Booze Recipes, Homebrew Recipes, Recipe Box
One Gallon of Mint Wine {Recipe}
Amber Shehan • June 13, 2015
Mint is a hearty plant and spreads like crazy once it is established. Once you've dried it for tea and made syrups, why not make a wine?
Mint, mint, mint.
Once you get a good patch of mint planted, you should quickly have more mint than you can ever figure out how to use! (I cover medicinal properties of mint here)
My peppermint patch does so well that I have more than I need for teas, tinctures, cordials, and even a few batches of mint chutney. Although I chop back the patch twice a year, it grows bigger every season!
Due to this overabundance, I decided to get experimental. What else can I do with mint? What do I do with anything I have too much of?
Make wine out of it.
After debating with myself if it was worth it or not, I just decided to go for it. Let me tell you – I am SO glad that I did!
Mint wine ends up with an amazing, unexpected flavor. It does not taste like mint tea. This batch ended up rather like a sweet chardonnay! The mint appears as an effect more than a flavor. There’s a cooling tingle in the back of the mouth after the sweet wine rolls over it.
So yes, this is definitely going to be something I make again!
Mint Wine
In the recipe below, I used a blend of spearmint and regular peppermint. Use whatever mints you have! I can imagine the lovely twist that could happen if you used chocolate mint, apple mint, or pineapple mint!
This recipe and procedure assume that you have the basic equipment and knowledge for how to brew a gallon of wine or mead. Need help? I have a few great reference books on brewing listed here, and a guide to brewing here.
Here’s the basic recipe and technique for one gallon of Mint Wine:
- 1 gallon of good, clean water (I try to use filtered water instead of tap water)
- 4 cups of fresh mint leaves (rinsed and removed from the stem)
- 3 cups of sugar
- 1/2 packet of yeast (a sweet wine or mead yeast is nice, but even baking yeast works in a pinch!)
- 1/8 cup of raisins (or a small handful), chopped.
How to make Mint Wine:
1. Boil most of the water in a large pot. While that is happening, sanitize your gallon jug, funnel, strainer, and your airlock and bung. (Don’t know what those are? Click here.)
2. Remove the pot from heat and get ready to add the mint leaves and raisins. Crumple the leaves to bruise them and release their essential oils as you add them to the pot. Cover the pot and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Pour the sugar into the warm mint tea and stir to dissolve.
4. Once the pot is cool enough to handle and the liquid safe to pour, strain the mint tea into the carboy and top it off with the rest of the filtered water to the neck. Add the bung and airlock to the jug. Toss the leaves in your compost bin.
5. When the carboy is cool (a few hours later), sprinkle in the packet of yeast and give it a shake. Within a day or two, the jug should be bubbling happily. It should be happy to sit and bubble for a month or so.
6. When the bubbles stop and the liquid is clear, it is time to bottle!
This golden brew already tasted great at bottling time, and it only became more and more delicious as it aged throughout the year. The longer it ages, the more minty it becomes.
Sláinte!
Here’s another intrepid brewing explorer who tried mint wine! Check out their recipe over at Little Fall Creek.
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Posted In Booze Recipes, Homebrew Recipes, Recipe Box
Tagged: brewing, eat your weeds, fermentation, herbal, herbalism, homebrew, mint, peppermint, recipe, recipe box, recipes, spearmint, wine
Amber Shehan
Hi! I'm Amber Pixie, and this is my site. Enjoy the recipes, information, posts, and please feel free to message me if you have questions!
[…] If you want something quick and easy to grow that will spread like wildfire and provide you with a bounty of uses, might I suggest you plant a bit of mint? It is great for teas, recipes, and even makes a great wine! […]
Can you use dry peppermint leaves
You can! But dried leaves are stronger than the fresh, so use 2 cups, or 3 if you really want a minty tingle! 🙂
Jen…in the mint wine recipe..when you take out the mint to compost..do the raisins also get removed or do they go into the carboy ?
Isn’t it amazing? And the easiest wine I’ve made. As you know, I used apple mint (mostly) and the apple comes through amazingly! Thank for sharing.
