Flower wine?

[AkTom]

What is the best practical way to make a flower petal wine? It has rained, so they are freshly “rinsed”. I’m thinking about making a tea, cooling, adding Campden tabs, the next day, sugar and yeast.

 

[AkTom]

Here is some of the fireweed I’ll be using.

 

[salcoco]

https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp Jack Keller has instructions and recipes for flower wines

 

[BernardSmith]

I am not certain but I think you want to try to make sure that the flowers are dry when you pick 'em and you pick 'em early in the day and that gives you the freshest flavors. That is certainly the recommendation when it comes to dandelion wine.

 

[AkTom]

I picked today. I have about 4 gallons of loosely packed petals.
I’m going to get it started tonight.

 

[Rice_Guy]

What is the best practical way to make a flower petal wine? It has rained, so they are freshly “rinsed”. I’m thinking about making a tea, cooling, adding Campden tabs, the next day, sugar and yeast.

As salcoco says jack Keller is a good source for an ingredient list. He has several options for making a fruit wine which is flavored with flowers.
Flower petals are basically nothing therefore all the nutritional requirements for yeast have to be added! For a sugar or "synthetic" wine I start with a blended yeast nutrient, then DAP, acid blend to reach pH 3.3, sugar to reach 1.090, tannin, water, metabisulphite and finally yeast.
Sorry but I do not know fire weed. With black locust flower and dandelion wine less is more. It is easy to overpower a delicate flower flavor with a load of fruit ingredients.

 

[BernardSmith]

Suspicious about the value of DAP. Organic nitrogen from Fermaid O or K is what mead makers tend to swear by and honey is basically a desert when it comes to nutrients needed by yeast..

 

[Rice_Guy]

The “synthetic” or sugar wine recipe was found on E C Krause. He is a vendor so he may be pushing more product orders.
Yes Bernard Fermaid already has DAP in the blend, might be possible to get rid of straight DAP and up the Fermaid (or Fermax which my local store carries). Honey has protein and other minerals/nutrients/ dirt so it is not quite a desert where everything is supplied from the chemical bottle.

 

[Vinobeau]

What is the best practical way to make a flower petal wine? It has rained, so they are freshly “rinsed”. I’m thinking about making a tea, cooling, adding Campden tabs, the next day, sugar and yeast.

I make wild rose petal wine every other year. I also make dried Hibiscus flower wine, dried Elderflower wine, Hibiscus /Heather wine and, once Day Lillies. I start by adding the petals and sugar into the primary and then add two gallons of boiling water, mainly to put the sugar into solution. I add yeast nutrient as well as energizer, as well as Campden tabs. Upon aging, I will add dill sprigs to some of the bottles.

 

[Kantuckid]

I've always wondered how you get enough flavor from a flower petal? Fruit, I get that, but flowers I've tasted were not flavorful unless an herb which wasn't a wine sort of taste for me.

 

[AkTom]

Well, I winged it. It’s fermenting. I’ll update soon.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I've always wondered how you get enough flavor from a flower petal?

On a lab basis with a GC, The volatiles/ flavor of flowers will be in the same range as with a fruit wine. The big difference is there isn’t a background of acid, tannin, unfermentable sugars
. . . ie it is easy to overpower what is there with acetaldehyde (oxidized ethyl alcohol which is detectable at 50 ppm) by having sloppy transfers, poor head space control etc. If you can do a good flower petal wine you have good technique. I have been amazed at how strong the flavor is in left over dandelion from the primary fermentor (that I froze) , , better than finished wine. So I make it in part to improve my technique and understand how to put hedonic background flavors together.

 

[Kantuckid]

Extracted flower flavors I understand as with perfumes, etc., but not as I think of wine. NG magazine once did a neat article on perfumes and the flower/plant aspect.
Yes, flower wines are not within my ability.
A guy I worked with was a moonshiner and gave me some apple brandy which had that slight essence of apples but mostly alcohol, not the apple flavor I love, especially such as found in oldtime apples not seen in supermarkets. I'll stick to regular cider not , hard cider, brandy or apple wine flavor wise.

 

[Vinobeau]

"Yes, flower wines are not within my ability."

Hogwash. YOU can make Hibiscus flower wine. Buy them at your local Health Food store or https://www.amazon.com/Hibiscus-Flowers-Organic-EarthWise-Aromatics/dp/B07PWYLQ3G/ref=sr_1_6?crid=29OO93PBS4Z2D&keywords=dried+hibiscus+flowers&qid=1565211328&s=gateway&sprefix=dried+hibiscus,aps,181&sr=8-6

12 oz Dried Hibiscus Flowers
5 lbs Honey
10 lbs Sugar
6 gals Water
9 tsp Acid Blend
1 Tab Pectic Enzyme
6 Tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Pkt Premier Cuvee Yeast

You can easily use more sugar than the honey. If the grocery has good juice on sale, you can sub that for some water - that will add a bit of body. This wine is very easy to make!



5 tsp Sorbitol

5 cups Sugar

 

[flowerlab]

I am not certain but I think you want to try to make sure that the flowers are dry when you pick 'em and you pick 'em early in the day and that gives you the freshest flavors. That is certainly the recommendation when it comes to dandelion wine.

Definitely! A sunny day, rainy days aren't good.

 

[AkTom]

Ok , not so soon on the update... I used way too many flowers. Still in a carboy. Taste a bit off. Maybe a bit card boardy. Hopefully not oxygenated. I plan on sweetening with some fireweed honey. Should bottle soonish. I’m not in a hurry.
Cheers

 

[Vinobeau]

Does Fireweed have a pleasant aroma? I'm not sure where a card board aroma / taste come from. The flavor will definitely improve when you back sweeten it. I never saw what volume of wine you were making with the 4 gallons of petals. Four 5 gallons of Rose Petal wine, I use about 6 quarts of petals.

 

[AkTom]

I racked again. Same off flavor. I sweetened with some fireweed honey. I didn’t try it. There was about 1/2 cup left in the carboy. I added a few drops of Torani mango syrup. Ohhhh!!! Very nice! Next weekend I’ll see how the wine sweetened wit honey tastes.