| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| cab |
Wines for February?What's worth putting on at this time of year?I'm aiming to start three or four gallons this month. At this time of year I mostly use dried materials; I'll do a gallon of metheglin (mead flavoured with spices), a gallon of orange flower metheglin (orange flowers make an excellent wine and a better metheglin, and cost very little from homebrew shops), and possibly a gallon of plain mead. If I've time, I'll also go for a gallon of parsnip or another vegetable wine. The metheglins and meads will be drinkable for mid summer, but they'll be better by next years midsummer; this is my reserve stock for if we start running out during summer barbecues. My main stock for this summer is already bottled, or is bulk maturing in demi jons. Any other ideas for wines to work on in February? |
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| tahir |
Dunno about february but can you use honeysuckle berries for wine? | ||||||
| jema |
http://www.arkwrightshomebrew.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/251
is that the stuff? what is the recipe? I have been looking at my empty fermentors and thinking now the dust levels are down from my diy, I should be throwing something interesting on. jema |
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| cab |
That's the stuff. Take a bag of the orange flowers and tip it into a straining bag. Take three pounds of honey, bung it into a pan, and pour on enough water to make up to, say, three quarters of a gallon. Warm it with stirring to a gentle simmer, adding a cup of black tea and a spoonfull of yeast nutrient. Simmer it very, very gently for about an hour, taking off the scum as it rises. Be very gentle with it, but be sure to get off as much of the scum as you can. Put the straining bag into a sterilised bucket, and pour on the hot liquid. Wait till it's cool enough and add in an activated yeast (either a champagne yeast of general purpose wine yeast). Ferment it in primary in the normal way with the flowers in overnight, take them out a day or two later and treat as for any other wine from that point. Top it up when you rack it once it's been in secondary for a week or two. For a sweeter orange blossom metheglin, use 3 1/2 lb of honey. You can get tremendous variation by changing honeys; an orange blossom honey is superfluous here, but try other flavorued honeys in this and in other meads, the effect can be striking. This is a superb metheglin; well worth making. |
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| cab |
Off the top of my head, I don't know. I'll look it up. |
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| Bugs |
Do you get your honey from anywhere in particular?
I ask because I'd like to buy and use more...possibly in wine making sometime when we have more space and time, but I like it anyway for cooking and eating...but I can only seem to find either small jars, "non-EC blends" or heavily marked-up local honey. Friends in France had kilo buckets bought from the producer which would be ideal, but I'm having difficulty finding my own source here. Would like to keep my own bees but that's not a possibility yet. |
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| Treacodactyl |
I've seen honeysuckle flower wine but the recipe said the berries are poisonous. Not sure if they are but seek advice. 
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| jema |
Found this recipe for an orange blossom wine rather than a mead.
Dried Orange Blossom Wine Ingredients * 15G dried orange blossom * 1.25K sugar * 25G tartaric acid * 1/2 teaspoon grape tannin * 1 teaspoon tronozymol nutrient * Water TO 4.5 Litres * General purpose yeast Method Bring the water to the boil and pour over the blossom, then add the sugar. When cool (21C) add yeast, acid, tannin and nutrient, fit airlock and ferment out. Rack into a clean jar, add 1 Campden tablet and store in a cool place till clear. Mature for a few months in bulk, then bottle and keep a little longer. The wine should be served chilled as an aperitif. It is a dry wine with a delicious bouquet and flavour. Guess this has to be one of the cheapest wines going. jema |
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| tahir |
Could be right, it may be the flowers |
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| cab |
I buy honey anywhere and everywhere. We've got a local shop called 'Daily Bread' which sells honey quite reasonably, but unfortunately a lot of it is imported. I do use that honey, but I also buy local when I come across it; I'm lucky because a lot of local shops seem to have honey produced in Cambs. |
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| cab |
Yes, you can do it with sugar instead of honey, but it's got a lot less depth to the flavour then. Glad you posted that because I'd forgotten to mention that you need some acid till you did. If you can still get dried rose petals from homebrew shops, they also make a good wine. Dried coltsfoot is a superb ingredient that I make a wine with, using concentrated pear juice with it to get a well rounded, smooth and quick maturing wine. I've also used dried elderflowers, but I find the flavour of the wine a bit too punchy. |
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| jema |
I think I will give the straight wine a bash all the same, served chilled it sounds like it could be a great BBQ party wine.
