How to make ginger wine – old and new recipes

Ginger root feels confident in the kitchen. Dried grated is a spice, chopped fresh is a seasoning, pickled is a snack, candied is a delicacy. As a condiment, ginger is often added to other wines to keep them from being so boring. In general, he feels great in winemaking as such, because since time immemorial it has been used to make delicious ginger wine.

I really regret that I did not share these recipes in the summer so that you can enjoy the burning taste of this drink this winter. However, in the summer, ginger wine is also in favor in the houses of the Old World, because it can be drunk with ice, mixed with lemonade or homemade ginger ale. But it is, first of all, a winter drink. In England, it is drunk unchilled in its pure form or as part of numerous cocktails. The most popular of these, of course, is Whiskey Mac (“Whisky McDonald”), a mixture of Scotch whiskey and green ginger wine (1:1 or 3:2).

In the 19th century, sales of ginger wine skyrocketed. Someone started a rumor that it was an excellent prophylactic against cholera, which was rampant at that time. Later, it was sold as a medicinal tonic to improve digestion (these properties of ginger are known even now, so wine will go as an excellent digestif), as well as a powerful aphrodisiac. But this is just a very tasty wine, which, moreover, is easy to prepare at home. Recipes are attached.

Mrs Beeton’s Scottish Ginger Wine (1861)

This is indeed an old recipe, taken from Mrs Beaton’s Book of Housekeeping, 1861. The author of the book is Isabella Mary Beaton, a famous English journalist, editor and writer. The recipe, of course, is adapted to our realities.

Peel and grate the ginger. Mix water, sugar, zest of one lemon and grated ginger in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 1 hour. Remove from heat, pour into a fermenter, wait until the temperature of the mixture drops to 25-30^оC (optimal temperature for adding yeast). Add 1 tsp to the wort. yeast for white wine or champagne and leave overnight.

The next day, add chopped raisins and strained juice from one lemon. Install a water seal on the fermentation tank and leave it in a warm, dark place for 2 weeks, the must must be stirred every day. Strain the young wine, add brandy (cognac), reinstall the water seal and put in a cool place (12-15^оC) until completely clear. Remove from the sediment once a month. Pour into bottles.

Modern recipe for ginger wine

This recipe will seem too complicated and tricky to many, but it is much more progressive than the first recipe and the result from this is more predictable. The result, by the way, is very good. Taste? Well, it’s ginger. You can drink wine after a month or two, but the desire to cook it again and again appears only after tasting a year-old product. If you are too lazy, and you don’t want to wait a year, cook ginger liqueurs and you will be happy.

As for all these chemical compounds that need to be added at different stages of wine making … we seem to live in the 21st century – getting all this in a wine shop is very, very simple. Of course, you can do without chemistry, but then the result is less predictable and I refuse to vouch for it.

Sterilize all equipment. In a saucepan of a suitable volume, mix water, sugar, lemon and orange zest, as well as 400 g of peeled and grated ginger. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook over low heat for 1-1,5 hours. Remove from heat, pour into a fermenter of a suitable volume, cool to 25-30^оC. Add yeast and, if there is a desire and opportunity, pectin enzyme – it destroys pectins, so the wine will turn out to be more fragrant. Also, the pectin enzyme contributes to a more rapid clarification of the drink. Instead of the enzyme, you can use the peel of half a papaya. After adding the yeast, the wort without water seal must be left overnight.

The next day, you need to add strained lemon and orange juice to the wort, install a water seal on the fermenter and put it in a warm place for 2 weeks. Every day the wine must be stirred. When the time is right, strain the wine, add another 100 g of ginger to it (to enhance the ginger flavor) and chopped raisins. Leave for fermentation under a water seal at a temperature of 25^оFrom for 7 days. It’s time to complete the fermentation so that the wine remains semi-sweet, as it should be. Of course, it can be fixed with cognac and kept in the cellar for a long time until it is completely clarified, but it will turn out faster and tastier after visiting a wine shop.

To begin with, the wine must be filtered from the raisins and ginger. Add potassium sorbate and crushed sulfur tablet to it. Install a water seal for 3 days. After 3 days, pour the wine into a clean container (remove from a small yeast sediment) and cork tightly. After the addition of sulfur and potassium sorbate, ginger wine clears very quickly, usually within 5-10 days. After that, it must be removed from the yeast sediment and poured into a clean container. Add brandy, do not stir. Hide wine in cool (10-15^оC) a dark place for one, and preferably two months. After aging, pour into bottles and cork.

Actually, the only thing I can add is the story of that Whiskey Mac cocktail. His invention is attributed to Colonel Macdonald, who was inspired by the mixed drink during the British Raj in India. The cocktail is also sometimes referred to as The Golfers’ Favorite. Apparently golfers drank Whiskey Mac after long games in the cold. The cocktail itself is as easy as shelling pears: add 50 ml of Scotch whiskey and 50 ml of ginger wine to a wine glass without ice. You can play around with proportions. Usually exercises end in favor of whiskey.

Search the internet for other ginger wine cocktails. It is mixed with bourbon, calvados, cognac, gin, rum and even vodka. That’s all!