Recipe - Rose Petal Wine

This wine has become one of our favourites, and it's very easy. It's also great for winter cos homebrew shops always have bags of rose petals. I'll crack on with doing the ingredients, method etc now because I've blogged chattier versions previously. See here for example, or see here for a different version. Personally I prefer the former version, so basically that's what I'm writing up here.

Ingredients (for 3 Gallons);

2.4 Kg Sugar
3 Litres White Grape Juice
3 Litres Apple Juice
3 Teaspoons Acid Mix (50:50 Citric and Tartaric)
2 Campden Tablets
Yeast Nutrient (Nutrivin)
Pectolase
1 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
Water to 3 Gallons
Yeast (Gervin D)
1 Bag Rose Petals (50g)

OG 1086

The fruit juice is nothing special at all, just the cartons you find on supermarket shelves. The only thing to look out for is preservatives, avoid Potassium Sorbate (E202) like the plague, it stops yeast from breeding and is a commonly added preservative. So your brew will never get going. Luckily that still leaves you with lots of choice. After that it's your choice, pure pressed juice, from concentrate, or the fresh ones in the chill counter. I use Sungrown. It's not from concentrate and has no additives, best of all it's very cheap, around 80p/litre. You could also use red grape juice instead of white, I love the delicate colour I get with using white grape juice. That's probably the only difference it makes.

Method

Simply combine all the above (apart from yeast and rose petals), stir well and put the lid on. I like it to be a little warm, 25'C say, but check what the instructions say on your your enzyme tub. Then leave it overnight.

Next day give it a sloshy stir to get plenty of air in, measure the gravity, came in at1086 (just a little lower than last years). Now add the yeast, cover and leave overnight. Each day for the next few days, give the must a sloshy stir for a few minutes and then cover again.

After about a week transfer to a secondary fermentation vessel with an airlock. Now add the rose petals, in a tied muslin or nylon bag. Adding late means that you don't need as many. So my 50 grams will do 3 gallons rather than 1.

Leave this to finish fermenting then remove the rose petals and rack to demi-johns. Do all the usual from here, degas, stabilise, fine (if needed), rack.

Thoughts

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.

I used an acid mix because sometimes rose petal wine catches my throat like white pepper does. The citric acid counters this effectively. Tannic compliments rose petals in my opinion, hence I added a little. This wine, like all those made with 2 litres of juice per gallon of wine, is all about balance. A little tannin is sufficient.

If you're into doing things in an eco way then homebrew can be a great ... erm ... self-congratulatory pat on the back. How about trying beet sugar instead of cane? The brand I know is Silverspoon. In terms of food miles it may be a lot better than cane sugar, all depends on where you live. Some say it gives the wine a very slight earthy taste. I think they're wine ponces. Both cane and beet go through a very simple process to result in refined sugar, and that's basically what you get in the bag, precisely the same stuff to the same very high level of purity. My chemistry degree leads me to being very confident on this.