The basic methodology for making herb and flowers wines remains the same whatever you are using.
Broadly:-
1) Masceration of the flowers in hot water with a source of citric acid.
2) Adding fermentable sugars in one form or another.
3) Maturing for around 6 months.
Flowers wines may be flavoured with fruits and / or spices. Sugars can be simple or provided by ingredients such as sultanas or even grape juice... (Some recipes I have come across used concentrate, but I would imagine better results could be obtained from using fresh juices as I used to when I was younger).
The use of sugar may seem to go "against the grain" - ( :huh:
sorry I couldn't resist that one) - but I have done some deeper looking and have found a recipe for Gooseberry wine from an authority no less than Mrs Beeton which contains a considerable amount of sugar, so it appears that the practice of brewing from household sugar for country wines has been established for some time. I have provided a link below for anybody who is interested.
http://thefoody.com/mrsbdrinks/gooseberrywine.html
Most of the sources I have seen agree that you should be aiming for a sweet wine as the flowery bouquet tends to contrdict a dry flavour. The first recipe I found stoops to suggesting the use of saccharine to correct mistakes and believe you me that was not unheard of in the 70s - I believe some cheap white sommerical wines still do it today!!! My suggestion would be to tinker with your recipe at an earlier stage!
The basic ingredients quoted in "Home Wine and Beer Making" by Ben Turner are:-
4 pints of dandelion heads
2 lemons
2 oranges
3 lb of sugar
1 gallon of water
1 sachet wine yeast
A quick scan of the net and other texts suggest that 0.5 - 1 lb of sugar can be substituted with sweet sultanas in euqal proportions to give the wine more body and I would suggest the 0.5 lb substitution if you don't want your wine to be watery and lacking in tannins for the palette. (You will have seen elsewhere on this forum that this substitution is common in western rice wine recipes although it is not used in the commercial preparation of sake).
The first and most important issue with flower wines is disposing of anything green. Green leaves, stalks, stems and calyxes all contain an awful lot of bittering agents just like the familiar hop. Bottled wine creates it's own inert atmosphere to preserve it and does not need the benefit of artificial bittering agents. As such, every scrap of green must be removed to prevent the wine from tasting bitter. THIS IS ESSENTIAL IF YOU WANT YOUR WINE TO BE DRINKABLE.
The second consideration is adding the necessary acidity to your wine. It is thefore typical to add citric acids from fruit during the maceration process. The essential oils from the rinds of citrus fruits also add to the flavour and aroma of the wine.
The flowers must therefore be crushed in hot water to extract the aroma and flavour. The fruit must be peeled and and the rind chopped into the masceration solution which it is still hot. The juice can be added once your gallon of water is cooled in addition to one Campden tablet.
After three days the liquor will be ready for the addition of the sugar and sultanas. The sultanas must be chopped to ensure proper access to their fermentable sugars. (This can be done in a food-processor). The simplest method to achieve a good solution is to add the sugar and sultanas to a Demijohn and then strain the liquor over them using a sieve and a funnel. The wine yeast and an airlock can then be added.
Once fermentation is complete, (easy to see for wine - the airlock will cease bubbling), rack the wine into a sterilised jar and add a Campden tablet. The syphoning process should exclude any sultana debris. ("Racking" is the winemaking term for syphoning off the fermented liquids).
The wine should then be aged for at least six months to allow the flavour to settle and the wine to brighten out. (Seal your demijohn with a good bung and put it somewhere cool). The wine can then be racked again and is ready for bottling. The wine should be drinkable at this stage.
Remember... Wine making is a constant experiment in recipe design and I would always suggest making two slightly differing batches and keeping notes on both so that you can see what works and what doesn't. The ingredients for this brew are cheap and easily available. One of them is even free!
Go on! Give it a go!
Oh and by the way DO NOT try this with daffodils (or buttercups)! Theyb may be plentiful right now but they are also the route to undrinkable wine and, at a minimum, a quite serious stomach upset! Try differing flowers if you would like to but remember that some things are not eaten by reason of being poisonous!!!
Always check the toxicity of any potential brewing flower!
:blink:
