This spiced pomegranate wine is a delicious and festive homemade brew to make for the holidays!Recipe reprinted with permission from Artisanal Small-Batch Brewing by Amber Shehan, Page Street Publishing Co. 2019.
Gather your ingredients and sanitize your equipment.
Boil the water in a pot along with the peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, raisins and orange. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and then remove it from the heat. Add the sugar to the pot and stir it well until it is completely dissolved.
Use a funnel and strainer to transfer the spiced sugar water into the carboy. Add the pomegranate juice to the jug. If there is space left, top off the carboy with unchlorinated water until the must reaches the neck of the jug. Seal it with the rubber stopper and airlock to keep everything clean.
When the glass is cool enough to handle, pitch the yeast. First, cover the mouth of the carboy. Shake the jug for a minute to add oxygen. Sprinkle the yeast into the jug and then recap the carboy with the rubber stopper and airlock (fill the airlock with a little water to the line first).
Label the jug with the name of the brew and the date and set it aside somewhere out of direct sunlight until it is finished fermenting.
Within a day or two you should start to see bubbles forming in the jug. You can tell that fermentation is done when the bubbles have stopped and the wine has cleared, usually after about 4 to 6 weeks. Bottle when ready.
Notes
This wine is hazy and thick, but can be racked into a secondary jug for a while to clear it up if you’d like. It does clear up after bottling.