Lemon wine can be a little sharp, but with a few tweaks to the recipe, you can have all the flavours of a lemon meringue pie in a glass of wine.
No, don't worry, we wont be making a lemon meringue pie and then fermenting it, we'll be using ingredients and techniques to make the flavours you get in a lemon meringue pie but all encompassed in a delicious tasting white wine.
Serve this chilled on a warm summers day and be fully refreshed.
Ingredients:
- 6 Lemons
- 1kg Granulated sugar
- 250g Brewing Sugar
- 1 Mangrove Jacks CL23 Yeast
- 1tsp Yeast Nutrient
- 1tsp Pectolase
- 1 Campden Tablet (crushed)
- 2 Pints boiling water
- 5 1/2 Pints Cold Tap Water
- 500ml White Wine Enhancer
- 1/2 teaspoon Fermentation Stopper
- 250g Lactose
- 150g Maltodextrin
- Finings
Equipment: (We have a fruit wine starter kit if needed)
Brewing Bucket
Demi-John with Air-Lock
Siphon
Straining Bag
Steriliser
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Bottles & Corks & Corker
Grater
Jug
Method
Sterilise your fermenting bucket.
Using a grater, remove the rind from the lemons, being careful not to take any of the white pith as that will make your wine bitter.
Cut the lemons in half and juice the lemons. Add the juice and the bits (less any pips) to the fermenting bucket.
While juicing, put the kettle on to boil as we need 2 pints boiling water
Add the sugar to the fermentation bucket
Add the boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar.
Once dissolved add the 500ml White Wine Enhancer and stir.
Add the 5 1/2 pints of cold tap water and stir.
Check the temperature, it should be near 20°C.
Take a Specific Gravity (SG) reading with your hydrometer and make a note of the reading for calculating the alcohol content.
Add the pectolase, yeast nutrient and stir.
Add the packet of CL23 yeast and stir.
Cover with the lid and place in a warm place (25°C) for 5-7 days until fermentation is complete.
Syphon the wine into a Demi-John being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the bucket.
Fit an airlock (1/5 filled with water) and put back in the warm place for another week or until no more bubbles pass through the airlock.
To be sure the fermentation is complete, check the lemon wine with a hydrometer to make sure the specific gravity is below 1.000 (ideally 0.996). If not leave for a few more days.
Syphon the wine off the sediment into a clean sterilised demijohn.
Add 1 crushed campden tablet and 1/2 teaspoon Fermentation Stopper, then put the airlock back in.
Swirl the wine for 1 minute. This will knock out any CO2 dissolved in the wine. You are not trying to mix air in, so make sure you do not create a vortex or splash the wine. The gas should escape through the airlock.
Swirl the wine around again for 3 more times leaving 5 mins in between each swirling.
Leave for 2 days giving 3 x 1 minute swirls each day.
Add the finings as per the instructions and then put the demi-john somewhere cool to start the clearing process.
Leave to clear. It can take anywhere from 24 - 72 hours for the wine to clear.
Once clear rack the wine off the sediment into a clean sterilised demijohn.
We recommend filtering your wine before bottling using a Harris Mark III filter to remove any microscopic particles. This helps remove any yeasty homebrew flavours.
Take 300ml of the wine and put into a small saucepan and put on the hob
Turn on the heat and pour in the lactose.
Stir to dissolve, it will turn milky, but keep heating and stirring and suddenly it will turn clear.
As soon as it turns clear, turn off the heat.
Now add in the Maltodextrin and stir until dissolved.
Add in another 200ml of wine and stir. You may find some of the lactose has not fully dissolved, this is not a problem.
Using a funnel, pour the saucepan of wine, lactose and maltodextrin mixture back into the wine in your demi-john and stir to mix it all together.
Leave for 48 hours for the wine to settle and any lactose that has not dissolved to settle on the bottom.
Bottle the wine.
Store for 2 - 6 months in the bottles to condition.
Chill and then pop open a bottle of lemon meringue pie wine and enjoy.
The yeast will have created some diacetyl, which will give the flavour of the pastry, the lactose will give the creamy feel and sweetness of the meringue and the maltodextrin will give extra body to help the lemon curd mouthfeel.
If you want to make more than 4.5 litres (6 bottles) then adjust the quantities accordingly.
Cheers & Happy brewing.