Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

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Laripu
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Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:06 pm

That's the inspiration for this: chinotto.

But it will fail to be chinotto. I can't get chinotto oranges, and even if I could I wouldn't use them because they contain a chemical (as does grapefruit) that interferes with the function of the heart medication my wife takes.

So what this is, is a bitter orange drink.

One thing chinotto contains is quinine. So does tonic water. So I'm using tonic water, with the sugar it contains, as one of the fermentables.

I'm calling it Marantzia (accent on the i), after the Yiddish word for orange, which is marantz (accent on the second syllable, like the hi-fi equipment). The orange will be roasted in the oven until somewhat burnt, and certainly caramelized.

Here's the recipe I made for 11.3L (roughly 3 US gallons).

1 kg sweet oranges (Approximately. I used almost 1100g)
4 litres tonic water (that contains quinine)
454 g panela (i.e. 1 lb. This is an unrefined sugar from Mexico or any other Latin American country. Indian jaggery is a perfect equivalent.)
0.25 g cloves
20 g cinnamon sticks
39 g coriander seeds
8 g black peppercorns
3 g dried rosemary
0.5 g star anise
1.5 g pure stevia powder
½ teaspoon yeast nutrient
½ teaspoon Marmite (as a yeast nutrient)
1 packet of any wine yeast (I used Lalvin D-47.)

Refrigerate the tonic water the night before.
Start pre-heating your oven to approx 230°C (=450°F if you're in a non-Celsius country, like me)

Wash the oranges once with water and ice with a 10% vinegar solution to remove any pesticides, etc. Organic oranges would be good. After washing, rinse well.

In 8 litres of water, put the panela, spices, stevia, and yeast nutrient. (Everything except the oranges and tonic water and yeast.) It will take a while for the panela to dissolve. While waiting, heat gently so as not to burn the panela.

Slice up the oranges. Everything will be used, especially the peel. The pieces should be small enough to fit through a funnel in the glass carboy, if that's your fermenter. That's good when if you're using a bucket. Place the pieces in a large oven safe dish, then into the oven. (It's going to be hard to wash that dish. It will take overnight soaking. Glass is better than ceramic for this.)

Roast the oranges at 230°C (450°F). After 20 minutes, stir the orange pieces around and return to the oven. Pieces should be starting to blacken and burn a bit. Repeat after another 20 minutes. Total time in the oven will be 1 hour.

Once the oranges are in the oven:

When the panela is fully dissolved, bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for about an hour, about the same time the orange is blackening.

After the orange bits are partly black and scary looking, they go into the liquid. Use a big spoon or ladle. They'll be hard to scrape off the dish. Some parts will look orange, some will be black. Everything, burnt bits, peel, pith, seeds, goes into the liquid. Boil a few minutes more, then cool.

This can be cooled by immersing the pot in the sink, with a few changes of water. Cool to around 30°C to 35°F (86°F to 95°F).

Pour the tonic water through a funnel into your fermenter roughly, to knock out some of the carbonation. Add the cooled liquid, and all the orange bits, spices etc. Mix. Check the temperature, which should be fermentation temperature, roughly. Pitch yeast.

When fermentation is complete, siphon to an 11L glass secondary fermenter for three weeks to clear. Top off with boiled/cooled water.

Bottle, batch-priming; carbonation level to taste.

I haven't bottled yet. It's still settling in secondary. But I saved some, that was trapped in the fruit and spices, and poured it through a coffee filter. I let it settle a bit more in the fridge, and then I and SWMBO tasted it. It was good. Most importantly: SWMBO liked it.

Possible change for next time: 6 litres of tonic water instead of 4, and reduce regular water accordingly.

As made, about 4% ABV. With 6 litres of tonic water it will be about 5% ABV.
Last edited by Laripu on Thu Sep 03, 2020 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

WalesAles
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by WalesAles » Tue Jul 07, 2020 7:06 pm

Lari,
Great Post! =D>
Hope it turns out OK!
How does tonic water add 1%ABV?

