herbal wine bitters

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randicoot

Junior
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New Hampshire
So the idea behind this was to try to make something like a "medicinal" bitters using some of the locally grown herbs I've been learning about. The bitterest herb I've got around here is motherwort. Very bitter. In tincture it has a bit of a cocoa flavor and added to coconut rum it makes a nice cordial. I also originally had in mind wild lettuce but none of that made it in. When I was gathering all the ingredients together, including the small bags of frozen berries, I came across an old packet of shiso leaves in the freezer so that went in too.

It's been fermenting about 4 days now and I've tasted the spoon after each stirring. Really different flavor profiles with each tasting. First stirring/tasting, after I was sure it was fermenting well, was all shiso. Each day as more sugar ferments away it brings out more of the motherwort. Today the cocoa-iness of the motherwort was just edging out the shiso for dominance, and there was some fruitiness in the background. I kinda wanted to drink more, but we wine makers are known for patience, right?

Anyway, here's the full ingredients. Any suggestions as to what to call it?

1/2 cup dried motherwort, packed
~20 green shiso leaves, frozen
2 flowerheads of Queen Anne's lace seeds, dried, crushed
~ 1 cup each, golden raspberries, black cherries, elderberries, all frozen
1/4 cup roasted dandelion root
2 1/4 pounds sugar
1/2 tsp acid blend
The rest of these were really small amounts which I don't expect to taste much of in the finished wine: Queen Anne's lace flowers, Solomon's seal root, spicebush twigs, leaves and berries, sassafras berries, yarrow, and 2 wild hops cones.
Method: 1/2 gallon boiling water poured over everything (in a straining bag) in the primary fermenter, then another quart of boiling water after adding a few of the lesser ingredients that I overlooked the first time. Let that steep 1/2 hour or so and added the rest of the gallon of water to cool it off before adding 1 crushed campden tablet. 12 hours later added 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme (powder). 12 hours later removed 1/2 cup of the liquid to hydrate the yeast, EC-1118, for about 1/2 an hour until foamy. Pitched yeast onto the top of the must without stirring.

Randy
 
I thought I remembered posting the previous post after the first racking but I guess not. Racked into secondary on 9/29 with SG a kinda high at 1.02. It was tasting fairly strong of motherwort and seemed a little thin in fruitiness.

I finally racked it again over new year's weekend with SG at .999. The bitterness had mellowed quite a bit. In tasting, there was fruitiness up front followed immediately by the motherwort which lingered a bit and then fainter fruit and herbals. I had let a fair amount of the lees in with the first racking so I topped up with 150 of simple syrup.

I had originally thought to syrup feed as far as it would go but on second thought I'll leave it as is and see how it ages.

Randy
 
Racked this again. The bitterness is almost all gone. Some mild fruitiness and indistinct herbal notes and a hint of that cocoa aftertaste. Still has some body. Planning on bottling as is in another month or two.

Randy
 
Oh, nice.

How are the shiso leaves doing in this blend?

I've got a plum/shiso mead that I haven't tasted in awhile and I'm wondering how they will end up doing.
 
I didn't taste the shiso at all even with some sweetening, so I don't know what's going on there. It was so strong at the start. Makes me wonder if the Japanese plum/shiso wine is made plum first then steeped in shiso. Going to grow more shiso this year (red and green) so more experimenting this summer.

Randy
 
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