More of this Year so far

 As I started gathering the Elderflower earlier this year I started looking around for what else I could make wine out of :)  I thought about nettle wine and silver birth, but the one recipe didn't inspire me and the other would have been a bugger to get the raw ingredients so no go there.
Luckily one Saturday afternoon I just happened to be looking out the kitchen window and noticed the two rose bushes that grow near where we park, and I thought "I wonder?....".  I popped outside to have a look, the one bush was a very deep red with a heavy scent to it whilst the other was yellow and was far more subtle with its fragrance. It had to be worth a go. I looked up a recipe and I had the additional ingredients, it was a go!

I gathered enough petals to make three gallons, two of red and one of the other.
The recipe was for petals, raisins, citric acid, yeast, yeast nutrient and sugar, of course. All thrown in a covered bucket and left for about 5 days.

< This is the red after a couple of days, when you took the lid off you would be engulfed by a mixture of CO2 and rose scent, it was rather heady! I had high hopes for a good wine










 

After it had calmed down a bit I transferred the mixture into a demi-john to crack on. I have to say this one was a real success and I've even recently bought some dried petals in the hope of recreating this excellent wine.  Most of it never reached the bottle! The Chief Tester was a very happy lady.
It came out as a medium dry, well balanced and tasted of Turkish Delight, it was heaven!  I've still got a few bottles and I will treasure them.  The yellow rose was a different kettle of fish though (perhaps that's where I went wrong. Less cod next time...), I'd made it up along with a lemon (instead of citric acid) and an orange. It was good, but not as good as the red. I don't think the rose had decent depth of flavour/scent.
On a related note, I could never get the bugger to clear, nor my Elderflower either.  I didn't really mind but it did bother me so I decided to invest in some Finings. I treated the mixtures (after they had been stopped using a campden tablet) with the Finings and 24 hours later it was clear as a bell (glass bell surely? Usually bells aren't very clear). So I'll be using that stuff in the future for sure.

Another wine I had a bash with was a Mead. Previously I'd had good results with a mixture that included fruit and spices which produced a heavy wine and was great in the winter. This time I wanted to make something a bit lighter so I took advantage of the vast amounts of Elderflower (yes, I know!) and made an Elderflower Mead. It's come out similar to the wine, a bit grassy, which I believe does not suit the honey theme of the Mead. It's nice enough but, meh... I'll have another crack at a winter Mead very soon.

Next up, what I am mostly working on now.

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