Wanting to do Parsnip Wine

[Big Al]

I'm after information on how best to do Parsnip wine.
Seeing as I have a couple of demi johns, thought I'd make the most of one and do the above.

Can anyone give me a run down of what I'll need and how to go about it please

[oldbloke]

2013-03-08 Scrub 2kg parsnips, slice&boil until tender (30mins-ish); Strain into another pan onto 1kg sugar, 1.5Tbsp citric, 0.5Tbsp tartaric, 250g chopped raisins: simmer 45 mins;
Add crushed Campden tablet, into fermenting bin, water to about 4litres, leave 1 day, add nutrient, half sachet yeast (Gervin No1 B GV9) and pectolase; Stir daily ~10 days,
2013-03-18 Sieved into demijohn
2013-05-11 Racked & stabilised. Quite sharp, prolly be OK
2013-05-31 Bottled.
Rather nice after a couple of months in bottle

[Hanglow]

Why the campden after boiling it?

I've been wanting to make some too, I have a few spare demijohns and have read that parsnip wine is one of the better ones

[TC2642]

Why the campden after boiling it?

The same reason why you do with any other wines, to reduce the chance of wild yeast infection.

[oldbloke]

Dunno really, it was in the recipe so I did it. The stuff does sit there for a day before pitching so it eliminates some risk.
The first homemade wine I ever had was parsnip, back in 1970 (or71). It was brill.
My first go went horribly wrong - oxidised. It was just after I'd started and I made a few noob mistakes. We drank it anyway.
The next 2 goes at parsnip have been much better. It is a nice wine, but probably best made not too strong, as I tend to.
About time I made another lot, actually, now almost all the berries are gone...

[Hanglow]

cheers


I've made wine from kits before which were excellent and I've only made one wine from fruit which was a redcurrant one - it came out really well, was a lovely sweet dessert wine in the end. Some neds broke into my garage and pinched it along with a load of homebrew though, so I only had a couple of bottles

might try and make some over the festive period

[brewnaboinne]

I agree with oldbloke that parsnip wine is best made not too strong, but why do you stir for 10 days? I'd have thought that that would increase the chances of airborne infection.

[Big Al]

thanks for the updates guys, I will check to see my local HB shop stocks the bits I dont have, like citric, tartaric and Campden tablet. and hopefully I can kick a batch off. Not liking the sound of waiting a few months to get the best out of it, but good things come to those who wait right

[oldbloke]

I agree with oldbloke that parsnip wine is best made not too strong, but why do you stir for 10 days? I'd have thought that that would increase the chances of airborne infection.

With a good strong yeast colony the chance of anything else getting going in there is minimal. Obv you have to be a bit cautious.
It takes a good while for the yeast to really work on a root veg. Starch! Fruits only do about 4 or 5 days on the pulp.

[oldbloke]

thanks for the updates guys, I will check to see my local HB shop stocks the bits I dont have, like citric, tartaric and Campden tablet. and hopefully I can kick a batch off. Not liking the sound of waiting a few months to get the best out of it, but good things come to those who wait right

When I bottle, I get a taste off the siphon. I judge from that how long to leave the bottles before trying one. Sometimes it's only a fortnight. And from that bottle I judge how long to leave the rest.
And one from each batch goes into the 'leave to age' rack and one into the 'when nothing else left' rack.

[fatbloke]

Doesn't matter what the base flavouring fruit/veg is, when it comes to sulphiting to reduce the chance of infection etc, if the base flavour material has been boiled - presumably to extract a "juice" type liquid, it wouldn't need sulphiting.

OK, fair enough, if you want to "belt and braces", you could indeed, then sulphite the liquid, but you then have to leave it for a good 24 to 48 hours before even thinking of pitching the yeast, because if the sulphites haven't had chance to dissipate some, then they're likely to stun the hell out of the yeast and create an extended lag phase before they recover enough to show signs of an active ferment.

As has already been alluded to, if the boiled liquor has been cooled then had the yeast pitched in, the primary ferment would normally prevent much in the way of possible infection, especially if you used a yeast with the "killer factor", like K1-V1116.

Any stirring is usually there for yeast colony development. Mostly it might be carried out down the the 1/3rd sugar break, to give the yeast enough time to be happy in their new world, but also so there's enough time and consumables to make the alcohol anaerobically...... (some people report aerating for much longer without any ill-effect). This process also has the effect of nucleating the must so that the dissolved CO2 (a.k.a. carbonic acid) can attach to the dots of sediment/yeast cells etc, and rise out as gaseous CO2, which should, if done often enough during the early stage fermentation, prevent possible foaming/eruptions........

Or that's the theory behind it all anyway........

[Brewbitz]

Hi.

Here is a simple Parsnip Wine Recipie that we put on our facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/brewbitz/posts/564612146965616

Good luck