The Tin Man here. I wanted to make mint wine this past fall. I got busy making my first wine ever,8 carboys of wild apple wine. My neighbour gave me 10 plants of mint in 2019 and I planted them in pots. They have grown well and in 2020 I will make some mint wine. Maybe not as much.
Thank you for your recipe.
Thanks for the recipe
Wild apple wine sounds awesome! I hope you enjoy the mint wine, it’s really unique.
Oh, I just have to try this! I am obsessed with one gallon wines this year and this sounds so good I am adding it to the list. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I hope you enjoy it, it’s a surprising drink! 😀
I saw your to-do list, and noticed Ninkasi’s beer was on it…
Here’s a recipe/process that I plan on using, enjoy 🙂
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.5/hitchcock.html
Thank you so much for this article, Will! I had put this project on hold…time to reconsider attempting it again. 🙂 Sláinte!
I made a gallon! Only thing I thought it needed was more sugar I prefer a sweeter wine.Dont make the mistake I made though and add sugar after you bottle the wine ended up with carbonation like a champagne and a stronger wine.Delicious though and ready to make more
I’ve done plenty of those “rocket fuels” myself! I’m glad it carbonated and didn’t explode the bottles! I like to serve those with a bit of simple syrup to sweeten them up a bit. 🙂 Cheers!
What do you think that the ABV on this was? Im kind of a lightweight but this sound delicious
Heh…hydrometer skills are not my forte! I would put this between 6-8 percent, but since I bottle them in beer bottles, it isn’t so intimidating to crack open a bottle to enjoy a glass or two without feeling obliged to finish it all. 🙂 Enjoy!!
Thanks for the reply! when you bottle do you just use standard bottling procedures like with homebrew then?
I tend to use a combination of grolsch bottles and beer bottles. With the one gallon batches, I end up with a six pack of beer bottles and a few various sized fliptop bottles. 🙂 My basic technique for all brew is on this page: http://www.pixiespocket.com/one-gallon-mead-recipes
I am definitely going to try this with my Mint this year!
Hello! Thanks for the recipe; when do you strain out the leaves? Looking at making this!
Yay, I hope you do try and enjoy the recipe, Jen! Step 4 includes the straining part: “Once the pot is cool enough to handle and the liquid safe to pour, strain the mint tea into the carboy and top it off with the rest of the filtered water to the neck. Add the bung and airlock to the jug. Toss the leaves in your compost bin.”
I hope that helps!
Thank you so much! I must have missed that when reading!
Do you need to add any Camden tablets to kill any wild yeast prior to adding the yeast? Started making this tonight, but curious about the wild yeast issue if it even is one?
Secondly, I noticed you put it directly into the carboy, do you need to rack it at all before bottling since there’s not really any sediment?
Hello Nate! Many people use Camden tablets, but I tend not to. I don’t mind wild yeasts, and do a few wild fermented brews like Dandelion Ginger and also Blackberry Mead. I think that’s up to your personal preference on how much you want to control the brew.
As far as racking goes, I take each bottle on a case by case basis. Some brews are super active and leave a ton of sediment or have a hard time clearing, and I’ll rack those over and let them rest before bottling. Other times, I’ll backsweeten as I rack the mead over, if I think it needs more sweet. This mint brew in particular wasn’t too bad, and so I just bottled straight from the jug! 🙂
My mint batch died this year but do you think I’d be able to recreate this using dried leaves?
For sure, Amanda! The dried leaves of peppermint are even stronger than fresh leaves, as the oils condense as the leaves dry. You might want to use less dried mint than fresh…maybe half the amount to start! Cheers!
I’m glad I found this! It tasted nice as I used a mix of chocolate mint, peppermint, and spearmint. I didn’t have any raisins when I tried to make it and it still turned out really good. I wonder if this recipe works for other delicious herbs.
I tried your recipe this summer. 5 gallons. I have chocolate mint. Has a great mint taste. Unfortunately the chocolate flavor evaporated during fermentation. My basement smelled like chocolate for a few days. So I threw in some cocoa powder and milk sugar today, and will bottle on christmas eve.
