Gooseberry Wine Sat, 20th Jun 2009
Gooseberry Wine
Provided by HOP SHOP 22 Dale Road Mutley Plymouth PL4 6PE
www.hopshopuk.com Tel 01752 660382
GOOSEBERRY WINE dry
- Juice from 1kilo of Gooseberries
- 500ml White Grape Juice (without preservative) in a carton or 250ml White Grape Concentrate
- 750g White Sugar
- 1 teaspoon nutrient
- 1 teaspoon pectolase
- Gervin D yeast
- Campden tablet
- Finings
- Water to 1 gallon
For best results use fully ripe Gooseberries. It is recommended to extract the juice. To do this easily just wash the fruit and put in the freezer. In this case there is no need to top and tail them.
When you are ready to make the wine remove the fruit from the freezer, put it in a suitable container and pour 1 1/2 pints of boiling water over. When the mixture has reached room temperature squeeze the fruit under the water with your hands and burst each berry.
Add the pectolase, cover the mixture, and leave for a couple of hours for the enzyme to work.
Press out the juice using a fruit press, if available, or a nylon straining bag. The gooseberry juice, white grape juice, sugar, nutrient and yeast can all be added to the demijohn.
Ferment in the usual way under an airlock, rack, fine and rack the wine again before bottling.
You can ferment on the pulp if you want to but if you are doing this top and tail the fruit first and keep the pulp fermentation short, just a couple of days.
You can use 2kg of Gooseberries which will produce a fuller bodied medium dry wine with a higher acid level. In this case it would be important to use a yeast that will reduce the level of Malic Acid, such as Gervin D Yeast.