Bubble, bubble...

Parsley Wine

Part One here.

The parsley wine is presently bubbling away in its demi-john.  The whole house smells faintly of alcohol and herbs - which is rather nice - and thus far all seems to be going according to plan.

Parsley wine fermenting in demi-john - day 2

 I did taste it, after we'd stirred in 2.5lbs of sugar. I reckoned it'd be pretty hard for that to taste awful - and I was right - sweet and herby with an underlying dry white wineyness about it.

So, the recipe...

Parsley liquid strained over sultanas

Ingredients:
1lb parsley leaves (no stalks)
2 lemons
1lb sultanas (hot washed and chopped)
1 gallon water
Cold boiled water for topping up
Wine yeast and nutrient (I used champagne yeast)
2.5lb sugar
Campden tablet

Sprinkle yeast granules and nutrient into cup of boiled tepid water, cover and leave for an hour.
Strip parsley leaves from stalks; take care not to include any stalks.
Wash well, chop and put into large pan.
Thinly peel lemons, avoiding white pith and place rind in pan with parsley.
Add gallon of water and heat until boiling, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Place sultanas in fermentation bin and strain over parsley liquid.
Discard parsley and lemon rind.
Top up to 1 gallon with cold, boiled water and leave to cool.
When cool add lemon juice and activated yeast/nutrient.
Cover loosely and leave for 5 days to ferment.

Parsley liquid after 5 days fermenting (sultanas floating on top)

 Strain mixture, pressing sultanas to extract as much liquid as possible, then discard
Add sugar to liquid, stirring until dissolved then pour into demi-john and fit airlock.

Fermenting in demi-john

Leave to ferment at temperature about 18C/64F.
When fermentation finished, siphon clearing wine into clean demi-john, adding 1 crushed campden tablet.
Bung tight and store for 3 months in cool place.
Siphon into sterilised bottles, seal tightly and store.

******

:)