Alcohol from Colditz, revisited (2)
Turnip Wine
The next stage:
Turning the jam into a ‘wine’.
- Nigel sent me this recipe
there are very few people from colditz still alive.
however the following recipe would be very close to theirs:
2 lb red jam
2 to 2.5 lb sugar
1 lemon or lemon juice (or a couple of cooking apples)
8 oz sultanas.
yeast (makes one gallon).
i warn you that this is not a wine for drinking. it was used to make alcohol for distilling. you'd have to add sultanas or raisins to keep the yeast happy.
This is Sunday afternoon. That noname red jam is looking pretty good, could have completed this stage last night.
The recipe I used.
Ingredients jar 1
2 lb turnip jam
2 lb of raw sugar
1 lemon, juice of
Couple of dozen currents
Boiled water to make it up to 1 gallon, well 4 ½ liters really
Ingredients jar 2
2 lb turnip jam
2 lb of raw and white sugar
1 tsp acid blend (50% tartaric, 30% malic, 20% citric).
½ tsp yeast nutrient
Yeast from starter bottle in fridge. (Red Star Premier Cuvée)
Boiled water to make it up to 4 ½ liters.
Method
1.Add Jam.
2.Add sugar
3.add ......(jar1) - lemon juice and currents or ......(jar2) - acid blend yeast nutrient yeast
4.Cooled boiled water to half fill the bottle
5.add air trap
6.swish to mix, until sugar dissolved
7.add rest of water
8.Leave until fermentation ceases
There we have it.
The bottles can sit there until fermentation completes. It's summer here (37.8°C today) so should be fairly quick.
Bottle on the Left is Jar 1, you can see the raisins at the bottom of the jar. (click on the thumbnails for larger pictures)
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In the background you can see – L to R
Top of the 2-litre jar with ‘plum vinegar’ that was reused as Jar3
Top of the gallon of good plum wine, still going strong
Front, the jam jar
The two turnip jam fermenters. Bottle on the Left is Jar 1; you can see the raisins at the bottom.
Primary fermentation of a (dried) elderberry wine
Jar marinating grapes, sugar, cinnamon, orange and lemon peel
Jar continuing primary mead fermentation; on top is a Sall jar with a ginger beer plant.
You can also see the yeast starter that I use, various brewing aids, and liqueur Muscat bottle that assisted the work.
Kept thinking about the remainder of the turnip that jam I’ve put in the refrigerator. Might try it on bread again if I put some colouring into it, but realistically won’t ever use it again.
If there were no alternatives, I guess you could get used to it, but we don’t have to. My local supermarket has premium jams from Australia and France that I have noticed, and home brand varieties from Poland and Belgium.
If I looked seriously, there are probably more there. I’m a vegemite addict, so don’t worry about the jams too much.
So:
Ingredients jar 3
1 lb turnip jam
0 lb of white sugar, yes that is zero, wonder if they had sugar to spare in colditz
½ tsp acid blend (50% tartaric, 30% malic, 20% citric).
½ tsp pectinase
¼ tsp yeast nutrient
½ Campden tablet crushed
Yeast from starter bottle in fridge. (Red Star Premier Cuvée)
Boiled water to make it up to 2 liters.
Method
1.Add Jam.
2.Add sugar
3.Add acid blend, yeast nutrient and pectinase
4.Add ½ crushed campden tablet
5.Cooled boiled water to half fill the bottle
6.add air trap
7.swish to mix thoroughly
8.sit 24 hours
9.Add Yeast from starter bottle.
10.Boiled water to make it up to 2 liters.
11.Leave until fermentation ceases
You can see Jar 3 here; interesting to note that the jars with either lemon juice or pectinase have settled better. Fermentation is not obvious in any of these bottles yet. (again, click on the thumbnail to see the detail)
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