Spring wines anyone?

Darkginger

I've just put a gorse wine into a demi-john, and am currently brewing/steeping a mayflower one. Just wondering if anyone else is doing any flower wines this summer? Waiting on the elderflower to blossom, just finishing off last year's rose petal (from dried petals, have more on order, it was lovely!) and orange blossom (ditto). I find them a lot nicer than most fruit/veggie wines I've attempted (though I have to say last year's blackberry, although not the tastiest, blew my head off, and yes, I drank it far too young - the wine, not me), plus they seem more forgiving if you guesstimate quantities etc.

So - anyone doing anything?

Edwardius

Do you have a recipe for the gorse wine? Looks very interesting!

Darkginger

This is close to the recipe I used, though I sort of made mine up after reading several online. Basically, I boiled around 2 quarts of gorse flowers (and only bled a little bit in the collection thereof!) in a gallon of water with 250g (ish) sultanas, simmered for 15 mins, cooled a bit, added 1 kg of sugar, cooled a bit more and added the juice and zest of a lemon and 1 tsp yeast nutrient, cooled to room temp and added a sprinkling of generic wine yeast, covered and left for 4 days. Strained into a demi-john, airlock fitted, now bubbling away. Once it stops bubbling, I'll rack it, then leave to clear. Some might make it into a bottle!

kevc2

Did you pick the gorse flowers yourself? 2Kg seems like sore hands

Darkginger

Picked them myself - 2 QUARTS (ie, 4 pints, loosely packed) not 2kg Only took about an hour, once I'd got the technique right, which is a sort of pinch, avoiding the thorns!