Gorseflower Wine

[St Allie]

Have gloves and gumboots on and heading out to collect gorseflowers this morning.. am aiming to get enough for 3 gallons of wine.. depends on how badly attacked I get by the prickles.

supposed to be a refreshing summer drinking wine, the bushes are in full bloom.. which means spring has actually arrived.

back with a damage report later!

Allie

 

[Tom]

I know you are "down under" BUTT, what are gumboots and gorseflower? You got attacked by pickles? Oh prickles?? whats dat? Thornes I A$$UME...

 

[Wade E]

We need pictures of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[St Allie]

prickles are thorns Tom and i'm currently picking lil tiny ones out of hands....hehehe

here's the gumboot song

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X2b2x7Fw4o[/ame]

 

[Tom]

Oh yea 4 SURE !

 

[St Allie]

Have got 14 litres of flowers.. which is enough for 4 and a half gallons.. using 12 cups of flowers per gallon.

the flowers smell like coconut.

Allie

 

[Tom]

Allie I get a black screen with audio

 

[St Allie]

Tom,

fred dagg is a real old NZ iconic comedian.. Youtube probably doesn't have the rights to screen the original video.

heheh Wade..

I'm not posting pics of me in gumboots!

not sure what is going on in this video.. no SG taken.. looks like they fermented it out in two weeks, then bottled immediately in glass and added sugar..

http://www.channel4.com/services/videoplayer/popup.jsp?name=hugh_gorseflower_wine_a

Allie

 

[Midwest Vintner]

supposed to be a refreshing summer drinking wine, the bushes are in full bloom.. which means spring has actually arrived.

our summer is pretty much over and fall is coming

although Missouri fall is very colorful.

 

[St Allie]

our summer is pretty much over and fall is coming

although Missouri fall is very colorful.

my plum trees, peaches and the nectarines are in flower already.. two of the apple trees are budding, the rest plus the pear trees are still asleep.

new leaves on the raspberries and blueberries.

Plenty of lemons still to pick and process though..

Allie

 

[Tom]

Tom,

fred dagg is a real old NZ iconic comedian.. Youtube probably doesn't have the rights to screen the original video.

heheh Wade..

I'm not posting pics of me in gumboots!

not sure what is going on in this video.. no SG taken.. looks like they fermented it out in two weeks, then bottled immediately in glass and added sugar..

http://www.channel4.com/services/videoplayer/popup.jsp?name=hugh_gorseflower_wine_a

Allie

BUTT, What does it taste like?

BTW
YOU are close to 1,000 posts

 

[St Allie]

The petals are steeping since last night..In boiling water and campden tabs..

have just added boiled honey.( with impurities removed from the surface)

Tomorrow I will strain the petals off and add banana juice and yeast.

Allie

 

[Tom]

Does it have a "flower" taste?

 

[St Allie]

it has a lovely coconut taste, if I can keep that through the fermentation stage.. this will be a lovely wine..

I'll definately be out collecting gorse flowers again.

Allie

 

[St Allie]

ok I collected enough for a 4 and a half gallon batch.. but!

the flavour was so pronounced in the 2 gallons steeping.. that I didn't want to dilute it.. the honey complements the flowers beautifully.

So..

SG is 1.070 I don't want high alcohol, hopefully this will be a good compromise.

I used 14 litres of flowers, 2 kilos of honey, 4 oranges/ 6 lemons (rind and juice) and nutrient.. instead of adding a fresh yeast.. I had just racked my orange muscat wine a couple of days ago and I kept the lees in a 1 litre bottle so have added that to the flower must this morning and it's working already. I figured I might as well use it as a starter.

it took just under 3 hours to collect the flowers and I still have a few thorns to prove it hehehe

I will go out on the weekend again and get enough to make another batch.

Allie

 

[Tom]

Do you use the whole flower head or just the petals..

 

[St Allie]

Tom.

mainly whole flowers....didn't seem to be a whole lot of greenery on the flowers, like the two halves of the green bud casing seems to fall off when the flowers are fully opened... you just have to brave the thorns and you get one chance at it.. so whatever I managed to get went in the bucket..

Allie

 

[St Allie]

this is finished already, stabilised and sweetened with honey syrup., will bulk store it for a couple of months due to lack of bottles here.

delicate coconut flavour,honey and a hint of lychee from the yeast lees I borrowed.. all in all a success.. it'll need to be left a year to soften. If we get some sunshine this weekend, I'll go pick some more flowers.

Allie

 

[St Allie]

cleared beautifully with no finings required and am bottling this today.

gorse is still in flower so I'm going to brave the thorns again this week and make another batch.

Allie