  It’s so damn good!  While most might think of Sangria as a summer time refreshing drink, I think of it as an anytime drink.  It’s relatively cheap to make if you end up making your own wine too.

We have, as well as other homebrew shops have wine kits.  I’m not sure about others pricing but you can make 30 bottles for $65-$80 from us.  It’s really not a bad price considering what you are getting.  It taste like good table wine at the end. So below is a Sangria recipe that is just killer; I use my own wine when I make it.  Generally it takes about 10 minutes to make but, if you can make it the night before put it in a lock and lock container, and stick in the refrigerator for 24 hours what you have is an amazing Sangria.

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of white wine (I like using Pinot Gris)

1/2 cup Peach Schnapps

1/4 cup sugar

2 Peaches Sliced Up

1 Orange Sliced Up

1/2 Mango Peeled And Sliced

1/2 Liter Of Ginger Ale

Directions:

• Pour wine and Schnapps in a pitcher
• Add sliced peach, orange, and mango
• Add sugar and stir gently
• Chill mixture for an hour (or my suggestion listed above)
• Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving (ginger ale will make it a bit more sweet)
• If you plan on serving right away make sure to use chilled white wine and ginger ale and serve over lots of ice.

Sack meads are pretty sweet to begin with.  Since this one has the tea it in, it gives it a bit of a different flavor as well.  To me this has a very, “Eastern”, feel to it.  Something different to try if  you are looking for a recipe for mead.

Ingredients 

3.5 lbs Clover Honey

Honey 2 oz Golden Raisins

1 tsp Acid Blend

1 tsp Pectic Enzyme

1 cup Chinese Green Tea

1 package of sweet mead yeast

1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

1/4 teaspoon of grape tannin.

Directions:

• In a large stainless steel pot, boil water in pot.
• It it cool and then transfer it to a 2 gallon plastic container
• Add the acid, pectic enzyme, tea and enough water to make 1 gallon.
• Add yeast and and tannin
• Let it sit for 1 month then rack
• Let it sit for 3 months
• Rack let it sit for 6 months
• Bottle and let it sit for 6 months

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While I don’t normally munch on cranberries, they do make a pretty good wine.  If you let it sit for a bit, the fermentation really does mellow out the flavors for it.  It turns into an amber/orange color.  In the past for this wine, I’ve made it and have turned it into a wine that I end up cooking with.  At the end it’s pretty good and something different that normally tilts some heads.

Yield: 1 Gallon

3 lbs fresh cranberries

2 lbs lbs white sugar

1 lb clover honey

2 juice of large oranges

2 teaspoon orange zest

.5 lb golden raisins

1/4 teaspoon tannin

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package of montrachet yeast

Directions

• Wash cranberries
• Cut berries and put them into blender
• Cover the cranberries with sugar
• In a saucepan add everything with honey and .5 gallon of water and bring to boil
• Skim off any foam that comes off
• When no more foam rises to the top pour the honey water mixture over the cranberries
• Add orange juice, zest, raisins, tannin, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme to the mixture
• Add the yeast and start stiring
• Let it ferment for a week
• After a month rack into another fermenter
• Let it sit for about 6 months
• Then rack into another fermenter
• Let it ferment for 2 months then bottle
• Let sit in the bottles for 6 months