Mint wine is an amber-yellow drink with a characteristic minty aroma and taste. A good dessert liquor for lovers of alcoholic exoticism.
Fresh peppermint is required, it is desirable that the leaves are young, then the taste will be softer. I advise you to use wine yeast for white wine, if they are not available, then a couple of days before working with raw materials, you need to make a starter from raisins or other berries. Citric acid can be replaced with lemon juice – one medium fruit contains 5-6 g of acid.
Ingredients:
- fresh mint leaves – 200 g;
- water – 4 l;
- sugar – 1,2 kg;
- citric acid – 25 g;
- wine yeast or sourdough – for 5 liters of must.
mint wine recipe
1. Separate the mint leaves from the stalks and rinse in running water, removing dirt, dust and insects.
Attention! If the stems are used, the wine will be bitter, so only the leaves are needed.
2. Put the mint in an enamel pan, add 3 liters of water and 600 g of sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, bring the mixture to a boil, boil for 3-4 minutes, removing the foam, then remove the pan from the heat, cover and leave for 1 hour.
3. Strain the wort through cheesecloth, squeeze the mint dry (no longer needed).
4. Pour the liquid part into a fermentation tank, add the remaining fresh unboiled water (1 liter), add citric acid. Mix.
5. Dilute the wine yeast according to the package instructions and add it to the must. You can use sourdough instead of yeast.
6. Close the container with a water seal of any design, even a medical glove with a hole in one of the fingers will do (pierce with a needle).
7. Transfer the wort to a dark room (or cover with a thick cloth) with a stable temperature of 18-28 °C. Leave until the end of fermentation.
8. 7 days after installing the water seal, add the next portion of sugar. To do this, pour 200 ml of wort through a tube into a separate container and dilute 300 g of sugar in it. The resulting syrup is poured back into the wort and closed with a water seal.
9. After another 8 days, repeat the procedure described in the previous step, adding all the remaining sugar (300 g).
The fermentation period of homemade mint wine is 35-45 days. The end of the process can be determined by the absence of bubbles from the water seal (deflated glove), a layer of sediment at the bottom and clarification of the wort.
Attention! If the fermentation lasts more than 50 days from the moment the water seal was installed, the wine should be drained from the sediment into another container and put under a water seal to ferment at the same temperature, otherwise bitterness may appear.
10. Pour the fermented young wine from mint through a straw into another container, trying not to touch the sediment. Taste the drink. Add additional sugar for sweetness if desired.
11. Pour the wine into aging containers. It is advisable to fill them to the top to avoid contact with oxygen. Close hermetically. If sugar was added at the previous stage, then for the first 7-10 days it is advisable to keep the containers under a water seal in case of repeated fermentation.
12. Transfer the mint wine for maturation to a refrigerator or cellar with a temperature of +2-16 °C. Leave at least 3-4 months for exposure (preferably 6-8).
13. When a precipitate appears with a layer of 1-2 cm, filter the drink by pouring it into another container. The cooking process is considered complete when the sediment does not appear for several months.
14. The finished drink can be bottled for storage and tightly closed.
The shelf life of mint wine is up to 3 years. Fortress – 9-13%. I advise you to serve chilled to 12-15 ° C.
