Very Old Barley Wine Brew

[naff123]

So as the title says.

I am very lucky to be handed down a book of recipes that was written by a friends great-great-grandfather and picked this one as the first to do I also intend to do a Marrow Whiskey very soon as well.

But yes after 2 years of not brewing anything at all decided i'll actually do it properly (No offence to the premade shop bought stuff).

So Ingrediants include
3lbs of Sugar
2 tsp of Ground Ginger
1 Sliced Orange
1 Sliced Lemon
5 tsp of Yeast
1 and half lbs of Barley

Took half hour of boiling and simmering the barley with 1 and half gallon of water.

Which I preceded to strain using a muslin cloth into a fermenting bucket, added the sugar, ginger, lemon and orange.

Stirring it all in till the sugar dissolved, leaving it an hour to cool down to lukewarm temperature before adding the yeast. Finally sealing the bucket to be left for 2 weeks in my airing cupboard.

Next steps is to bottle it and leave for 6 months whilst occasionally adding sugar candy to the wine over the time.

The question is what makes a good sugar candy to add to the wine??

 

[cheapbrew]

What was the SG?
How are you gonna add anything after you bottle?

Idon't know about sugar candy, I've always used golden syrup for higher abv desert wines.

 

[naff123]

I was literally just going to just open the wine bottle once it is bottled was thinking along the lines of boiled sweets or sherbet based sweets like love hearts. Never thought of Syrup that is a really good idea.

Sorry I don't know what SG means could you elaborate??

 

[cheapbrew]

Starting Gravity from a hydrometer reading, have you got one?

Golden syrup is partially inverted so its easier for the yeast to convert to alcohol especially when they are getting near their alcohol limit.

 

[naff123]

It says currently SG of 1.08 but hare to gauge as there's not enough depth

 

[naff123]

Starting Gravity from a hydrometer reading, have you got one?

Golden syrup is partially inverted so its easier for the yeast to convert to alcohol especially when they are getting near their alcohol limit.

Panic over as I just inspected the batch and it is starting to kick up in smell a good sign it smells like a wine I've never made before certainly intrigued to taste it.