Nice, Matt! I haven’t used milk sugars in my wines, only in certain porters. That sounds delicious! Let me know how it turns out!
You can try cacoa nibs for the chocolate flavor. It’s what I use to get chocolate flavor in beer.
made your mint wine — loved the minty pong to the house hehe
had a bit of a brain ahh opps put only 2 cups of sugar
hahaaha silly old begger me should have known the difference
wine had been going — 2-3 hrs blubbing nicely then shock horror penny dropped — checked me bag of sugar i used and worked out i was 1 cup short– well melt it down in liquid and add no not me!
out comes the funnel thinking aghh tip it in and shake it a bit
well ever seen what happens to a bottle of coke with a mint popped in it —
yup that was me no shaking needed hhaha
did i get any help cleaning up — nope everyone was in pain from crying with laughter
a memory no one is going to forget hahah
btw for a christmas drop that chia wine is lovely
OH NO! *laughs* I’m so sorry to hear that! Lesson learned, eh? Thanks for the giggle and I do hope you try again! I had to paint over a purple spot on my ceiling before I moved out – had a bottle of blackberry that wasn’t quite ready to be opened…and it’s quite a sinus rinse to the unobservant bottle-opener, too. 😀 Cheers!
[…] you have 4 cups of leaves try making Mint Wine with this recipe from Pixie’s […]
Oh I have so much mint that goes to waist can’t wait to try this..
Yay! I am eyeballing my new mint patch at the house, hoping it will grow enough for me to really make a big batch this fall! 🙂 I hope you enjoy it, Kathy!
laying on me back looking at me mint patch on the ceiling hahah
Hi there, quick question, being I am in a different country, how much or what would be the size of your packet of yeast? I have a massive bush of wild moroccan mint that I need to cut back, this could be the perfect solution.
thanks in advance.
Standard brew shop yeast packets are about 0.48 ounces. Here’s a link to an example on Amazon, if that helps!
http://amzn.to/2qWY8tV
For one gallon batches, I only use half a packet at a time.
I bet Moroccan mint would make a delicious wine! I cultivated some of that once, but it was too damp and chill here to keep it happy.
Amber and Lulu, (in northcentral Alberta) I too have Moroccan mint and it’s my understanding it’s a spearmint variety, so I’ve not bothered to save it for tea. That said, if tonight’s frost isn’t too nasty, your idea sounds yummy so I’ll try to get out tomorrow and harvest, then start a batch of wine with it.
Sláinte,
Julia
Sláinte maith Julia! I have enjoyed Moroccan mint tea, but yes, it’s rather sharp like spearmint. I bet it’ll make a lovely wine. I hope you enjoy it, it’s a very unique flavor!
I have this brewing. It is under a month old. But quit bubbling several days ago. It’s fairly clear. I syphoned it into a new carboy tonight and there was a bunch of sediment on the bottom of the old carboy.
How clear is clear? Lol
Sorry for my delay in response, but I’ve been unplugged and out of town! 🙂
My rule of thumb is that once it is done bubbling and I can read a newspaper through the carboy, it is ready to bottle! Did you taste it when you racked it over to the new carboy? Check out the section on racking and back sweetening if you want some more of my methods: https://www.pixiespocket.com/one-gallon-mead-recipes
I hope you enjoy it! 😀
Mint wine sounds so good! I love that you said it ended up like a sweet chardonnay! Can’t wait to make this at home. Thank you for sharing!
can you use the same recipe but use chocolate mint leaves?
I’ll bet you can, and I hope mine gets big enough for me to try that this year! 🙂 I bet an apple mint would be nice, too. Cheers!
plan on making this with some strawberry mint
Oh, that sounds LOVELY! I’ve never heard of strawberry mint before! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, I have a 1 gallon going right now! Question though: did you take measuring on the gravity or simply rack it after a month? Did you bottle it then right away or leave fermenting further?
Mine is closing in on 4 weeks now and clearing nicely.
I also started a small batch of mint and green tea wine, I thought that might be a nice mix as well.
Thanks!
Bianca, I’m so sorry I missed your comments! I don’t often take gravity measurements, I bottle when it is done. I go by how still the wine is and how clear. I hope that your wines turn out wonderfully – enjoy them! Cheers!
