hawthorn blossom

[ms67]

trying a hawthorn blossom wine for the first time, recipe pretty much as C.J.J.Berry. There's plenty of them about and in blossom in the hedgerows at the moment , and it will keep me brewing 'til the elders flower.

I missed out on dandelions and all i did over the last few months was a kit so spring has sprung a bit late - brewing wise - for me.

[benarnold]

There's still quite a few dandelions about up here in the Midlands, I bet you could find some if you looked around a bit. Of course, they do take bloody ages to collect!

[Zebedee]

Theres also gorse

[ms67]

dandelions ... yep, there are still some here, but i only have 1 big FV and by the time the hawthorn is racked into DJs i am antipating easy elderflower picking rather than the harder work of dandelions. These 4 wines (dandelion, gorse, elderflower and hawthorn blossom are all new to me so perhaps i'll save one or two for a new experience next year).

gorse was very tempting at the time too. the flowers smelled much nicer but we could only find one bush and didnt want to strip it bare. if i was happy to make wine from the hedgerows on main roads then we could have got heaps but i don't fancy it .... pollution blah blah blah. Anyway after noting how they smell good i'll be on the look out for a leafy lane gorse patch, either sometime this year (they flower for months i believe) or next year.

[ms67]

its really not smelling good . i've made, i guess, something like 100 gallons of wine over the years and not had a failure yet but this may be the first. made a rosehip that stank very bad for a while (some years ago now) but it turned out ok so there is a little hope, but i'm not holding out for it - anyone have any thoughts/experience on this?

there's no bugs or anything like that floating in it, so i guess you should only pick the flowers if they smell good?

[lockwood1956]

Dont be in a hurrry here....


I made dandelion, and it stunk really bad.....


however...it wone a first last Sunday...just give it time.


what stage of ferment are you aat?

[ms67]

thanks for the reassurance lockwood.

At the mo its secondary fermentation stage. its still pretty active tho, a bubble through the airlock every 3-4 seconds. i'll submit a "renew optimism" form to ms67 central control room

[ms67]

update, it seems to have lost its bad smell now. infact its lost just about all of its smell! i reckon i may have a non descript but pleasant enough table wine on my hands. well thats a big improvement on what i thought i had anyway. i'll definately seek out good smelling flowers in future if i do this again tho as my experience with the good smelling elderflowers has taught me a thing or two.

i say "if" cos space is at a premium here and sometime i'm gonna have to make choices about what wines i'll be making in bulk (3 + gallons a time) and which will be novelty/occasional wines at 1 gallon a time. At the mo i have about 20 demijohns full and really its gonna get silly if i keep on adding more. i need an extra room for more, or an extra garden shed or something and thats just not possible in our place. i could squirrel about another 10 or so around and about without making a nuisance of myself i reckon

sorry for the rambling, i blame the parsnip wine meself (lovely and clear, light and easy drinking, perhaps lockwood would describe it as well made but not great and honestly that would suit me just fine as a fair description). or i could blame the samples of green tea & ginger that i had while racking 3 gallons of it (also yummy, i must be getting the hang of this brewing thing)

[leahruts]

Oooh Green tea and Ginger wine sounds lovely ms67, would you possibly consider sharing your recipe please?
Leah

[ms67]

hey Leah, sure i'll share the recipe with you. in the next couple of days i'll start a thread of the same name. i got the recipe from a website and if i remember right i tweaked it to suit what we had in the house and also to suit our tastes. i'll post a link to the original recipe too if i can find it. its shows good promise but did need finings to clear a haze that was obviously not in a hurry to drop of its own accord in a timescale of months.

Send me a PM if i havent posted it by monday night and it'll spur me into action.

[leahruts]

Thank you! I'm new to winemaking and having so much fun with it, my kitchen is starting to look like dexters laboratory haha. I've been making kit wines but fancy having a go at something a little different.

Leah

[ms67]

hey Leah heres the link for the website recipe i found. its kellers website and as such i reckon you can trust the recipe.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request216.asp

i'll post my recipe later today, its pretty much the same, loose tea instead of teabags, sauternes yeast, probably a little different sugar quantity. I also made a change or two to the method to make it easier to handle using muslin bags etc. all will be revealed soon, in the meantime you can see what ingredients and quantities you are gonna need. then you can decide for yourself what recipe to use or go with your own variation.

and i have now added my version in the recipe section, with the keller link too

here's my version

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...6348#post56348

[ms67]

by the way, i have brewed wine the other way around to you. Never did a kit until december last year and then made a beaverdale shiraz. Very yummy it is too, tho still haven't drunk a bottle as i want to let it stand a while longer. Very glad to have done the kit and will do more in future, tho my passion is for country wines cos i like the foraging and doing stuff that connects me to the seasons.

[leahruts]

Thanks ms67, I will gather the bits I need for the weekend and give this ago.
I'll let you know how I come on.
I've got a beaverdale merlot that I bottled around a month ago, had a little taste and it's lovely! Got the rest of the bottles stashed so that I can give it plenty of time to do its own thing.
Planning an elderflower wine (they're just coming into flower where I am) and cant wait for the berries later on either! Planning some nice walks for further inspiration!
i've been accused of becoming a wine bore(!) by my mam!
Leah.

[benarnold]

tho my passion is for country wines cos i like the foraging and doing stuff that connects me to the seasons.

And, of course, it's a whole lot cheaper

I agree though, I like the foraging aspect as well, and the growing one. I made a rather tasty raspberry wine last year that took about three weeks worth of lunch times to collect the wild berries. It's one of the best wines I've made. Not that that's saying much really, but I'm pleased.