Gluhwein, Mulled Wine, Glogg

[KatieLoeb]

I was actually right about that then. I just didn't realize the Special Magical Punch Bowl had a name that was different from regular old Gluhwein.

German never was my strong suit.

I'm told that Austrian college boys use this stuff like Kryptonite to make girls clothes fall off after a night of partying around the punch bowl.

[legourmet]

I'm told that Austrian college boys use this stuff like Kryptonite to make girls clothes fall off after a night of partying around the punch bowl. 

←

If so, they are unable to take advantage of when participating in drinking.

[Beebs]

I am indulging in the first cup of hot mulled wine of the season. I think it's the one drink that unfailingly puts me in a winter holiday mood - it's so festive & cozy & delicious. Mine is a rather basic mulled wine: bottle of inexpensive red wine simmered with whole cloves, cinnamon, allspice, orange, sugar, good slug of brandy at the end. Sometimes I'll throw on a couple dashes of angostura bitters.

First time I ever had mulled wine, it was at a New Year's Eve party our neighbour had thrown on the beach. I never knew hot wine with spices in it could be so good! Not realizing how easily it goes down, I ended up quite a bit tipsy after...well, too many cups.

Is anyone else drinking mulled wine / gluhwein / glogg and have a great recipe, story or tradition to share?

[SylviaLovegren]

I love the idea of it, but it always makes me feel funny, not in a good way. Now a hot toddy or a hot buttered rum, on the other hand... We've already had our first hot toddies of the season and they were quite enjoyable.

[JTravel]

Did the markets.....drank the hot wine.....have the mugs to prove it. I've tried various mixtures....including gluhwein mixtures from Germany but I'd be happy to have a recipe I can make at home. It's cold enough here in western NYS to drink it now.

Also, last year tried some "milk punch" at a market on the Rhine. That was good too....in a very different ways. I'd love to know how they make that.

[andiesenji]

I can't drink it myself, but I will have to dig out my old recipe for Glogg - that once, decades ago, was my oft requested contribution to SCA gatherings and after hours parties at the ren faires - when they were still at the Hope ranch in Thousand Oaks.

It's made with mead, other wines, a little brandy and some fruit juice made from dried fruits - and is incredibly (and sneakily) potent.

It can be mixed up well ahead of time - in fact it tastes better after a few days of "melding" and can be heated with a hot iron, over a burner or in the microwave.

Long after I gave up the SCA fun, members would hire me to mix up a few gallons for their celebrations.

[Jaymes]

There are some excellent ideas in this previous Gluhwein thread. It's got 26 replies, and lots of good info.

Suggest you give it the quick once-over:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/13128-gluhwein/?hl=%2Bgluhwein#entry1077368

Thanks for the link, Jaymes! I searched "mulled" and "glogg" but didn't think to enter gluhwein into the search function....must have imbided too much mulled wine!

Did you happen to notice in that other thread that somebody suggested adding Amaretto. And someone else is making it one cup at a time, in the microwave, using mulling teabags.

I tried each suggestion back when I first read about them, but haven't gotten started yet this year. Think I'll correct that at once.

[Beebs]

There are some excellent ideas in this previous Gluhwein thread. It's got 26 replies, and lots of good info.

Suggest you give it the quick once-over:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/13128-gluhwein/?hl=%2Bgluhwein#entry1077368

Thanks for the link, Jaymes! I searched "mulled" and "glogg" but didn't think to enter gluhwein into the search function....must have imbided too much mulled wine!

Did you happen to notice in that other thread that somebody suggested adding Amaretto. And someone else is making it one cup at a time, in the microwave, using mulling teabags.

I tried each suggestion back when I first read about them, but haven't gotten started yet this year. Think I'll correct that at once.

I did see the amaretto suggestion, but I'm particularly intrigued by the vanilla vodka addition. I'll have to give both a go. Mulling teabags is a good idea, I'd bet it would be a fun experiment to try chai or orange spice or other spice teabags. I usually make a largish amount of mulled wine at a time, keep it in a pitcher in the fridge, and microwaving a cup at a time. Mulled wine microwaves very well.

