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Alcoholic drinks from England

Ginger wine (English)ginger wine

English ginger wine is a sweet wine of sugar water flavoured with bruised ginger, lemon and raisins, fermented with yeast. In the 19th-century household recipe it is stirred daily for a fortnight, then fortified with brandy and bottled a few weeks later.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Ginger wine itself.

DocumentedAlcoholic drinks15 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMrs Beeton's 1861 household recipe, enough for 9 gallons of wine.
Water9 gallons[beeton1861]
Loaf sugar27 lbs[beeton1861]
Lemons (rinds boiled; juice strained in later)9[beeton1861]
Ginger, bruised12 oz[beeton1861]
Yeast, thick and very fresh3 tablespoonfuls[beeton1861]
Raisins, stoned and chopped2 lbs[beeton1861]
Brandy1 pint[beeton1861]
Starterdefined-culture (yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Sugar, ginger and lemon rind boil together in the water

Step 1 of 6
Boil the sugar water with ginger and lemon rind
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: hot ginger syrup.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

English ginger wine is a sweet wine of sugar water flavoured with bruised ginger, lemon and raisins, fermented with yeast. In the 19th-century household recipe it is stirred daily for a fortnight, then fortified with brandy and bottled a few weeks later. Made in 6 steps over 15 days. The longest step, stir every day, takes 14 days (Beeton I. 1861).

Key numbers
Main step14 daysReported[beeton1861]Stir every day

What makes this one different

Unlike ginger beer, which is a short, fizzy ferment drunk young, ginger wine ferments for weeks in a cask, takes raisins and is fortified with brandy before bottling.

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Wikipedia credits the Finsbury Distilling Company in the City of London with ginger wine in 1740, and a cholera scare in the 19th century with a rise in sales. Mrs Beeton printed a household recipe in 1861 and said March or September was the best time to make it.

  1. [beeton1861] Beeton I. 1861, The Book of Household Management, recipe 1819 Ginger Wine, Project Gutenberg eBook 10136archive
  2. [s1] Wikipedia (en), Ginger wine (outline and history only)wiki