mint wine

i thought that our little patch at the end of the garden would stand no chance of surviving winter. and i found various recipes for mint wine online. It seems its a pretty common one. I reckon i have enough to make 1/2 a gallon, which isn't my usual quantity, but hey i got nothing fermenting at the moment, and plenty of capacity. Leaving it for a year means it'll be a nice treat when it is ready and by then the mint should have spread loads, as is its reputation.

here's the recipe. any thoughts, tips, comments most welcome, escpecially if you have experience of making it, or just drinking it.

I heard that mint is an invasive plant, so I knew it would spread when I planted it last summer. I was still unprepared for the sheer quantity of mint that grew this year. This is one of my solutions.

Ingredients

Age all wines one year or more.

* 4 cups mint leaves, tightly packed
* 6 cups granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup lemon juice
* 2 green tea bags
* 1 teaspoon yeast nutrients
* 1 campden tablet
* 1 gallon water
* 1 package wine yeast or champagne yeast

Rinse mint leaves in cold water. Place clean leaves in a pot and cover with boiling water. Let sit 1 hour. Strain liquid into primary fermentor and lightly squeeze the pulp. Place pulp back in pot, and again cover with boiling water. Let sit 1 hour. Squeeze all liquid from the pulp. Discard pulp. Add water to make up to 1 gallon. Add sugar, nutrients, lemon juice and campden tablets. Stir to dissolve sugar. Let sit overnight.

Next day, Specific Gravity should be 1.090 - 1.100. Stir in yeast. Stir daily for 2 or 3 days until frothing ceases. Siphon into secondary fermentor and attach airlock.

For a dry wine, rack in six weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.

For a sweet wine, rack at six weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.

think i'll aim for a sweet variety and serve it very cold in chilled glasses.

Gonna have to wait for that one Percival but I reckon it'll be worth it :thumb:

hehe, i reckon you're right about the waiting, and i hope you're right about it being worth it!

if the mint recovers from its pretty harsh cutting back (and it should because plenty of people just cant get rid of it!) then its gonna be a forest next year and i'll be making a gallon or more before this lot is ready.

hmmm makes me wonder if ground-elder wine is possible cos we have plenty of this royal pain in the butt in our garden! think i'll go see what google says :hmm:

First racking .... goodness me it tastes like mint and quite yummy. i'm quietly optimistic even tho there is still 11 and 1/2 months to go! definately going to keep adding sugar slowly til it doesnt ferment anymore. going for strong and sweet. May even pop in a high tolerance yeast at that stage if there is enough body to carry it off.

just racked again as it had quite a hefty sediment.
its still fermenting, still sweet, still tastes of mint.
got some way to go yet, no wonder its recommended to take a year minimum.

Fermentation gone very slow and the wine is almost clear, so racked it. Tastes sweet and still plenty of mint flavour but i don't reckon its particularly strong. It also has a very slight earthy flavour, best way i can describe it, and i have no idea where that comes from. Added a little more nutrient and 1/2 teaspoon of acid, gave it a good shake up too. If it doesn't speed up fermenting then it'll get the high alcohol tolerance yeast.

Well it got the high alcohol yeast yesterday and today its fermenting again .... so we're on the path to an 18% ABV wine now

when you state cups, how do you measure that, is that cups as in a china cup for tea, and do you push the leaves down till its pressed full, or put them in lightly??
confused sometimes by these measurements!

I agree, these measurements are a pain in the butt. It was a very experimental wine for me because of this. Best info i can give you is that the leaves were pressed in, but not very hard, i suspect that if i had wanted to i could have got twice as many in! i wish i weighed the leaves now .... ces't la vie, live and learn. A cup to me is considerably less than a mug, as you suggest kinda like an old style tea-cup. When i picked the mint i picked it with stalks and it about half filled a carrier bag but was in no way packed in, rather dropped in, about as loosely packed as you can get. Next year i hope to have much more mint and will make a note of weight. The wine can certainly handle heaps more mint flavour if the taste of mine is anything to go by, tho it will ultimately depend on personal tastes.

sorry i can be more precise about this, i hope the vague description above helps in some way.

Thanks for that perci, it certainly puts me on the right track, thats for sure, looks like maybe a full carrier next time!!

glad i helped a little.

i hope for at least a full bag next time

i'd like to make a gallon or more next time. Think if i have more than a gallons worth (but less than 2) i'll make a stronger tasting brew and keep it to a gallon.

Racked again

still fermenting very slowly, just gonna let it get on with it. Still sweet, still has a nice mint taste. Not in any hurry for this one but it would be great if it managed to ferment a bit more, the sweetness is ok i think because of the mint but a bit drier and more alcohol wouldn't be a bad thing.