Quackgrass Wine
A rich, sweet wine with a hint of fruitiness.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 package wine yeast
- 1 yeast nutrient tablet
- 2 pounds quackgrass roots, clean and chopped
- 1 ounce citric acid
- 4 pints water
- 8 ounces of raisins
- 3 pounds of sugar
- 1 1/2 pints water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid
Instructions
- Cut the scrubbed, trimmed quackgrass roots into roughly one inch long sections. In a large stockpot, boil the roots gently with 4 points of water and 1 ounce of citric acid until they are tender.
- Meanwhile, chop the raisins and place them in your 1 gallon fermenting crock or pail.
- Strain the quackgrass root liquid and pour over the raisins. Cool completely.
- Add the nutrient tablet and wine yeast. Stir well.
- Cover and allow to ferment for 5 days, stirring each day.
- Heat 1 1/2 pints of water, add 3 pounds of sugar. Mix until all sugar is dissolved. Add citric acid. Stir until dissolved. Let cool.
- Strain quackgrass root/raisin ferment. Mix quackgrass water and sugar water. Pour mixture into 1 gallon fermentation vessel, fit with airlock.
- Allow to ferment 6 months, racking at 3 months if desired. Bottle and ferment for at least a year total.
Notes
- This made about 1/2 gallon of wine (2 bottles). The flavor reminds me of plum wine – sweet, a little earthy, but with some nice fruity notes. You could easily double it, if you had the patience to clean up enough roots.
Find it online: https://commonsensehome.com/quackgrass-wine/