Grandma's Wheat Wine

[mattsbrewery]

My father has been nagging me to make this for a few years. Apparently, his mother made it almost every year. Here's the recipe he sent:

WHEAT WINE:

1 gal clean wheat
8 gal water
2 grapefruit (cut off ends of all fruit)
1 lemon
5 oranges
Grind all fruits
4 lbs raisins
2 pkg dry yeast
24 pounds of sugar

Place mixture in large container and cover. Can be kept at room temperature.

Let mixture stand 2 weeks, stir each day.
Bottle, let stand again until it clears to a golden color.


My main question here is: What does the wheat possibly contribute? Body? I'm also not sure what is meant by "Grind all fruits". I'm VERY new to the world of wine.

 

[Wayne1]

Some people here add dried malt extract (extra light as I recall) to some wines to add body so maybe the wheat would make the same contribution as you suggest

 

[grapeman]

I have not tried a wheat wine, but it is made a lot in Wales. It makes a wine similar to a whiskey in color and taste. The wheat may add a bit of body but certainly will add carbohydrates to create alcohol. I would use a high alcohol tolerant yeast - that's a lot of sugar there between the wheat and the sugar! It is recommended to age 1-2 years before drinking.

 

[AlFulchino]

it never ceases to amaze me what people use to make wines~! thats cool...this one kind of sounds like a beerwine or maybe a winebeer

 

[kenkiper]

Really I would think it is only wine. There is no malted grain in the recipe. I would love to try it. Please share photos and progress with us.

 

[vcasey]

I made this or something similar last year. I made 1 with wheat, 1 with barley, and had enough leftover of the wheat & a cherry wine that I was making that I mixed the extras together for a cherry wheat wine. They are way too young to taste right now but at bottling they were all right, the cherry wheat was actually pretty good. I did not use any of the citrus fruit but did use some raisins in the barley.
When you make this I would zest and juice the citrus so you can eliminate the bitter white pith from the fruit.
VPC

 

[mattsbrewery]

I was thinking the pith can't be a good thing! What's an easy way to juice? Blender and a straining bag?

 

[vcasey]

I use my little electric citrus juicer. But for a couple of dollars you can get a hand held juicer. Any store that sells kitchen gadgets should have one. Don't worry about the pulp from the juice. If you do use a blender be careful of seeds and the skin that divides the sections of fruit, sometimes they make blending citrus a bit challenging ...........
VPC

 

[mattsbrewery]

If you do use a blender be careful of seeds and the skin that divides the sections of fruit, sometimes they make blending citrus a bit challenging ...........
VPC

I didn't think of that. Good call!

 

[mattsbrewery]

I'm going to start this very soon. It dawned on me that raw grains often harbor beer-spoiling bacteria (and assuming wine-spoiling as well). In beer it's not an issue because you boil the wort before fermenting.

Will K-Meta sufficiently eliminate these bacterias, or should I consider "pasturizing" the crushed grain somehow?

Also, what's the technique with raisins? Do you crush them, or just put them in whole?

 

[vcasey]

I would just cut the raisins in half and the k-meta should be fine for taking care of any bacterias.
VPC

 

[Dean]

the PH of wine is also quite a bit lower, so that's quite the inhibitor of spoilage bacteria.

 

[gaudet]

Just lay out the raisins on a cutting board and chop them coarsely. Or as Vcasey said in half.

As far as 24 pounds of sugar, thats quite a lot. I would just add sugar until you get somewhere near a SG that would give you 12-14% abv. Don't forget that the raisins will add some more to the sg.

 

[mattsbrewery]

I'm definitely not following her recipe exactly. I'm pretty sure they were making rocket fuel, or something really sweet (she used Fleischmenns yeast). I plan on ending around 14%, and I'm only doing 6 gallons. I'll post a final recipe along with pictures as this gets going.

 

[vcasey]

I used montrachet for my wheat wine. I'll taste it someday but plan on giving it some time. I had enough extra form the wheat and a cherry wine that I started at the same time that I mixed the leftovers together and I did taste that at bottling and it was very good.
VPC

 

[mattsbrewery]

Good post. I wasn't sure what yeast to use. BTW, this will only be my second batch of wine.

Most of my fermentation history is with beer. So...any advice is very welcome.

 

[boozinsusan]

I am looking forward to the update/pictures on this, as well as on the cherry wheat that vcasey made.


Also, where do you find the "clean wheat"? And is that as opposed to "dirty wheat"?

 

[vcasey]

Mine is bottled and been that way for a while. I don't have access to my records right now, but I think I had planned on opening a bottle next year or so.