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Craig1981

Craig1981

Craig1981

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2 Feb 2011
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I bet many of you wont know what this is, but its basically a ginger wine concentrate that comes in tiny little bottles. Around 100ml of the stuff produces about 6 litres of ginger wine, which you can either make non alchoholic or spice if up with some booze, preferably brandy.

It makes for an incredibly warming drink in the winter months, but it is so damn hard to get hold of. Its only produced around the Christmas period. Its usually sold by the co-op.

Anyone tried it? Also, has anyone seen it back in the shops yet? I've not had any since last December and I'm desperate to get my hands on some more!
 
Phoned my nearest co-op last night and they have it back in stock! Will hopefully get some over the weekend. Might post some pics when I make some :)
 
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Got the stuff over the weekend. Got both kinds, the ginger wine and also the blackcurrent wine. My grandmother used to make this every year for her big New Years party. It had such a strong taste that us kids though we were being allowed to drink alcohol, though of course the batch she made for us had no brandy in it.

I'm going to start off by making a combination of both ginger and blackcurrent, which my mum says is very nice. An old lady in the checkout line at the co-op voiced the same opinion when I was buying it.

Each bottle needs 1.6kg of suger (preferably granulated) and 6 pints of water. As I'm using two bottles together, I'll need to double up of course. Had to buy a butt load of suger today:



Currently I have the suger and water mixed in a big pot and boiling. Gotta wait for all the suger to disolve and the water to cool before proceeding to the next step. Will post another update then.
 
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Here we have the cooled water. All the suger is disolved at this point.



Now I've added one bottle of ginger and one bottle of blackcurrent, along with a liberal splash of brandy. How much you add comes down to personal taste, or you can leave it non alcoholic if you prefer. Best to add a little at a time, stir and taste until you get it to the preferred strength.



And here we have it, all bottled up. Had to scavage glass bottles from wherever I could get them. The wine bottles were from a relative. The 2 100ml bottles produced just over 8 litres of hybrid ginger/blackcurrent wine. And from tasting it, its definetely nice. Maybe not quite as good as pure ginger wine (IMO anyway) but still worth the experiment :)

Now technically its fine to drink right now, but its better to let it mature a little so that the taste gets stronger. Based on past experience, I tend to leave it in a dark cupboard for around 2 - 3 weeks. The exact amount of time it takes to get to the desired taste is debatable, so your experience may vary.
 
any update on this? did it all turn out okay?

we were talking about this in work today - and I took a notion for it too - haven't tasted this in about 30years!

just bought some of that concentrate from ebay, there isn't a co-op near me.
 
I stocked up. Have a couple of bottles of blackcurrent and 8 more bottles of the ginger stuff. I dont plan on making it all the time, so those bottles will last me for quite a while.

I've yet to actually taste it since bottling it. Its probably been long enough by now. It definetely does get stronger with time. I found half a bottle at the back of my cupboard that was made last year and I had assumed had all been drunk. Very tasty! That bottle is almost empty now :D

I'm planning on trying the new batch for the first time at the weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
Later than intended, but I finally cracked open the first bottle.

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Its lighter, both in colour and in taste. Doesnt quite result in the same inner warmth that the pure ginger wine does. I dont think I skimped on the brandy. Its nice, but I think for my next batch, which is currently on the boil right now, I'll be sticking to pure ginger.

Cheers! :D
 
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