Parsnip Wine

Started 20/11/12

I've been very busy over the last couple of months, so got a bit behind with the posts on here.

We sowed loads of parsnips in the garden early this year, hoping for a good crop for roast dinners and a few for wine. Sadly, they were all stunted, so not enough for roasts and wine.

A couple of days ago, I popped into the local co-op, only to find they had  several bags of parsnips reduced to 45p a bag. Perfect! I snapped up the whole lot.

There are loads of parsnip wine recipes available, each with their own ingredients and methods. I've hit that point where I'm not going to worry too much: just do it.

If I had more time, I would have made 3 separate batches using 3 different recipes to see which came out the best, but for now, this will do the job.

Ingredients:
9lbs parsnips
9lbs sugar
1.5lbs sultanas
2 very ripe bananas
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1 mug (approx half pint) strong black tea (for tannin)
3 teaspoons pectolase
3 teaspoons yeast nutrient
2 teaspoons Youngs wine yeast
Loads of water

Step 1:
Slice the parsnips and boil in water and strain liquid into bucket
Dissolve sugar in boiling water and add to bucket
Simmer sultanas and pour into bucket
Mash bananas and add to bucket
Add lemon juice and tea to bucket
Top bucket up to 15litre mark
Allow to cool to room temperature and then add pectolase and stir well
Cover the bucket and leave for 24 hours

The parsnips should be brought to the boil for about 10 minutes, until they're soft but not mushy. If they go mushy, the wine won't clear. I'm not too worried as I have a Harris wine filter, so can always try that if I need to.
15 litres is more than 3 gallons. There will be a lot of sediment, plus the sultanas, so when it comes to racking off I should have 3 gallons of liquid.
Apparently the bananas add body to the wine, as do the sultanas. Most recipes use raisins for parsnip wine, currants for red wines and sometimes sultanas for other whites. I used sultanas as they were another thing at bargain price in the co-op.
I'm not sure what benefit the lemon juice and tannin will bring - we'll find out in maybe a year's time!

Note: As with carrot wine, the sliced and boiled parsnips are strained, bagged and frozen to be used in stews and casseroles throughout the year.

Step 2:
Measure SG
Add yeast nutrient and yeast
Stir well, cover and leave for 7 days.

Step 3:
Strain into clean, sterilised demijohns.
Fit airlocks, leave until fermentation finished (test SG regularly)

Step 4:
Rack off into clean demijohns and stabilise
Rack off again maybe 2 months later
Leave in demijohn until clear

Step 5:
Bottle!

Well .... that's the plan .... Hopefully it'll clear on it's own and be drinkable about this time next year. If it doesn't clear, I'll run it through the filter and see what happens.