Jonny69
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I thought I'd post my tried-and-tested recipe for a sweet parsnip wine that kicks off with its own natural yeast. It's a slow one, but it's well worth the wait.
In July 2012 I followed a parsnip wine recipe I'd found online, which recommended using an over-ripe banana to add dessert wine flavours. I knew what it meant - black bananas smell a bit like Sauternes rot, so I gave it a go. I ran out of time during that week and didn't get around to pitching the yeast, but by the time the weekend came round I noticed it had kicked off all by itself. Everything except the banana had been boiled, so the yeast must have come from the squishy black yella fella. I decided to leave it to see what it did, and I'm glad I did because it's one of the best wines I've ever made. This week I replicated what I did, including the tweaks I made to the recipe (a couple of extra lemons to boost the acidity and citrus notes) and, after a nervous wait for the natural yeast to start, I'm confident to post the recipe.
Ingredients:
2kg parsnips
250g raisins
4 lemons
1200g white sugar
1 over-ripe banana, gone nice and black.
Remember it's the banana that provides the yeast for this wine, so make sure it's nice and black and squishy!
Method:
Scrub the parsnips and chop them into 5-10mm slices. Blitz or grind the raisins with a little water to form a smooth paste. Zest the lemons and squeeze the juice out, but don't discard the skins. Simmer the parsnips, the raisin paste, the lemon zest, juice and skins with the sugar in 4 litres of water for about 15 minutes. I had to do it in two batches.
Pour the lot through a sieve into a fermenting bucket and allow to cool. Once cool, add a crushed Campden tablet and a teaspoon of pectolase, which will help it clear since boiled parsnip is quite hazy. Cover and allow it to sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, mash the banana and add it to the bucket, giving the liquid a good whisk. Cover it well and use clingfilm if your fermentation bucket doesn't have a good fitting lid, because you don't want anything else getting in there.
Now go and make a cup of tea, enjoy, and wait. Later in the evening you may wish to make some Ovaltine, then maybe a coffee the next morning and rinse and repeat for the next week. It will take a while to get going, but after about a week you should notice a frothy yeast cake suddenly forms on the top which looks like this:
Now we're in business! Get it in a demijohn and top up with cooled boiled water.
Some things you need to know about natural yeast:
- It takes a LOT longer to brew that commercial yeast. This wine will take at least 6 weeks to brew and up to 3 months, so be patient.
- It can't take as high alcohol abv as a commercial yeast, so it will brew to about 12% and the wine will still be sweet.
- Clearing is very slow, but it will clear by itself - the secret is to just leave it somewhere and forget about it.
- Natural yeast also forms quite a soft sediment that is disturbed quite easily, so once it has cleared, you'll need to move it to where you do your racking and let it stand for a few days, because you will disturb it when you move it.
It will still taste a bit funky after you rack it, so de-gas it and leave it to stand in a demijohn with an airlock for another two months and it suddenly becomes an amazing sweet dessert wine that you'll want to share with your friends. If you want to add Campden or sorbate, then do it now, but not earlier because there will still be some activity going on. I put mine on in early July 2012. I think it took 3 months in total because it was drinkable in September and very good by Christmas.
I have made the same wine with Young's wine yeast which has brewed to completely dry, though it is not as good in my opinion. It is harsher-tasting and currently has that 'home brew' background taste to it. That said, it is sitting in the loft conditioning and I keep revisiting it, so it may well improve. I'll probably back-sweeten it. Either way I'll keep this thread updated with both :thumb:
In July 2012 I followed a parsnip wine recipe I'd found online, which recommended using an over-ripe banana to add dessert wine flavours. I knew what it meant - black bananas smell a bit like Sauternes rot, so I gave it a go. I ran out of time during that week and didn't get around to pitching the yeast, but by the time the weekend came round I noticed it had kicked off all by itself. Everything except the banana had been boiled, so the yeast must have come from the squishy black yella fella. I decided to leave it to see what it did, and I'm glad I did because it's one of the best wines I've ever made. This week I replicated what I did, including the tweaks I made to the recipe (a couple of extra lemons to boost the acidity and citrus notes) and, after a nervous wait for the natural yeast to start, I'm confident to post the recipe.
Ingredients:
2kg parsnips
250g raisins
4 lemons
1200g white sugar
1 over-ripe banana, gone nice and black.
Remember it's the banana that provides the yeast for this wine, so make sure it's nice and black and squishy!
Method:
Scrub the parsnips and chop them into 5-10mm slices. Blitz or grind the raisins with a little water to form a smooth paste. Zest the lemons and squeeze the juice out, but don't discard the skins. Simmer the parsnips, the raisin paste, the lemon zest, juice and skins with the sugar in 4 litres of water for about 15 minutes. I had to do it in two batches.
Pour the lot through a sieve into a fermenting bucket and allow to cool. Once cool, add a crushed Campden tablet and a teaspoon of pectolase, which will help it clear since boiled parsnip is quite hazy. Cover and allow it to sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, mash the banana and add it to the bucket, giving the liquid a good whisk. Cover it well and use clingfilm if your fermentation bucket doesn't have a good fitting lid, because you don't want anything else getting in there.
Now go and make a cup of tea, enjoy, and wait. Later in the evening you may wish to make some Ovaltine, then maybe a coffee the next morning and rinse and repeat for the next week. It will take a while to get going, but after about a week you should notice a frothy yeast cake suddenly forms on the top which looks like this:
Now we're in business! Get it in a demijohn and top up with cooled boiled water.
Some things you need to know about natural yeast:
- It takes a LOT longer to brew that commercial yeast. This wine will take at least 6 weeks to brew and up to 3 months, so be patient.
- It can't take as high alcohol abv as a commercial yeast, so it will brew to about 12% and the wine will still be sweet.
- Clearing is very slow, but it will clear by itself - the secret is to just leave it somewhere and forget about it.
- Natural yeast also forms quite a soft sediment that is disturbed quite easily, so once it has cleared, you'll need to move it to where you do your racking and let it stand for a few days, because you will disturb it when you move it.
It will still taste a bit funky after you rack it, so de-gas it and leave it to stand in a demijohn with an airlock for another two months and it suddenly becomes an amazing sweet dessert wine that you'll want to share with your friends. If you want to add Campden or sorbate, then do it now, but not earlier because there will still be some activity going on. I put mine on in early July 2012. I think it took 3 months in total because it was drinkable in September and very good by Christmas.
I have made the same wine with Young's wine yeast which has brewed to completely dry, though it is not as good in my opinion. It is harsher-tasting and currently has that 'home brew' background taste to it. That said, it is sitting in the loft conditioning and I keep revisiting it, so it may well improve. I'll probably back-sweeten it. Either way I'll keep this thread updated with both :thumb: