Potato Wine

Photo: flickr user Secret Tenerife

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes

1 pound raisins

3 oranges

3 lemons

4 ripe bannanas

pint freshly made strong tea

to 2/34 lb sugar

yeast

water

Preparation

Chop the raisins and put them in fermenting vessel. Thoroughly scrub the potatoes, peel, and discard the peel; cut up potatoes quite small. Put them in 5 pints of water and boil gently for 15 minutes: strain onto the raisins while simmering. Allow this mixture to cool and add the tea, strained juice of oranges and lemons, yeast and nutrient.

Cover as advised and leave to ferment for 5 days, stirring daily.

Boil half the sugar in 2 pints of water for 2 minutes and, when it has cooled, add it to the rest. Cover as before and leave to ferment for a further 5 days, stirring daily.

After this, strain and wring out tightly and return the strained wine to a cleaned fermenting vessel. Boil remaining sugar in 1/2 pint of water and the pulped bannans in 1 pint of water, both for 2 minutes and, when it has cooled, add it to the wine. Cover again and leave for a further 5 days. The next step is to strain again, without letting too much of the deposit into the straining cloth. Then our the strained wine into a gallon jar, leaving as much of the deposit behind as you can.

If the jar is not filled to where the neck begins, fill to this level with cooled boiled water, then fit a fermentation lock and leave until all fermentation has ceased.

This said, I would modify the recipe. (I would leaving out the bannanas and possibly the oranges or lemons, as well. The tea is also optional, as the raisins will supply necessary tannin.) I would also modify the method somewhat. There is far to much stirring and straining during fermentation for my tastes. This is likely to result in oxydation of the wine and a reduction in quality.

Bravery says that a teaspoon of citric acid can be used instead of the lemon juice. He does not recommend replacing the orange juice. When I make sake using 3 lbs of rice and 1 lb of raisins, I add no acid at all and have had quite good results. Try it each way and see what works best for you.

To avoid all of the stirring and excess straining during fermentation, I advise using a commercial amylase enzyme at the start to get rid of the starch. In _First steps in Winemaking_ C. J. J. Berry recommends 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons (or 20 lbs of fruit). This is fine for eliminating small amounts of starch in fruits, but for potatoes, I recommend that 1/2 teaspoon be used for this 1 gallon recipe.

After the potatoes have been boiled, let the water cool to 110 F or below and add the amylase. Then cover the chopped raisins in 2 pints of water and heat just to 180 F and then allow to cool. Add 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme to this when cool.

Put everything, including the potatoes and the raisins into a wide- mouthed primary fermenter. Add the sugar, tea (if you feel it is necessary) and nutrient. Re-hydrate your yeast and pitch it and allow primary fermentation to proceed. Rack into a secondary fermenter when fermentation slows and top up with cooled boiled water. Treat as you would any other wine from this point on.

Remember - I have not actually used this recipe. I have made sake several times and I have tasted very good potato and raisin wine. The above recipe should work well, but, obviously, you should make any modifications which your experince tells you will work better for you. Post and let us know how it turns out.