I had fond memories of sampling a friends Pea Pod Wine back in the late 60's and remembered it as tasting like a Sauterne.
So, when I started to get interested in brewing again and saw some cheap fresh peas in Morrisons, I decided to make some.
This was back in July 2015 so in September 2015, after three months "maturing", I opened a sample to discover that it tasted absolutely foul and smelled strongly of pea pods. I sampled the wine periodically for the next year but decided that it would never come good and noted "Do Not Make Again" in the Wine and Cider Diary.
Today, I was tidying up the shelves in the garage, saw a 500ml beer bottle with the magic "PP" written on the top so I brought it in and opened it.
WOW! What a difference! I let SWMBO (originally harshly critical of the wine) taste it and she thought it was one of the sweet Muscat Rivesaltes that we bring back from France!
For those who may be interested when the pea season arrives here is the recipe:
1.0kg of pea pods
1 grapefruit
2 Oranges
2kg of sugar
4 litres of boiling water
1 packet of Wilco Wine Yeast
Rinse the pods under a tap, allow them to drain, put them into a pan and bruise them well with a pestle or the handle of a spoon.
Cut of the grapefruit and the oranges into chunks and put them with the pea pods.
Pour the 4 litres of boiling water over everything and allow them to steep overnight.
The next day heat the pan so that the mixture just reaches boiling point: then remove the pan from the heat and strain everything into a DJ.
Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cool to 20 degrees and then pitch the yeast.
After a week the fermentation slowed down so I topped up the DJ to the neck with boiled water.
When fermentation was complete, I cleared the wine with Kwik-Clear, syphoned it off into a clean DJ and added a crushed Campden Tablet before bottling.
As previously explained, this is a wine that needs a long conditioning time and at the moment I am upset that I have finished off the brew "sampling" it instead of having the patience to wait for it to come good!
Pillock!
So, when I started to get interested in brewing again and saw some cheap fresh peas in Morrisons, I decided to make some.
This was back in July 2015 so in September 2015, after three months "maturing", I opened a sample to discover that it tasted absolutely foul and smelled strongly of pea pods. I sampled the wine periodically for the next year but decided that it would never come good and noted "Do Not Make Again" in the Wine and Cider Diary.
Today, I was tidying up the shelves in the garage, saw a 500ml beer bottle with the magic "PP" written on the top so I brought it in and opened it.
WOW! What a difference! I let SWMBO (originally harshly critical of the wine) taste it and she thought it was one of the sweet Muscat Rivesaltes that we bring back from France!
For those who may be interested when the pea season arrives here is the recipe:
1.0kg of pea pods
1 grapefruit
2 Oranges
2kg of sugar
4 litres of boiling water
1 packet of Wilco Wine Yeast
Rinse the pods under a tap, allow them to drain, put them into a pan and bruise them well with a pestle or the handle of a spoon.
Cut of the grapefruit and the oranges into chunks and put them with the pea pods.
Pour the 4 litres of boiling water over everything and allow them to steep overnight.
The next day heat the pan so that the mixture just reaches boiling point: then remove the pan from the heat and strain everything into a DJ.
Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cool to 20 degrees and then pitch the yeast.
After a week the fermentation slowed down so I topped up the DJ to the neck with boiled water.
When fermentation was complete, I cleared the wine with Kwik-Clear, syphoned it off into a clean DJ and added a crushed Campden Tablet before bottling.
As previously explained, this is a wine that needs a long conditioning time and at the moment I am upset that I have finished off the brew "sampling" it instead of having the patience to wait for it to come good!
Pillock!