Skip to main content
Drink

Gooseberry Champagne

A fermented beverage made from gooseberries, sugar, and water, aged in a cask.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Gooseberry Champagne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. Remove the tops and stalks from the gooseberries and place them in a large tub.

  2. Bruise the berries to burst them without breaking the seeds, then pour 4 gallons of lukewarm water over them.

  3. Stir the mixture until the juice and pulp separate from the seeds and skins.

  4. Let the mixture sit overnight.

  5. Draw off the liquid the next day and press the fruit through a coarse sieve with 1 gallon of water.

  6. Dissolve 30 pounds of loaf sugar in the juice.

  7. Add water to the mixture to make a total of 11 gallons.

  8. Cover the tub with a blanket.

  9. Keep the tub at a temperature of 50° to 60°F for 1–2 days.

Ferment in the cask

  1. Draw off the liquid into a 10‑gallon cask, keeping it filled near the bunghole.

  2. When the hissing noise ceases, drive in the bung.

  3. Bore a hole for a vent‑peg and loosen it every 2–3 days.

  4. Fasten the peg tightly once the danger of bursting is over.

  5. Store the cask in a cool cellar until the end of December.

Clear and bottle

  1. Rack the liquid from the lees into a fresh barrel; after a month it should be clear enough for bottling.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, juice and natural tartness for the wine.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and provides the sugar that yeast turns into alcohol and gas.
Crude tartar
Adds tartness and acidity to the juice.

The step that matters

Loosen the vent-peg every 2–3 days. While the liquid ferments, it gives off carbon dioxide gas that builds pressure in the cask. Regularly loosening the vent-peg lets this gas escape so the cask does not burst, and the peg is fastened only once that danger has passed.

“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.

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes