Recipe: Rose Petal on Base Brew

So, yesterday I laid the foundations for a brew with a yet to be determined finishing touch. I'm thinking Dandelion, or perhaps Gorse, or maybe even both. Should the weather turn bad and the sun doesn't shine then the base brew will have nothing added and simply be a crisp light summery white wine.

Confused, don't be. The basic idea is that old-time recipes* for flower wines instruct you to add everything at the beginning, including flowers, and let it rip. The down side of this is that much of the wonderful volatile flavour from the flowers is lost by being driven off during the primary vigorous fermentation. Hence lots of flowers are needed. A school of thought is gaining hold that says add your flowers when the primary fermentation has finished. For me that simply means get your brew going for a few days before you add the flowers. You'll need less flowers this way because more of the flavour will be extracted. It's not just that the fermentation is way more gentle so less volatiles will be driven off, it's also that the alcohol content (probably over 10% by this stage) will extract those volatiles and hold them in solution.

This is what I'm aiming for. Downside is you may have to guess your start time based on when you think you can gather flowers. Alternatively you can pick your flowers and freeze them. Today i picked a heap of dandelions that turned out to be mugfull of petals. Old-time recipes* call for anything between 1 and 2 litres of flowers per gallon. But a later addition means the mugfull may be enough for a gallon. Anyway, onwards with the recipe.

Ingredients

5 Litres White Grape Juice (pressed)
5.25 Litres Apple Juice (pressed)
4 Kg Sugar
5 Teaspoons Acid Mix (50:50 tartaric and citric)
3 Campden Tablets
Water to 4.5 Gallons (approx)
Yeast Nutrient
Yeast (Gervin D)
Pectolase (added 3 days in because I forgot it!)
2 Bags Rose Petals (added at secondary stage, 10 days in)
1 Teaspoon  Wine Tannin (added at secondary stage, 10 days in)
OG; 1088

Some of the ingredients for the base brew. As you can see the fruit juices I used were not concentrates, however I think concentrates will work out ok, just look out for additives that'll give your yeast a tough time (Potassium sorbate especially, less so sodium/potassium metabisulphate).

Method

Simply combined all the above (apart from yeast and nutrient) and put the lid on. Left it overnight.
Next day gave it a sloshy stir, measured the gravity, came in at around 1095 so added some water and it came down to 1088. Still quite high but that was already over 5 gallons so I have to leave it there and hope for the best, I anticipate topping the wine up at some stage so I can do this with water when the wine has such a high OG.
Added the nutrient and yeast. Gervin D chosen cos it's acid reducing, referring to malic acid which apples have plenty of. Malic acid is harsh tasting so reducing it will do no harm at all. It's also low foaming and a quick starter.

Thoughts

This base will make a very nice table wine in its own right, but it's lightness and crisp clean flavour also makes it suitable for use as a base for flower wines. The ideal gravity to start with is 1070-1080, mine is higher. That's a shame because it means I'll probably be waiting 6 months before drinking it, rather than 8 weeks. (I'd better get the next one's gravity in the right range, cos that'll be elderflower!). around the middle of next week I'll transfer the wine to secondary container(s) and add the flower petals.

As I type this I realise I've missed out the pectic enzyme, will add it tomorrow. Apples contain plenty of pectin and if I don't use pectic enzyme then I'll probably end up with a pectin haze and have a hard time clearing it.

* Old-time recipes: I have enormous regard for the old-time recipes. Without them I wouldn't be brewing wines like dandelion, elderflower, blackberry and tanglefoot. However, sometimes progress is so good that things move on, and so I want to try more late additions and see how it works for me.

Update

I missed the dandelions, and haven't made an effort to get gorse flowers, so in the end I decided to do a 5 gallon batch of Rose Petal wine as last year's Rose Petal wine was a stunner. The details you need to know for doing this are as follows. The rose petals (see piccie below) were bought from the local homebrew shop, the instructions on the bag say each bag does 1 gallon, but as this is a late addition I guess-timated that 2 bags would be more than enough for 5 gallons.

About 10 Days after starting the brew I moved the must to a secondary fermenter with airlock. The gravity at this stage was 1026 so ABV 8.5% or so. I then added 2 bags of rose petals, each one in a muslin bag (see piccie below).

 
I didn't bother to sanitise etc because the alcohol content and acidity are sufficient to ensure that all will be well. I also added 1 teaspoon of wine tannin, simply because last year's brew included it. I pushed down the muslin bags once a day for a few days. About 2 weeks later I removed the rose petals and racked the wine into demi-johns.