Thursday, February 18, 2010

Cure-All

Here's the recipe for a small (2 gallon) batch I bottled and corked the other day. I tasted the hydrometer's share to make sure it didn't need to be sweetened (FG was 1.001!) and it was amazingly smooth, especially considering the high alcohol content. Carla doesn't like chamomile or mint, but she loves this wine. We're excited to see what age will do to it!

With the antioxidants and beta-carotene of carrots, anti-inflammatory and soothing effects of chamomile, and digestive healing powers of mint, who's to say it isn't a cure-all? If you use tea bags for your chamomile and/or mint, make sure the only ingredient in the tea is its respective herb. The measurements are in grams because each Bigelow tea bag I had contained one gram of material.


Cure-All

SG: 1.121
FG:1.001
ABV: 15.75%

Ingredients:
-10 g dried chamomile
-8 g dried mint
-2 black tea bags
-5 lbs carrots, chopped but not skinned (you can save these to eat!)
-handful of raisins (optional)
-2 tsp yeast nutrient

Yeast:
Montrachet dry wine yeast

Sugar:
5 lbs white granulated

Directions:
Boil the chopped carrots in a little over 2 gallons of water, or as much as your container will hold, until they are soft to the touch. Remove carrots through straining and throw them in the fridge to heat up as a quick side dish later (throw some butter and chili salt on there!) Turn off heat and steep all tea bags/herbs in carrot water for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags, stir in 5 lbs white granulated sugar. Pour into fermentation vessel (I used two 1 gal glass jugs from commercial crapper wine), top off with water if needed, pitch yeast and nutrient, fit with airlock.

My batch was started on 12/30/09 and bottled on 2/7/10, with fermentation at 64-66 degrees Fahrenheit. You could ferment at a higher temperature to finish it quicker, but I'm not sure if it would taste quite as smooth as it does this way. It's a full-bodied elixir, silky smooth...mmm!

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