Coffee wine - recipe questions

[oldbloke]

Can't remember how exact I was with my 4Tbsp of coffee. Probably a little over level as I was half expecting to be dumping it so wasn't being all that careful.
Juice of 2 lemons sounds about right, in my notes I'd forgotten if I used a tsp or a Tbsp, but the CJJB recipe is 1Tbsp, which is getting on for 3 lemons, so if they're small I'd go for 3.
The vanilla sounds a bit much, but I dunno how strong the Dr Oetker is. I just dripped 6 or 7 drops in, not wanting to overdo it and thinking I could add more later if needed. Without shifting a lot of stuff in the cupboard I can't even check if I used extract or essence.
I think you could risk 3.5l to start.
I used granulated. Demerara will probably be nice. Dark muscavado too, probably. I wouldn't risk black treacle for the whole of the sugar, but maybe a Tbsp or 2 just for a bit of extra flavour dimension
I felt this one would benefit from being as strong as possible, and also to finish slightly sweet, so once the initial ferment starts to slow, I suggest at least another 250gm sugar, maybe even 500g.

 

[Bogwitch]

Thanks yet again Oldbloke, I've just realised it was one of your old posts I was reading - it seems we have some similar tastes!

I'll give the vanilla extract a tongue taste test and see where I go with it. I'll go with the demerara for this brew and miss the treacle, I can either backsweeten or top up with something stronger if it needs it or I can go with something different next time.

Thanks again, much appreciated. :hat:

 

[MadrikXIV]

Active is an understatement, mine started to mess with the Air lock, nice and gunky.

Although for my recipe I boiled 200g of sainsburys coffee grounds to dissolve a kilo of muscavodo in on the hob for 5-10 minutes (Smelt amazing)

Then poured this through a gold coffee filter sat inside a straining bag inside a funnel into the demi.

Think that managed to half fill the demi, I then topped this up by pouring the water through the filter/bag/funnel rig

Jet black to start with, still bubbling away rapidly after several weeks, still smells good.

If it tastes good, and finishes fermenting, I may just add some black food colouring when done, just for cosmetics

And if a success, theres a coffee stall on the market near me that sells flavoured ones, that could be interesting

 

[alawlor66430]

What an interesting sounding wine.

 

[oldbloke]

What an interesting sounding wine.

When I did it my idea was to try to make a half strength Tia Maria.
Not far off, but only about 1/3 strength

 

[alawlor66430]

I like coffee so I might like that recipe, my dj's are empty do I might give it a go

 

[PuggledPrune]

My idea is to do this and fortify it with rum.....

 

[alawlor66430]

My idea is to do this and fortify it with rum.....

Mmmm

 

[Bogwitch]

Active is an understatement, mine started to mess with the Air lock, nice and gunky.

I added 3L of water to mine to keep the fermentation out of the airlock. It reached the neck :) It's still going strong, I've put my biggest airlock on and it's still churning away like merry. I also added an additional 400g of demerara to get it up to the strength I was looking for. I'll be adding another 250g towards the end of the week.

Although for my recipe I boiled 200g of sainsburys coffee grounds to dissolve a kilo of muscavodo in on the hob for 5-10 minutes (Smelt amazing)

Then poured this through a gold coffee filter sat inside a straining bag inside a funnel into the demi.

Think that managed to half fill the demi, I then topped this up by pouring the water through the filter/bag/funnel rig

Jet black to start with, still bubbling away rapidly after several weeks, still smells good.

If it tastes good, and finishes fermenting, I may just add some black food colouring when done, just for cosmetics

And if a success, theres a coffee stall on the market near me that sells flavoured ones, that could be interesting

Your recipe sounds stunning. I thought about using some espresso coffee but i don't have filters so I chickened out. If this turns out well, I'll invest in some!

 

[MadrikXIV]

Fingers crossed it works out, as I like my coffee strong like mud, I was determined to get as much from the grounds as possible, hence all water went through them.

It was only whilst brewing a large pan of coffee that I remembered I had a coffee percolator with a good re-usable gold filter in it

Been 4 weeks of bubbling away and it still smells of coffee which is a bonus :pray:

tempted to maybe back sweeten with pure vanilla essence when done

 

[Tankboi]

quick question, would using straight from a filter machine work? (in my head it would but thought I would check)

 

[oldbloke]

Probably.

Just wanted to say, a couple of weeks ago we had some friends over and mixed some of my coffee wine about 50:50 with cream soda.
Absolutely gorgeous. The extra vanilla and sweetness made it the perfect accompaniment to the gooey chocolate dessert we were having at the time.
That's the kind of thing this wine is meant for, I think.

 

[MadrikXIV]

Probably.

Just wanted to say, a couple of weeks ago we had some friends over and mixed some of my coffee wine about 50:50 with cream soda.
Absolutely gorgeous. The extra vanilla and sweetness made it the perfect accompaniment to the gooey chocolate dessert we were having at the time.
That's the kind of thing this wine is meant for, I think.

That does sound good, mine is still, ermm 'clearing' will bottle it soon, it's still jet black to look at so plan on bottling it soon, have some 'cheap' vanilla essence, but not the expensive stuff at the moment, swmbo made cakes with it!!!

Think a drop or 2 per bottle should be enough, good to know as I thought, a perfect after dinner drink

 

[Teenage Kicks]

i made a few bottles of this, except I made up some fresh coffee rather than using instant, took it to the spring thing and consensus seemed to be it wanted to be a little more acidic and a little more aged

since coming home i have tinkered with the bottles adding citric and also sweetening it slightly with canderel and have managed to get something really quite palatable from it just needs some time to round off still

definitely a sipper and not a downer but it certainly has made an interesting drink that will be repeated

 

[The Goatreich]

This sounds amazing, and I'm going to have a go in the next couple of days.

Some questions though:
With the adding of extra sugar in various stages, how easy is it to work out the strength of this?

Would fortifying it with something like brandy work?

To make this more like Baileys I was considering adding some hazelnut milk before bottling. The reason for using hazelnut milk is because SWMBO and I are vegan so don't eat or drink any dairy, meaning Baileys is now off the menu, which is why I would really like to do a vegan version if it is at all possible. Also, hazelnut milk is quite creamy and sweet. Can anyone see a reason why adding non-dairy milk wouldn't work?

I'm also thinking about doing a batch with mint leaves infusing. What stage do you think I'd need to add these, and how many do you think I'd need for a subtle mint hint?

 

[oldbloke]

With the adding of extra sugar in various stages, how easy is it to work out the strength of this?

Tricky if you take any liquid out when you add the extra sugar. If you can avoid that... just work out how much sugar went into it, use the hydrometer to work out how much is left at the end, and do the sums from how much must therefore have been turned to alcohol (rough estimate, 20gm/litre=1%)

Can't really help with your other questions, except maybe the mint should go in at the very end or it'll just get lost I think. But I might be wrong about that.

 

[The Goatreich]

OK, great stuff, thanks.

 

[Tankboi]

I did a basic coffee batch to see what it was like and one I attempted to add flavours to . The standard I found to be very bitter as I would have expected but cut with lemonade just drinkable.. The others I found the coffee over powered late addictions make a vast improvement.

 

[oldbloke]

Cut with cream soda not lemonade!

 

[Tankboi]

Cut with cream soda not lemonade!

Lemonade was all I had at the time, didn't think of cream soda till coming back to this thread.. Wish I had sooner though and am tempted to put a quick batch of juat to have a go!