Patent ID: 7608287

Claim:
A process for the preparation of ginseng wine, said process comprising (i) grinding fresh ginseng root to produce ground ginseng root, optionally boiling said ground ginseng root, and combining said ground ginseng root or boiled ground ginseng root with boiling water and sugar in a sterilized primary fermentor to form a mixture; (ii) measuring specific gravity of the mixture when the temperature of the mixture reaches room temperature, and adding purified cool water and/or sugar until the specific gravity reaches a level between 1.120 and 1.080; (iii) adding yeast or yeast culture to the mixture and stirring the mixture to add oxygen and to release accumulated heat created during primary fermentation; (iv) punching down a layer of solid ginseng content that forms on top of the mixture during the primary fermentation and stirring the mixture to impart ingredients and flavor from the solid ginseng to the mixture; (v) after primary fermentation until the specific gravity reading reaches 1.020 or less, racking free-run wine off lees of the primary fermentation mixture into a sterilized secondary fermentor; (vi) pressing said lees to release additional wine which is combined with the free-run wine and anaerobically fermenting the wine in the secondary fermentor; (vii) racking the wine at a specific gravity reading of about 0.998 to about 0.995 after the anaerobic fermentation into a sterilized container, and further anaerobically fermenting the wine; and (viii) racking the wine again into a sterilized container to produce ginseng wine.