This month in the Winery we are fermenting mint wine. That’s right, mint wine. You may have tried it this past spring in the mint wine slushy. We have also heard that a splash of mint wine in your ice tea on a warm summer evening is spectacular. To that end, we are making enough mint wine this year to bottle.
We began by harvesting the mint and stripping the leaves from the stems. We had 105 cups of packed mint all together. The leaves were divided into 3 fermentation bags.
We then poured boiling water over the fermentation bags into the “big” pot (which is a little over 50 gallons) to make a strong tea. After the bags were done steeping, we dissolved sugar into the hot mint tea.
We allowed it to cool over night before adding the apple juice and yeast. The apple juice is there to provide nutrition for the yeast is while adding a pleasant apple wine taste. It is currently bubbling away and will ideally be bottled over winter. Look for a release around St. Patrick’s day!
