Goji and other ideas.

[P_H_I_L_L]

Hi everyone. I'm giddy with excitement after my first brewing success of 15ltrs of a WOW type using red, white GJ, cherry and Orange juices.

I've been a fan of Goji berries for years, I buy them from the Chinese super market in Manchester and get a 200grm bag for £1.99. I have them mixed in yogurt for breakfast and throught the day drink bottled mineral water with a handful shoved in the bottle. They rehydrate over a few hours imparting a nice taste to the water.

I can't be sure of the sugar content as there are so many conflicting amounts on the internet, but the overwhelming consensus is that they are a comparitively high sugar fruit. They are one of the world's best known 'super-foods' containing more anti-oxidents than any other fruit, more vitamin C than oranges and more beta-carotine than carrots.

The Chinese have been making wine from them so I figured I'll try it. I've got about 350grms soaking in a stock pot with almost 5Ltrs of water with one crushed CT. From experience I know that leaving a bottle with some rehydrated berries and a little water they will quickly break down and ferment. Tomorrow I intend to simmer the berries with a bag of suger and force them through a metal seive, discarding the seeds as there are many and inverting the sugar at the same time.

Other than that, my options are open. I've got 8ltr of red grape juice, 2x 440Ml bottles of Malina Raspberry Syrup and 2x 1ltr bottles of Lidl Blackcurrent 'High Juice' (50% Blackcurrent content, I know I'll have to boil off the preservatives). some orange, pineapple and apple juices too.

I've got a couple of 5ltr PETs and two 15ltr water cooler bottles spare. I'm not sure of where to use the goji berries. I might have 3lts of syrupy juice from them once I boil them up and squeeze the juice out. I'm not sure whether to add them as an ingredient in a 15ltr brew, or be the star in a 5ltr with a bit of RGJ and Blackcurrent, or maybe 5lt mixed with the Malina.

I've seen reciepes on here for the Malina with RGJ and Apple, but I'm wondering what it might be like with the high strength Lidl Blackcurrent.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice

Cheers!

 

[wilsoa1111]

mmmn goji berrys, excellent idea, have a nice tanniny tea kick if i recall, so defo a good wine in own right, i would keep it simple maybe just a standard wow recipe with the goji water, or a mead with the goji water... anything to allow full impact- gut feeling is will need 350g for 1 DJs worth if was just goji and nowt else though- suppose with grape should be ok to split into 2 Djs worth

 

[P_H_I_L_L]

Oki Doki, I decided to go for a pure goji brew. The rehydrate well and the soaking water is a very flavoursome 'tea'. After soaking I added about 900grms of sugar and gently simmered the pan for about 40mins. I then let it cool, drained off the liquid and blended the berrier.

Finally I used some muslin to squeeze the juice out. You can see how the juice sat on top of the 'tea'. Mixed up it made a very, very tasty drink.

I took a final reading and it was in the blue bit at 72. Yeast, Nutriant, Pectolase added. No tannin. I'd also added about the juice of a lemon to the soaking water, so that will be in there. Been settled now for about 4 hours with no sign of movement from the bubbler.

Oh, and I also made a 5lt RGJ + Apple +Raspberry Malina and a 15lt water cooler bottle using the 2 litres of lidl Blackcurrent, RGJ + Apple + Raspberry Malina. On that one I also added about and inch of vanilla pod (2 pods from Lidl 99p).

 

[P_H_I_L_L]

After a worryingly slow start, I moved it into a cupboard where the hot water pipes come from the boiler. A day in there and it was bubbling away nicely. It was probably too warm as when I came home from work the bubbles had stopped. I took a reading and it was 992? which I know is very dry. I wondered if the yeast had eaten all the sugar and wanted more, or had the alcohol level got to a point where it killed it off.

Not knowing what the feck I was doing, I decided to add more sugar and see if it started bubbling. I added straight out of the bag, I guess maybe a couple of hundred grammes. The reading when up to 1.08? (I can't read it) and it started bubbling again. 24 hours later and no longer in the warm cupboard it still bubbles once a minute.

I wish I knew ho to read the damn hydrometer or is there a way to tell the alcohol content of a liquid. Anyway, when I tasted it, the good news is it was very 'winey'. The colour is still very orange and gives no sign of clearing at all.

 

[P_H_I_L_L]

Couple of months outside in the dark has made a world of difference, also decanting into small bottles seemed to have sped up the clearing. It is now a glourious, golden colour. Although the colour is similar to a urine sample, the taste is.... unique.

Has a very strong goji taste, after making so many 'carton' based wines where much of the original fruit flavour disappears, the Goji has really retained the 'gojiness'.

It will be worth doing again, but next time I will do exactly the same but instead of making just 5ltrs I'll thin it down to make 15ltrs but add additional sugar. From the roughly 350grms of dried berries I made 5ltrs of really strong juice. It would benefit from being a background flavour rather than a massive smack in the face goji experience.

I did take a picture but just discovered my memory card wasn't in the camera. I'll get around to doing it again and post it.