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Tuesday 15 June 2010

Recipe; Rose Petal Wine

Around 6 months ago the better half took a fancy to me trying to make a Rose Petal wine, albeit from dried petals bought in a homebrew shop. So I did. Just a few days ago during my Sis's visit she fancied trying it, so I bottled it and we tried a half bottle.

It looks just amazing, beautiful colour (tho I can't manage to capture it's pinkness on camera) and clear as a bell.
It taste is very interesting, definitely another flower wine so in that sense it's like elderflower and is difficult to compare to fruit wines. But anyone who knows Turkish Delight would be able to get such flavours with each mouthful. It was pretty dry, and some would find it tickled their throat a bit (I did). I'll be trying it again and I think a little more citric acid or lemon juice may solve that issue. Apart from that it's quite delicious and grew on me quickly ... perhaps an acquired taste for me then.

Recipe for 1 Gallon

1 Bag of Dried Rose Petals
925g Sugar
Juice of 2.5 Lemons
245g White Grape Concentrate
1/4 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
1 Teaspoon Tartaric Acid
Nutrient
Lees from Tanglefoot Brew (containing Sauternes Yeast)

OG was 1082, FG was 994, around 12%ABV

Method

Standard stuff really, throw the whole lot together (petals in a muslin bag). After a week or so move to secondary fermenter and remove flowers. When it stops fermenting and throws a sediment rack, degas, stabilise. Some weeks later it showed no signs of losing the haze so chitin based finings added. 2 weeks later was clear and got the last racking.

Edit; Update

So it's now about a year since starting this brew. Anyway this has turned out delicious. If you can imagine gently capturing the essence of Turkish Delight and making it into wine, then this is the result. It really is delicious. But it does take a year to get there. Until then it has a little tickle on your throat which is kind of like white pepper. That has now gone.
At first I thought this wine would be informative, and lead to a better version, perhaps though another experiment, using fresh petals. Now I think the result probably wouldn't be better quality, tho it be quite a different wine, equally good, but just fit for a different setting, food or whatever. If you haven't tried making it, and you like Turkish delight, or the smell of roses, then you have to give this a go.
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8 comments:

  1. Unknown20 June 2010 at 14:08

    I am the lucky Sis who got to try this wine while on my stay! :) I really enjoyed it and yes it has the turkish delight taste to each mouthful! It is a special wine to enjoy maybe on it's own as it is different and with the floral taste to it aswell, very yummy indeed! Thanks for sharing! x

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  2. Critter Wines20 June 2010 at 15:41

    Thanks for the big thumbs up. There's a good chance I'll make it again, slightly tweaked so that I don't get the peppery feel, but otherwise it should taste the same.

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  3. Anonymous10 February 2012 at 23:31

    how much rose petal is in a bag? so intrigued to try this recipe.

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    Replies
    1. Critter Wines11 February 2012 at 00:38

      Hi Anon
      Thanks for your question. Glad you are intrigued, and i hope that this leads you to giving it a go.

      There are 50 grams of petals in the bags i buy. This recipe is very nice, but there is another one you may also be interested in. It'll be ready drink much sooner (as little as 6-8 weeks from starting to drinking). And it's a breeze to make it.

      http://homebrewedwines.blogspot.com/2011/04/recipe-base-brew.html

      Delete
  4. Unknown14 July 2012 at 16:20

    I use the roses from my garden and like to experiment with different colours and scents. I don't put additives in. Just a yeast and nutrient and lemiin juice. It is my favourite wine. Thanks for drawing peoples' attentions to this delicious wine
    http://norfolkcountryrose.blogspot.co.uk/

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  5. Critter Wines16 July 2012 at 23:02

    hi Rosalind, nice to hear of your wine-making specialism in rose petals. it sounds like you know your stuff and that you know how to brew safely without stabilisers etc. it's simple enough stuff and yet many homebrewers get quite up-tight about "needing" additives. There's always a way to brew naturally and get good results, most often you just need a little more patience ... and a hydrometer of course.

    Sounds like you use a specialist yeast tho, especially cos you know the value of adding nutrient. It's something i would always recommend getting into.

    warm wishes to you, i think i have a summer (hmm) cold so my sipping tonight is green tea & ginger wine.

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  6. Unknown21 April 2016 at 13:25

    I'll be starting this one off in a couple of days, if I bung in juice from 3 lemons, or 2 and 1/2 with a bit of citric crystals, would that mitigate the throat tickle?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Critter Wines21 April 2016 at 14:35

      hi Mark, my comprehension is that lemon juice (citric acid) does mitigate for the tickle. However not everyone experiences the tickle anyway!

      Also, i'd watch out for overdoing the acid content. looking back i'm surprised that i used as much lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon approximately equals 1 teaspoon citric acid) especially with using grape juice concentrate. Having said that it worked so ... if it ain't broke i won't fix it. And if you like your wine with a bit more acidity than most then go for it!

      Do feel free to come back and tell us how it went. Happy brewing!

      Delete

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