Gooseberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove bruised or decayed berries and the blossom and stalk ends.
Bruise the fruit in a bowl or pan without crushing the seeds.
Pour warm water over the fruit and stir until the pulp separates from the skin and seeds.
Cover and let it sit for 24 hours.
Strain through a coarse bag and press to extract juice.
Ferment and cask
Add sugar to the juice and stir until dissolved.
Place the mixture in a warm area, cover it, and let it ferment for 1-2 days.
Transfer to clean casks, leaving space for scum to rise.
When fermentation slows, plug the casks tightly and create a vent hole if needed.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit pulp and juice that become the wine's base flavor.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the wine's final sweetness.
The step that matters
Leaving space for scum in the casks. Fermentation pushes foam and solids up, and a cask filled to the top can overflow or burst its seal. Leaving headspace lets the scum rise safely while the wine keeps working.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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