Honey Suckle Fig Wine

[jobe05]

One of my offices in Winston Salem got flooded out during a rain storm we had a couple of weeks ago so we had to move our offices from there tomy Asheboro branch office for the administrative functions. The Asheboro branch is way out in the country and has many fine wine making things growing around the property. One of these, as I discovered was Honey Suckle. An aromatic white flower that grows on a vine. When picked right, you can get a drop of liquid out of the flower that taste like honey.......... almost Jasmin type taste.


I didn't think Honey Suckle alone would be a wine that I would drink, but would be a great flavor adder to something else. So I rumaged throught the freezer and found the figs that I picked from my tree last year. I thawed, mashed the figs and boiled and steeped the Honey Suckle and added the 2 together with a couple of campden Tablets, brought the SG to 1.100 and let it sit. I just added thePectic enzyme and it smells wonderfull already.


Now for the tough decision, Montrachet or Cotes des Blancs yeast?


Both will ferment to 13% or so Max, I'm looking for about 11% to retain flavor, so I will stop the fermentation if needed around 1.020 and not have to sweeten back with anything.


Any thoughts?

 

[peterCooper]

What a wonderful combination.
Can we get some picture and a recipe?

 

[Wade E]

My friend used to have 1 of those plants wrapped around his lightpost. I used to suck that drop out. Good stuff!

 

[jobe05]

Sorry Peter, I have my camera at work (water damage pictures). But while it's there, I'll get some pictures of the vegitation around there and show everyone my "Free" bounty.


I'll bring the camera home this weekend and get some shots.


The recipe:


13 pounds Figs
6 cups honey suckle flowers
3 tsp acid blend (suited to my taste buds)
5pounds sugar
3 campden tablets


wait 24 hours:
1 teaspoon bentonite
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme


wait 24 hours:
Add the yeast


Makes 3 gallons


I steeped the honey suckle (per Jack Keller's honey suckle recipe) for 3 hours. I didn't maintain the temperature, just brought it to a boil then turn off and let sit for an hour, bring to a boil again and repeat.


I put the thawed figs in a fine mesh straining bag (due to very small seeds) and crushed by hand. This gave me about a gallon of fig juice, very thick fig juice. The I poured the hot honey suckle mix into a strainer over the fermenter to remove the pulp from the tea. To maximize the flavor, I poured more water through the honey suckle pulp to extract more. I could smell it, so I would guess I got more flavor out of it.


I added the sugar (desolved in hot water), then cold water to bring the temp to around 75 and added the campden. Liquid level right now is at 2.5 gallons and SG is 1.100


Tonight, after all additions and before adding the yeast, I adjusted the SG down a bit to 1.080 by adding water to 3 gallons. Decided to go with the Cote des Blanc yeast.Edited by: jobe05

 

[Waldo]

Sounds like you have hit a jackpot there buddy. Could you detect the flavor of the honeysuckle in the must?

 

[Wade E]

Sounds great, let me know when it starts as this least always takes
like 2 days for to get started for me. Works great but is the slowest
yeast ever for starting. I think even Waldo mentioned he had the same
thing doing his Black Currant. I use this for all my country wines.

 

[grapeman]

Sounds tasty Jobe.


Out of curiosity for new folks, how do you plan on stopping an active fermentation?

 

[Wade E]

Good question, are you going to cold stabilize?

 

[jobe05]

I would just add the kmeta and sorbateto stop fermentaion but instead I brought the liquid level to 3 gallons, giving me a starting SG of 1.078. so if it goes to .998 - .996 I'll be right were I want to when the yeast should fizzle out from nothing more to eat.


I have yet to stop a fermentaion, but would like to try it on a fruit wine to see if it's better tasting than having to dilute to sweeten back. Being tis is a fig wine, body shouldn't be an issue so sweetening back will just dilute theABV to some degree.


Waldo: You can detect the honey suckle flavor. At first, it just had that boiled grass smell and mild grassy taste, but it's coming through now. Hopefully the fermentaion will bring it out for the nose and tongue.


Per Jack Keller's recipe, 6 cups of honeysuckle was for a gallon batch, I'm adding for back flavor in a 3 gallon so I have no idea of how it will end up. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Wade E]

I dont know if you could do it that way Jobe as the sulfite levels would be pretty high to kill it wouldnt it?

 

[jobe05]

Don't know, never tried it. I would think that 1/4 tsp would put them to sleep for a long time while bulk aging (6 months) then more at bottling as needed for aging of another 8 months to a year.

 

[Wade E]

From what Ive been told and read everywhere, typically sorbate and
k-meta will not stop a ferm, it will only stop a fermentation from
restarting.

 

[jobe05]

Read Jack Keller's site on it. It does stop the yeast from reproducing, but won't kill it i.e. it stops fermentation. Per Jack's site, he has done this along with other methods like cold stabilization. Here's an excerpt from Jack Keller's site:


Potassium sorbate will stop the reproduction of yeast, but will not really kill it. However, potassium sorbate is not effective without the simultaneous use of potassium metabisulfite.

 

[ms.spain]

I think you will enjoy the honeysuckle/fig wine.I made a gallon of honeysuckle wine last year. I added one can of Welch'sniagara concentrate.I really love it- very delicate. The bouquet is just starting to come around-I can detect a hint of that lovely honeysuckle fragrance now.
Keep us posted!

 

[grapeman]

I asked the question, because I figured you intended to add the K-Meta and Sorbate to stop it. That isn't a reliable method of stopping the fermentation so I'm glad you chose to bring the SG down instead of a planned stop.
It should make a wonderful wine ther Jobe.

 

[bj4271]

Jobe


You hand-pressed your figs. Any ideas on what prep would be required prior to steam juicing them? Do they have to be peeled, etc.?

 

[jobe05]

BJ, I wouldn't think you would have to peel them, I didn't before Ihand pressing (squeezed) them. Having never worked with figs before, I can't be of much help on how to work with them, kinda muddling through this first time as it is. I looked very closely at the fig before I started and found that the only thing I could find that might couse a problem are the small soft seed ( I guess its a seed) on the inside, so I decided to use a fine mesh bag to ferment with. Based on what I read in the past, Figs don't offer much in the line of tanin and I forgot to add in my recipe list, I added 1/4 tsp.


I also made sure that I pulled off the entire stem from the fig. I'm sure the green stem wouldn't be good for the wine. I would think do to the tough(er) skin, they would steam quickly if they were mashed a little, or cut in half before steaming. But again, never worked with them before, so that would be my guess. If you do steam yours, let me know how they do.Edited by: jobe05