[tsp.]

IKEA usually sells an OK glogg this time of the year.

Edited December 2, 2013 by tsp. (log)

[Czequershuus]

Not quite mulled wine, but I just made some delicious English Bishop for my sister and her significant other while they helped decorate our parents house for Christmas. Super easy and delicious. I just studded an orange with a bunch of cloves(about 20), and baked it in the oven for an hour(I started at 400, but turned it up to 450 half way through) until it was mostly brown. Then I quartered it and simmered it with a bottle of ruby port for 20 minutes.

It was a big hit, everyone had three glasses and polished it off in the afternoon. I have made mulled wine before, and this was provided a similar flavor for even less effort. Plus, it makes the kitchen smell glorious.

[Kerry Beal]

Was visiting Kegworks today - noticed they had a Glogg kit - basically a bunch of whole spices to be introduced into the wine.

[Danne]

Since I'm from the land of Glögg...

First of all, glögg in form of warm wine that has been infused with spices has been around since the middle ages (the old romans and greeks have been doing it for longer than that) but the word "glödgat" (*to mull) is printed first time in 1609. The recipe is simple, just a pice of sugar that you pour Cognac over and then light it on fire and let melted sugar drip down into wine. "glödgat" and "glögg" comes from the word "glöd" (*ember).

We made Glögg as an medicine. Since we are up north and can't make our own wine we had to buy it from southern Europe I can imagine that we didn't get the best wines up here and during the winter months the wine had probably gone bad. So it's cold and the expensive wine that we had bought had gone bad so we started to put spices in the wine to make it drinkable.

The first recipe that I could find is from 1837.

Regular red wine
Nutmeg
Cinamon

Cloves

Sugar

But it was around the 1850ths that Glögg in it's present form started to become popular, the book "Handbok i förädling, förstärkning och tillverkning av viner och spiritousa" (Manual of prosessing and manufacture of wines and spirits) from 1870 states 4 recipes.
During the 1850ths we also started bottling Swedish Punsch, before that you bought it quarts or barrels. But it wasn't until the end of the 1800s that Glögg on bottle became popular.

There are 3 main styles of classic Glögg. The most usual one is when you take spices and put them in red wine and heat it up. You can also put the spices in spirit of your choice and let them macerate and then use some of the glöggextract in heated wine. The final one is a fermented Glögg. The base is "Svagdricka" (almost like Kvass) and spices. This is typically made 8-6 weeks before Christmas. But the beverage becomes better if you store it for a year or two.

A typical recipe with spirit goes like this:
1 piece of cinamon

1 piece of ginger (don't forget!!)
1 small piece of bitter orange peel (so it's not the usual orange, we call it pommerans, the classic recipes contains the pith also)

1 tsp of cloves

½ tsp of cardamom

100 gr raisins
35 cl of vodka

(2-3 dl of sugar)
(2 bottles of red wine)

Put the spices and raisins in a jar with the vodka, let it sit for 4 days shake the jar every day. Strain, use the amount of tincture you want together with red wine and sugar, heat and drink. This tincture is for 2 bottles of red wine and for that about 2-3 dl of sugar.

For regular Glögg use the same spices but heat the wine with the spices for about 15 minutes, done. The amount of spices are up to you, everyone makes different types of glögg.

For fermented Glögg:
5 L Svagdricka (use kvass if you can't find it)
2 kg Sugar

1 dried peel of a bitter orange

0,5 dl cardamom

1 dl cloves

3 cinamonsticks

1 pc dried ginger

250 gr raisins

yeast (for this classic recipe we use bread yeast, but it's much better with a beer yeast)

Stir 2 times every day, ferment for at least 20 days.

The big difference between Glögg and Glüwine is that Glögg contains ginger and Glüwine is made with big pieces of orange.

In Sweden we drink Glögg with raisins and almonds, you put it in your cup with Glögg. Usualy you have gingerbread and saffron buns to eat.