Christmas Pudding Wine!
Christmas Pudding wine is one of my favourite homebrews to make in the spring. You can usually find an ample supply of half price, reduced and sometimes free Christmas puddings in the bargain isle of supermarkets after the Crimbo festivities have faded away.
Christmas pudding wine is a malty sweet, succulent desert wine that will grace any festive pudding. If you get a few gallons underway in the spring, you can enjoy it the following Christmas!
My recipe below makes 2 gallons of this festive cheer.
Christmas pudding wine is a malty sweet, succulent desert wine that will grace any festive pudding. If you get a few gallons underway in the spring, you can enjoy it the following Christmas!
My recipe below makes 2 gallons of this festive cheer.
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Ingredients:
- 2lb of Christmas puddings
- 2 over ripe bananas
- 2kg granulated sugar
- 500g dark brown sugar
- 500g sultanas or raisins
- 1 tin of grapefruit segments
- High alcohol / desert wine yeast
Method:
Slice and dice the Christmas pudding and add to a pan of boiling water, and add your sugar - both the granulated and the brown. Add the bananas (skins as well), the sultanas or raisins and the tine of grapefruit segments and simmer your concoction for about an hour.
Once your kitchen has filled with a Christmas aroma that will make you sing jingle bells, our the must into your sterilised fermentation bucket, top up with water to just over 2 gallons, and allow to cool before pitching in the yeast.
Once your kitchen has filled with a Christmas aroma that will make you sing jingle bells, our the must into your sterilised fermentation bucket, top up with water to just over 2 gallons, and allow to cool before pitching in the yeast.
After 7 days of your wine fermenting in the primary vessel, strain off the juice into a demijohn and let it ferment further. By adding a teaspoon of sugar every couple of days and feeding the yeast, the wine will make the most of the high alcohol wine yeast that you have used, resulting in a wine that has more bang than the combined Christmas crackers on your festive table.
Keep on top of the racking process, the suet used in the Christmas pudding does continue to drop for quite some time and can cause off flavours if left. Allow to mature and bottle.
Sit back, relax and have a fantastic Christmas!
Keep on top of the racking process, the suet used in the Christmas pudding does continue to drop for quite some time and can cause off flavours if left. Allow to mature and bottle.
Sit back, relax and have a fantastic Christmas!