For the sugar is it a specific type or normal sugar
Just regular sugar! Sometimes I use brown sugar if I want a molasses flavor. <3
Made this last year and am about to start makeing a first batch this year, will do a second once there is enough mont, as it was so delicious.
Oh, hurray! I’m so glad that you liked this one! I experimented and made a waaaay stronger batch and it was like drinking mouthwash so I have gone back to this recipe. 🙂 Have you tried pairing it with dark chocolate cake yet? It’s amazing!
How did you make it stronger? I would LOVE a mouthwash, like flavor.
Ha, so I made an insanely strong version when I was testing out quantities of dried mint versus fresh. The dried mint wine is FAR more minty! For a gallon batch, use at least 50 grams of dried mint and you’ll have your mouthwash wine! 🙂
Would Basil work? Just thinking, I have shedloads of basil and this could be a good way of using it
Sorry for the delay in responding, Kristjan! Basil sounds very interesting, and I’ve used it in beer recipes to flavor it, the best being a Basil Saison that’s in my book. I’ve also done a wine with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. It’s unique, and if not an ideal drinking wine, it’s great to cook with.
If you try it, let me know what it is like! I won’t have enough basil, the rabbits keep nibbling mine down to nubs.
Hi Amber,
We have so much mint that we are doing all 3 of our 1 gal carboys.
Quick question: do you put any of the raisins in the carboys after you filter the mint tea into them. I have seen recipes for other types of wine where put some in the bottle for the yeast to interact with.
Thanks,
Neal
Hi Neal, sorry for my delay. I tend to strain out the raisins and bits, but other brewers leave them. It’s a personal choice, and I prefer to keep my carboys easy to clean. 🙂 Cheers, and enjoy your refreshing wines!
Hi!
I am about to make this wine for the first time this weekend, YAY! Last time I made wine, it turned to vinegar… any suggestions to prevent this again? Also, do you use regular raisins, or golden raisins for this wine? Wasn’t sure with it being a lighter colored wine if the golden raisins would be better.
Thanks! I’m beyond excited to try this!
Hi!! I just planted spearmint and never even thought about making wine!! This sounds so fun. Can you use spearmint with this recipe???
Of course! It brings its own special flavor…I’ve had folks report good results with chocolate mint and apple mint, too! 🙂 Cheers!
I live in a state that has more beer breweries than towns. I have friends and family members working in breweries. My point, I have learned and continue to learn about home brewing. And it all started with me reading how to make mint wine right on this site. THANK YOU Amber!!!!! The owner of the brewery in the next town wants 20 gallons of my mint brew. I really cannot call it wine because the alcohol content is around 20% (I had two different brewers check last year’s batch). I used dried mint as you suggested (I don’t have time to remove the leaves so I dry the stem and all) and I use raw sugar. Four cups per gallon. Other than that, I have followed this recipe. Now, those 20 gallons will not be ready until September 2022. Thanks again!
Oh, wow! That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing, and for expanding your brewing to a new level. That’s a staggeringly high alcohol beverage – it’s at least refreshing while getting you toasty! 🙂
ohhhh…. this is a very important point that I left out. My neighbor is from (this is funny, but he insists that this is where he is from) EASTERN, central, Europe. He says they make yeast differently. Way back when I first tried your recipe, I was getting 8-11%. After using Slavik yeast (neighbor insists that the yeast is Slavik), I started getting 18-20%. I think the Slavs have a way with yeast.
What brand of yeast did you use? Can you share the exact recipe?
Does the bung have to be tight or somewhat loose. Mine is a little loose and the bubbling didn’t start. Did the looseness of the bing have anything to do with it? Thanks
This is my first time making wine ever! It has been brewing for more than a month now, still has some color and I still see some bubbles every now and then. I had to use bread yeast and I used raw sugar.
Do I just keep waiting for the color and bubble to stop? Or can I go ahead and bottle it?
I wouldn’t wait for the color, but I would wait for the bubbles to stop and for the mead to clear. If you can see through the liquid, go ahead and get it bottled! :). Cheers!