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cabrita_gw

Making citrus wine and citrus Brandy

cabrita
15 years ago

After two batches of marmalade, (lots shipped to family already, some given to friends), two quarts of salt-preserved Meyers lemons, and a freezer that is getting very full with orange-minneola-grapefruit juices - right at the time when I am also freezing lots of snow peas and greens....fermentation comes to the rescue!

I was not aware that making citrus wine is possible, but apparently it is (hey, I googled and found recipes...). Of course, citrus brandy is even more appealing to me (taste wise) so we are hoping for some eventual brandy. This would require distillation of the wine, not sure if we will get to making a still this year but we might. For the moment, I am posting my notes to making citrus wine. To be more specific, this is minneola wine. Minneola is a cross between a mandarin orange and a grapefruit, the fruit is slightly elongated and very bright orange. It has a bit of acidity and a whole lot more sugar than I suspected (see my specific gravity measurement). For some reason there are a lot of Minneola trees in the town where we live (Altadena, CA). The first structure in my property was built in 1895, and the largest tree is near it, I suspect it must be around that age, so 100 year old Minneola tree? It is a giant. The juicing and wine took only about half of the minneola fruit, and we have a large but smaller tree that has 1/3 of the minneolas left. A friend of ours might help us harvest some and use in brandy making, he promised to share the design for his still.....

MINNEOLA WINE

This is for two, 3 gallon batches. We own 2 secondary fermenters (glass carboys).

2 batches of 9 quarts of minneola juice were added to each primary fermenter. 2 crushed campden tablets were added to each primary fermentation container before adding anything else. Primary fermenters are 6 gallon clear food grade plastic, cylindrical with lids.

Added 6 lbs each for converted sugar (used Ralph's brand 4 lbs sugar bags, 3 each). Did it simultaneously, so used 28 cups (that is 12 lbs) of sugar and 14 cups of water and 7 grams citric acid. Added cleaned and chopped peels of 6 minneolas for taste. Stirred for 1/2 hour. This makes what is called invert sugar syrup. This was divided between each primary fermenter, adding it to the juice (the aforementioned peels of 6 fruit were also added). These were allowed to sit overnight (covered with a clean cloth). I could have added the yeast at this point but I preferred to wait until the must was cooler, just to be on the safe side.

Used one packet of yeast. Allowed to sit in 2 oz or warm water for 15 minutes. Stirred (after 15 minute wait) and divided between the two fermenters. Here is the information on the yeast packet:

Lalvin wine yeast, made in Canada

Bourgovin RC212

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

B.I.V.B.

for 1 to 6 US gallons

5 grams

Lallemand Inc. Montreal Canada

Specific gravity measured at 1.145 before adding yeast. Must tasted really sweet. 20% alcohol maximum if all converts. Since only about 12% is possible I will have a lot of residual sugar. Big surprise since other recipes posted for citrus wine called for more than double the amount of sugar I added.

After two days the mix is bubbling and obviously fermenting.

I will continue on the notes when we transfer to the secondary fermenters.

By the way, has anybody here made brandy from wine? any advice? I do not mean liqueurs where one adds a flavoring to vodka, I mean making brandy by distillation. I am thinking about trying to distill after the secondary fermentation is done. I was wondering if sugar would go into the distillate or the 'waste' product? I would guess it is left behind since they are heavier molecules? The compost pile will accept any 'waste' products so nothing will really be wasted.

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