Next mad plan - mint

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
O

oldbloke

Regular.
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
300
Reaction score
18
Haven't done anything non-mainstream for a while, so...

Mint wine

Anybody done it?
Real mint? A syrup? An essence? Peppermint/spearmint/what?

What else to put in to aim for a half-strength creme de menthe?
Apart, obv, from a high-tolerance yeast and lots of (staged) sugar...

Alaskan Bootlegger just has 3cups fresh mint leaves per gallon (US gallon), sugar, yeast
 
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm

Mouth wash anyone :lol: :lol:

Put some clove in it and you could get the real dentist experience in a glass. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Sounds awesome, I wouldn't mind giving it a blast (will have to talk my mother into growing mint in the herb bed she is planning. The only problem might be in the antibac properties of mint. It is actually fairly toxic to small critters, I don't know whether or not it'd affect yeast though. Would be very interested to hear any results though.
 
Brewtrog said:
Sounds awesome, I wouldn't mind giving it a blast (will have to talk my mother into growing mint in the herb bed she is planning. The only problem might be in the antibac properties of mint. It is actually fairly toxic to small critters, I don't know whether or not it'd affect yeast though. Would be very interested to hear any results though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that can be a problem.. When I was a kid, I was over at a friend's place and his parents were talking about a friend of theirs who had wild rhubarb growing in his back garden and decided to make a mash out of it and brew wine.. Turns out that rhubarb is a fairly acidic plant and concentrating and fermenting it makes some pretty nasty strong acid.. Apparently their friend ended up in hospital getting his stomach pumped.

And the moral of this story boys and girls is to:

a) Know exactly what it is that you're distilling. (Hemlock wine isn't going to do you much good)

and

b) Get yourself some Universal Indicator paper, so that if the mix you create is too acidic you can throw in some baking soda to even it out, or if it's alkaline, you can add some citric acid. (Can't really think of any plants off the top of my head that would be alkaline, though..)
 
In a book I have there is a bit on rhubarb - it points out that only the leaves are high in oxalic acid, which can make you ill. The stalks of the rhubarb are perfectly safe to use, although they might still be a little acidic, but not harmfully so, it just needs balanced out. You wouldn't eat rhubarb leaves, so don't make wine with them!

I made a mint extract with vodka, and the instructions I used warned not to leave the mint in there for more than two or three days or it goes yucky (even in vodka!) so that might be something to consider when making wine. Maybe add it in a mesh bag in secondary?
 
Grunaki said:
Yeah, that can be a problem.. When I was a kid, I was over at a friend's place and his parents were talking about a friend of theirs who had wild rhubarb growing in his back garden and decided to make a mash out of it and brew wine.. Turns out that rhubarb is a fairly acidic plant and concentrating and fermenting it makes some pretty nasty strong acid.. Apparently their friend ended up in hospital getting his stomach pumped.

...
(Can't really think of any plants off the top of my head that would be alkaline, though..)
Click to expand...

Mint isn't that toxic, it's just what makes mint taste cool doesn't do small animals any good. Any green part of rhubarb is full of oxalic acid and is not good for human consumption.
Nothing you'd want to be brewing I think.
 
Avoid spearmint and peppermint, just plain garden mint. I have an untried recipe claiming to be like mild creme de menthe, involving 120 ml chopped mint and 3 pounds of honey, so rather expensive.
As for rhubarb, next month is the best time to pick, but everthing is late this year. Never cook it for winemaking. Chop it and either crush it or pour the sugar on it to extract the flavour.
 
Well, weirdly, given how most people have trouble keeping mint under control, we don't have any in our garden. So I thought I might combine the mint experiment with my first foray into herbalteabag wine and get a box of mint teabags.
But what else should go in to get it close to a half-strength creme de menthe?
 
you could add a few menthol crystals if you want a real kick (caution as there are very strong)
 
Creme de menthe is a sweetish liqueur, so use mint like any other herb/flower wine with the typical overdose of 3 pounds of sugar. Throw in some cheap vodka at the end, et voila! But it's not something to drink in any quantity. A nice digestif and a great stomach settler though.
 
Well this is what I found...


600ml of mint ( tips where poss) into a 2ltr jug and bashed to bruise up
1 jar lime marmalade
zest and juice of 2 limes
zest and juice of 1 lemon
400g unrefined granulated sugar
1 double strength mug of tea

Sugar, marmalade and zest into 2ltrs of boiling water until all dissolved. Remove from heat and add the rest.
Allow to cool, sieve into a demi-john and top up. Add wine yeast.

As I remember it, interesting but not really the flavours I was after ( this was a tester for a carbonated version to be used as a mixer ).
 

Similar threads

R
Thornbridge: How We Brew
Replies
3
Views
6K
GHW
G

Latest posts

Back
Top