jema |
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| cab |
Definitely a good 'sociall wine'. If you're going for a straight wine rather than a metheglin, I suggest adding some body to it with one of the small tins of concentrated white grape juice, comes out a little better that way. |
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| cab |
I think you're right; I've never come across anyone using the berries, but recipes for flower wines are common, such as: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques81.asp |
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| jema |
What would you say to sultanas instead? they are very very cheap in comparison. jema |
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| cab |
They add body, but they bring a more distinctive flavour; I often find that if I use sultanas or raisins I can taste them in the wine. I'd be cautious; besides, the rest of your ingredients (if you're using sugar rather than honey) are so very cheap anyway. |
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| jema |
Good point, I think i'd want neutral flavour with the orange blossom. I reckon i'll get this on Thursday. With my carrot whiskey I have only done 3 gallons, I figure the orange may as well be the full 5 
It is quite good to be getting slowly back into these types of wines 
The beaverdale kits I used to build the cellar are over £30 each, and the Elderberry in a way is a lot more expensive than that. I will probably see what he has in stock by way of dried fruit for a decent batch of red at the same time
jema |
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| cab |
You're not tempted to try a small batch before embarking on a full thirty bottles of something you might not like?
The elderberry is more expensive? How so? Presumably the fruit is free, then there's what, two and a half or three pounds of sugar per gallon, a bit of tannin and acid... How do you figure it costs more? |
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| jema |
My attitude is that I'd rather have 5 gallons of wine I am not too keen on, than 1 gallon that makes me kick myself for not having put more on. As such I have slapped on 5 gallons slightely modifed orange blossom, albeit with some out of date dried blossom I got for free. I also got 1kg of dried Elderberry whihc is a pretty boring choice, but I do like Elderberry wine 
I figure the Elderberry wine to be "expensive" in the sense that whilst a certain amount of foraging and wine making is enjoyable. It is very time consuming and that cannot be totally ignored. jema |
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| jema |
Just racked my orange blossom from bucket to fermenter.
Seems like it should be an inoffensive little summer wine 
jema |
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| cab |
Made with sugar rather than honey, it's certainly inoffensive, but a little light. I like it with the extra body. I'd reccomend that it'll be good if well chilled in summer. | ||||||
| Jonnyboy |
Birch sap wine? Although the sap will start to rise at different times depending upon your latitude. | ||||||
| jema |
I did add grape juice to give it some body
Looking for a more interesting Country wine to make now. Though all 7 of my fermenters are full at the moment 
4 fermenting, 3 clearing. As I drift more into Country wine mode, I guess I am going to end up with a lot more in the clearing phase, so probably with have to get a couple more
jema |
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| Blacksmith |
Lot of gorse in flower at the moment, anyone tried it ? and have your fingers healed up ? | ||||||
| Bugs |
We came across a gorse bush in flower the other day - actually, the first time I'd got close enough to one to smell it. It smells luuuuurvely. | ||||||
| cab |
Grape juice ought to sort it. How long things clear with a country wine really depends; flower wines can clear in a snap. Coltsfoot is really fast. Mint takes a while. Bit of pectinase and plum goes fast too. But yes, you need more fermenters. Will the other half let you? |
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| cab |
I've never had the nerve to tap a birch tree. If I had my own I'd be tempted. |
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| cab |
Tried it; didn't really take to gorse wine, although I do plan to try again some time. Not a great deal of it around here though
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| jema |
Well she's keen enough on drinking it  
jema |
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| cab |
You and I both know that having a better half keen on the fruits of your hobby does not mean you have carte blanche to get as much kit in for it as you'd like
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| Bugs |
Have just found a discussion on TKG site which said that last month's The Garden's article about Russian edibles mentioned an edible honeysuckle; another poster then offered a link to this very dangerous  website:
http://www.korewildfruitnursery.co.uk/smaller_shrubs.htm |
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| Treacodactyl |
Not in our currant garden, but one for our next place. |
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| Bugs |
I know, I know. I'm a good girl I am.
We really do need to keep this site going strong so we can plunder it for ideas and addresses in a few years' time!
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| jema |
Well my orange blossom with sultanas and grape seems to have fermented out to a very pleasant rose wine that will be excellent chilled or in a punch
Would recommend people try this one. |
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| Treacodactyl |
That's very kind of you old chap.
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| jema |
Well it may concievably be bottled in 3 weeks
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