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Simple homemade lemon wine is like sipping summertime!
This simple recipe only requires a few ingredients, and if you harvest lemons in season during winter the finished lemon wine will be ready just in time for summer.
Citrus, especially lemon, finds its way into all manner of wine recipes. My homemade dandelion wine recipe has quite a bit of citrus added, meaning that it’s really more or less a citrus wine flavored with the floral aromatics of dandelion petals. Why not try skipping all that, and just make a pure, sweet and refreshing lemon wine?
How to Make Lemon Wine
Since this recipe includes whole lemons, both juice, and peel, I’d strongly suggest starting with organic lemons. A full gallon of lemon wine only requires about 8 to 10 lemons, and even at the fancy natural food store that only set me back about $7.
Not bad, given that the other ingredients are pretty inexpensive. In total, this homemade lemon wine will cost around $2.50 per bottle even with purchasing organic lemons. If you’ve got free backyard lemons, even better.
Start by slicing the lemons thin and placing them in a large saucepan with the sugar.
Add in either 1 lb of golden sultana raisins or about a quart of white grape juice. The yeasts need something to nourish them, and lemons aren’t exactly full of the correct nutrients to get the job done.
You need a sweet fruit to provide micronutrients for the little beasties, and raisins or grape juice are perfect. For this recipe, I suggest golden raisins or white grape juice so that it has less of an impact on the color of the finished wine.
Beyond the grape juice or raisins, the yeasts also need a little bit of yeast nutrient to carry them through to complete fermentation. Roughly 1 teaspoon of powdered yeast nutrient does the job nicely. I’ve also included 1 tsp of pectic enzyme to help the wine clear, but that’s optional and merely cosmetic.
I generally use premier blanc wine yeast in my homemade wines, and that’s a good choice for this lemon wine. Please, whatever you do, don’t add bread yeast. Yeast actually imparts quite a bit of flavor to wine, and bread yeast wines taste…well, like bread.
Just don’t do it. It’s only about $1 for a packet of yeast, and it’s well worth the investment. If you’re making more than one batch at a time, a single packet is enough for 5 gallons of wine (dissolved in water and then distributed evenly among the carboys).
I’m using a one-gallon wide-mouth fermenter for this batch because I want to leave the whole lemon slices in for the primary ferment. If you’re using a standard narrow neck carboy, filter them out before putting everything into a carboy or you’ll clog up the neck. In that case, juice and zest the lemons instead of slicing them, and discard the rinds.
You can also divide this recipe in half and make a half-gallon of lemon wine in a half-gallon mason jar with a silicone airlock kit. This recipe works fine with Meyer lemons as well, and the flavor of a Meyer lemon wine is a bit less acidic and slightly warmer to the palate.
Lemon Mead Recipe Variation
Since lemons aren’t exactly high in sugar, this recipe requires about 3 pounds of added sugar to allow the mixture to ferment. If you’d like to try a lemon mead instead, the recipe is the same…simply substitute 3 lbs of honey in place of the white sugar.
Keep in mind, honey is quite a bit less fermentable than white sugar and the wine will take a bit longer to brew. Mead also benefits from more time aging in the bottle, and I’d suggest bottle conditioning a lemon mead for at least 6 months (as opposed to 3 for a lemon wine).
A lemon mead would be pretty similar to this rhubarb mead, and you could actually just substitute lemons for rhubarb in the recipe. This particular recipe is a micro-batch mead recipe, which makes just one quart of mead. That might not be a bad idea if you’re trying something experimental.
Similarly, if you want to make just a single quart to see if lemon wine is really your thing, this recipe can be divided by 4 for a quart batch using this small-batch wine method.
I also came across a recipe for a traditional Finnish drink called Sima. It’s a carbonated lemon soda that’s naturally carbonated by letting it ferment with a tiny pinch of yeast for just a few days. They drink it to celebrate new years, which happens in late April in their traditional calendar.
Lemon Wine
Ingredients
- 8-10 lemons, thinly sliced
- 3 lbs sugar
- 1 lb sultana raisins, or 1-quart white grape juice
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 packet wine yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup water
- water to fill
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, bring water, lemons, sugar and raisins (or grape juice) to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. (If using a narrow neck fermenter, juice the zest the lemons instead of slicing, discarding the rind).
- Allow the mixture to cool before pouring everything (lemons included) into a primary fermentation vessel.
- Add the yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme and wine yeast. Stir to incorporate, and allow the mixture to ferment for 7 to 10 days.
- After primary fermentation, rack the wine into a secondary fermenter using a sterilized siphon. Ferment for about 6 - 8 weeks in secondary, until fermentation stops and the wine clears.
- Bottle the lemon wine in corked wine bottles, and allow the mixture to age for at least 3 months before drinking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Homemade Wine Recipes
At what temp should I store the carboy at during primary and secondary fermentation?
It should be at room temperature during the fermentation process.
Hi! I started this last week so it’s coming up to racking time but it’s still very active – do I need to wait for the primary fermentation to stop before racking?
Thanks!
Yes, wait until things really slow down before racking. It should be at least a few minutes between bubbles going through the air lock when you rack the wine.
IF i wanted to add like lavender or hibiscus what step would i add it to?
I’d add them as a sachet into secondary, and leave them in there for about a week. Primary fermentation is very active, and delicate volatiles can be lost during the violent fermentation that happens there. Delicate flavors like lavender are a good choice for secondary, but don’t leave them in too long (like, not the whole secondary) because after they release their nice flavors they start to put out bitter/less nice flavors. If I were doing it, I’d put it in for a week in a sachet at the beginning of secondary.
How do you get all of the lemon pulp out before bottling? Mesh strainer? Mine’s been brewing for a week on the counter and I’m realizing that there is loose pulp as the lemon slices steep.
All the lemon pulp should be removed when the wine is racked into secondary (long before bottling). I used a slotted spoon to get out the big pieces from the top, then I siphoned it into a clean container. The small pulp and brewing sediment were left behind. If you end up with any, rack it again through a fine-mesh strainer.
Is this a dry wine? I know from previous experiences that the sugar turns to alcohol but would like it to remain somewhat sweet. Thanks!
Ours didn’t come out dry, but either way, you can regulate this a bit based on your choice of yeast. Choose a yeast with lower alcohol tolerance, and then they’ll die out before they use up all the sugar in the wine.
I put to much yeas tin my peach wine wht should I do. DId I ruin it? Glo
Nope, no worries. It may really go crazy in the first few days, so watch for overflows or clogs, but too much yeast won’t ruin it.
Hi. So where do I get the gallon starter kit? Tx
You can get everything you need from Amazon. I use this fermenting vessel:
Thanks for the recipe 🙂 Can I just ask please, are you using American gallons or Imperial gallons? Thank you!
Hi Claire,
Shows what an American I am, I actually had to look up what an Imperial gallon is…I’m using American gallons =)
Thank you so much and sorry for the stupid question! I am a complete beginner at making my own wine. Thank you so much for the recipe, am going to use it at the weekend 🙂 x
No worries at all! I learned something new today, so it’s I who should thank you =) Enjoy your winemaking weekend!
Hi is lemon wine sparkling
No this is not a sparkling wine recipe.
After the second fermentation, do you add anything to the wine bottle befor you cork it?
Nope.
Your recipe calls for the lemons to be boiled with the other ingredients. Why not just ferment the sliced fruit with disolved sugar, skipping the boiling stage, and use campdon tablets to kill foreign wild yeasts and then add your chosen yeast after a 24 hr wait period?
That’s a fine option too.
Thank for the idea of lomen my wife and i love drinking wine.