WA

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Tue Jul 07, 2020 8:18 pm

WalesAles wrote:
Tue Jul 07, 2020 7:06 pm
Lari,
Great Post! =D>
Hope it turns out OK!
How does tonic water add 1%ABV?

WA
The tonic water I used, linked here.

The "Nutrition Facts" area says 34g sugar/360ml.

So 2L has 34g*2000/360 = 189 g of sugar, completely fermentable.

The batch size is only 11L. So 189g will raise the gravity about 6.5 points for about 0.85% ABV. So it's close, but not quite 1%.

I must have rounded somewhere. But in the end, there's more uncertainty in my reading of the hydrometer than in my arithmetic.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:15 pm

I finally figured out how to pay from Flickr.

After burning / caramelizing the oranges, the inside of the pan needed to be soaked overnight. Then I went at it with a razor. (The kind inside a holder, you know, so it isn't dangerous.) Then the dishwasher, and finally it came clean.

This was 3 large oranges.

Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

WalesAles
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by WalesAles » Sun Jul 12, 2020 6:15 am

Laripu wrote:
Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:15 pm
I finally figured out how to pay from Flickr.
Lari,
I thought Flickr was free?

WA

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sun Jul 12, 2020 1:25 pm

WalesAles wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 6:15 am
Laripu wrote:
Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:15 pm
I finally figured out how to pay from Flickr.
Lari,
I thought Flickr was free?
Misprint. It's clumsy fingers on my phone plus autocorrect.

That should have been 'how to post from Flickr'.

Sorry. :oops:
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:17 pm

I tried the first one today. It had been three weeks in the bottle. I opened the snout of the batch, a small 250ml tester, and shared it with my wife. She likes it, says it's much better than tepache.

It's amazing, and I will definitely make it again.

I noticed the aroma first. It's perfumed, redolent of orange peel. The slight bitterness is balanced by sweetness from stevia.

The story of the label is here.

Most of the bottles are 355 ml American beer bottles, but there are three nicer ones, 750 ml, originally from French lemonade, from Aldi.

Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Trefoyl » Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:52 pm

Looks delicious!
Sommeliers recommend that you swirl a glass of wine and inhale its bouquet before throwing it in the face of your enemy.

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:07 pm

Trefoyl wrote:
Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:52 pm
Looks delicious!
It really is.

It's not anything like beer, and it isn't like chinotto, which was the inspiration, but it really is good.

Like the White Knight says in Through the Looking Glass: "It's my own invention".

I've been waiting 58 years to quote that line. :D
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

WalesAles
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by WalesAles » Tue Aug 18, 2020 8:41 pm

[quote
It really is.

I've been waiting 58 years to quote that line. :D
[/quote]

Good Job Lari!
I was going to say `BLM` (Bloody Lovely Mun)! but that has been hijacked by someone else.

Still looks and sounds good anyway! :D

Why wait 58yrs to say that line? Couldn`t you speak for the first 4 years of your life? #-o

WA

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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:04 pm

WalesAles wrote:
Tue Aug 18, 2020 8:41 pm
Why wait 58yrs to say that line? Couldn`t you speak for the first 4 years of your life? #-o

WA
I only read the Alice books when I was five. So that's when the waiting started. Then, for the next 58 years, I didn't have a good enough invention for which I would deserve to say the White Knight's line. (I'm a late bloomer, apparently.)

I didn't want to take credit for some pedestrian crap that anyone might think up when hung over ... but Marantzia is good!

Dare I say it ... it's bloody lovely. :D (Just use BL; good enough.)

After trying it I had some homemade limoncello, keeping to the citrus theme. I used to really like the limoncello, but after Marantzia, I found it one-dimensional.

I wonder how the Marantzia will age.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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Laripu
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Re: Marantzia: pseudo-chinotto (not chinotto at all, actually)

Post by Laripu » Sat Oct 17, 2020 10:02 pm

Mrs Laripu really likes it too.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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