Camden Tablets
Country Wine Yeast
400gms of White Grape Concentrate
900gms of Sugar
Yeast Nutrient
Tannin
Citric Acid
Finings
Potassium Sorbate
For 10 litre just double up the volumes.
1. 2 Kilos of Fresh Parsnips. These should be freshly dug (make sure we don’t have any soil). Cleaned thoroughly top and tail then cut in small pieces and boil in a pan of water (3.5 litres you can do it in two pans if you don’t have one large enough) and simmer for about 20 mins. The Parsnip should be tender (but not mushy) and leave them to cool in the water (20 to25C). . At this point feel free to add anything that you might think might enhance the wine and give it more flavour. The sort of things is Bananas Raisins Sultans Cranberries Blueberries. If they are hard adding at the time of boiling water if soft they can go in now.
Making Instructions (Recipe)
Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine is Sterilised before starting.
2. Discard the parsnips (make some soup out these rather than waste them) and put the water (temperature should be between 20-25C) in the plastic bucket. Add the Grape Juice, 450gms of Sugar, 15gms (a teaspoon) of Citric Acid, Tannin (half a teaspoon) Yeast Nutrient and Yeast. Pour through the Straining Bag into the Demi John.
3. There should be space below the neck on the Demi John so we can add the extra sugar later. Fit the airlock half filled with clean water.
4. Leave to ferment for 5 days. Temperature should be 20-25C. After the 5 days add the remaining 450gms of sugar. If there isn’t enough room remove a little of the liquid. Leave again until fermentation is complete (depending on the temperature as to how long). This will normally be when the airlock has stopped bubbling but always use your hydrometer to make sure. It’s should be around 1.010 or less on the scale and will show the same reading for a few days.
5. Siphon the wine off the sediment back into the sterilised bucket leaving the sediment behind. Clean out the demi john and then pour the wine back into it from the bucket. Add a campden tablet (one per 5 litres) and a teaspoon of potassium sorbate (per 5 litres). Stir or shake well. We need to get rid of the carbon dioxide in the wine before adding the finings. Once done add the finings. Leave in a cool place to clear. When clear you can then bottle your wine. See our guide on bottling.
Parsnip Wine can be quite sweet so if you do want to add further sugar to the wine do this before bottling. It is best served as a medium sweet style wine (or a Dessert Wine). Really needs one year to mature.
General Guidelines for Fruit Wines
Always try to make sure the fruit is clean and bug free
Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine at any stage of the process is clean and sterilised.
Use a hydrometer and thermometer at all times Check out the Guides on the web site.
Make sure when shaking a Demi John made of glass that you always release the pressure between shaking. Glass Demi Johns can build up a lot of pressure and can crack or split if this is not done.
When bottling the wine see the Love Brewing videos on “Cleaning Bottling Corking and Storage”.
