Hawthorn flower

[lockwood1956]

Just another aside.........



Sultanas are (I find) a much gentler addition than raisins


raisins are made from red grapes, and as such seem quite an aggressive addition....sultanas, being made from white grapes seem to be a tad more refined...IMHO

but dont take my word for it.....try it

regards
Bob

[gordonmull]

Now that sounds like an infinately better way of depetalling!

I was pulling together a bit of a mish-mash of recipes, really. What I should have done was posted my intentions on here first methinks! I honestly don't know why I bothered to invert the sugar myself. I had some misguided notion that it would help the yeast eat the sugar but they've managed perfectly well on their own every other time.

The reason I added the raisins was for extra body but I think a #1 with a late flower addition like you've suggested might be a whole load less hassle. Still, you live and learn.

This is my first flower wine so I was kind of just going through the motions of fruit, which I normally aim for just over 12% with, to allow for later topups with water during racking. I certainly don't entertain my mate's theory that wine wont keep unless it's over 15%. God, it's like drinking paint stripper.

Speaking of #1, I really need to get a batch on to use for topping up rather than water. If I can avoid drinking it that is.

That's quite a mad wee factoid about the sugar packages and one I'll bear in mind.

Anyway cheers for the pointers guys. It's bubbling away now and what will be will be. When i crack a bottle I'll be sure to tell you how it turned out.

My future elderflower will be based around #1 as of now.

[Cellar_Rat]

I would agree about vinocity (thinks: is that like Carpet City).
I think this wine, when dry, will be about 12-13% which I think is plently plenty for a delicate little flower. I would have aimed it at more 11-12 myself.

A lot of people hold the opinion that strong is good, and a lot of recipes reflect this. Flavour and nose are the thing to aim at. %Alcohol for me comes much later.

In 1921 parliament decreed in the Refined White Sugar act that "for common use" Sugar should be packed in 2 pound bags because it was considered the correct amount to make 1 gallon of country wine. This was only repealed 1965 when the government announced we would be going metric and so now it is available in 2.2 pound bags (1 Kilo).

My rule of thumb is more than one bag of sugar per gallon rings alarm bells!

[lockwood1956]

Im fairly sure Luc's method of de-petalling (sp) would work...

florets into a black bin bag, stand for 24 hours, shake bag like mad.....petals come off on their own....its like magic.


Your recipe and method looks ok, but a few suggestions if i may.

No need to boil the sugar with the acid, the (the fermentation will invert the sugar)

no need for tannin in this style of wine i think

you need something in there other than just plain sugar, to give the wine some vinosity.

Try this and taste the two wines after fermentation.

1 litre grape juice
1 litre apple juice
1 tsp tartaric (or citric) acid
sugar to 1.080 (approx 700gram) this is a high enough SG for this style of wine
1tsp pectolase
water to 1 gallon
1 small handful of petals

add grape and apple juice to a fermenting bucket, dissolve the sugar in some hot water, and when cooled, add to bucket, add pectolase and acid and top up to 1 gallon mark. Ferment till SG reaches 1.010 and add the handfull of petals. Fertment to dry. Stabilise and then sweeten to around SG 1.004

should make a light, refreshing and very enjoyable drink.

the addition of apple and grape juice will make it more "winey" and adding the flowers late (you can freeze them while you wait) is to retain more floral notes, the aroma wont get blown out of the wine with the CO2 in the vigorous early fermentation.

let me know what you think

[gordonmull]

Cellar rat - ATM the SG is 1116, but I don't have all my liquid in yet. I'll know better when I strain to the DJ and top up. I'm aiming for an OG of 1090 after top up. Does that still seem a bit strong?

Fatbloke - I thought I had it licked when we were picking them as the petals were falling off so I thought I could give the bucket a good stir round with my hands and they'd come off. Most did. Unfortunately the stalk also broke up so we had to seperate it all.

[fatbloke]

Ha! as soon as I read gordonmull's post, I thought "I wonder how he de-petaled the flowers" as I had the pictures of Luc Volders putting elderflower in a bin bag for a day and being able to shake the petals off the rest of the plant..... or was it dandelion that he did like that ????

Dunno, either way, there must be an easy way of removing the petals and I'm pretty sure I've seen it posted here or at least linked here......

regards

jtfb

[Cellar_Rat]

I will be interested to see the OG of this. 1.3kg seems a bit much for me, considering this will be a delicate floral wine.

I think you deserve a medal for tenacity, you have found something there that is more tedious than elderberry.

[gordonmull]

Started today. Went out at 3pm to get the flowers with my better half. Got back home at 4.45. Not too bad.

We sat down to de-petal them. Finished at 9.45. Now that was just depressing. Nearly 7 hours to prepare, let alone fully make a gallon of wine. Tell you, this better be the best thing I've ever drank or never again!

So anyway, recipe I'm going for is as follows:

2L haw blossoms
1tsp citric
200g raisins
1.3 kg sugar
2/3 tsp tannin
nutrient
2 tsp pectinase

Boiled the sugar and citric for 20 mins. Put flowers and raisins in FV and poured syrup over.

Tomorrow, after it's cooled, I will add all other ingredients except yeast and leave for another 24 hours.

Then pitch a GV1 starter.

Stir a few times a day until SG 1010 and then whack it in a demijohn.

Really, really, hoping elderflower is not going to be this much effort but somehow i think those hopes are going to be dashed!