Wheat Wine (1)

• 1 pt whole wheat
• 2 lbs golden raisins
• 3 sweet oranges
• 1 lemon
• 1-1/4 lbs demerara sugar
• 7-1/2 pts water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
• wine yeast

Put water on to boil. Use mincer to crush wheat and mince raisins together. Put in primary with sugar and add boiling water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Thinly peel oranges and lemon, being careful to avoid peeling white pith. Juice the fruit and set juice aside. When water in primary has cooled to mildly warm, add all remaining ingredients except yeast and stir well to mix. Cover with muslin and set aside 24 hours. Add activated yeast and recover. Stir daily for 3 weeks, then strain through nylon straining bag and allow to drip drain overnight. Do not squeeze bag or wine will cloud and fail to clear. Discard strained material and continue to ferment additional 3 weeks. Rack into secondary and fit airlock. Set aside 2 months. Rack into sanitized secondary, top up and refit airlock. After 2 additional months, rack, top up and again refit airlock. After third 2-month period, rack into bottles and store in dark place. Do not touch this wine for one to two years. [Adapted from F.W. Beech (Ed.)’s Home Made Wines, Syrups and Cordials ]