Dates

[winingkiwi]

Not expiry dates, but dates like wot comes from palm trees. Anyone used these in a wine recipe?

I've got some dates (chopped), some raisins, currants, some dried chopped apricots, and a good few oranges, all come by on the cheap. So now I'm looking for what I can add (besides sugar, water and yeast) to make an interesting brew.

Found some info on the web about sugar content for dried fruit and reckon all together I have about 563g of sugars. I could bung in a litre of AJ plus a few of the oranges to get to the 800s, needing about 400g dextrose to get to around 1.090 SG for 4.5 litres.

Might chuck in some cinnamon and/or a vanilla pod while it's in the primary. Not sure about that, we do hot summers down here and I don't want a spicy number. But it might be at it's best well after things cool down again.

I'm assuming pectolase might also be a good idea, but not citric acid? Any obvious improvements spring to mind?

 

[Gayle]

Maybe add a carton of grape juice? Maybe dark brown sugar or even some treacle instead of some of the brewing sugar? If you're making a wine it should give more body to it than orange juice and fruit sugar. Not all of the sugars in the fruits will be entirely fermentable, so you may want to add a little more to make up for that, but I don't know how much. It depends on the abv you're aiming for really. You probably won't need nutrient as the raisins are good for that, or citric acid as there's oranges, and not sure about pectloase but it doesn't hurt to add it anyway! You could wait until fermentation is finished and add the spices to secondary as the flavours are easier to control then.

 

[GeorgeSalt]

It's almost getting a bit late for it, but the dried fruit into a bottle of cheap brandy would be an interesting base for a winter liqueur. I started one five weeks ago that's getting ready for bottling, I didn't use dates but I have recipes for versions that do. If you started this weekend you'd get four weeks steeping and bottle on Christmas Eve..

 

[winingkiwi]

Thanks, I was wondering about this being a bit skinny. WGJ is hard to get here though and expensive at the best of times. Might have to scrounge up some dark sugar...

Not so sure about the winter liqueur, though; it'll be high summer here by then. And I'm not a huge brandy fan.