Has anyone made honeysuckle wine?

[BigDaveK]

I'm going to chime in with some unsolicited advice. It is always important to remember quality of ingredients. Don't go and get a shelf stable litre of orange juice and expect it to make a good wine.

I made this mistake early with my dandelion wine. The recipe called for an orange and I never accounted for my personal taste, I just went to the store and grabbed a large orange. Well, I would never choose to eat one, so why I thought I would like it in wine is beyond me. I like Mandarin's and clementine's, adding your every day large orange is also equal to at least 2 of the smaller oranges, so at last tasting I had a dominant orange flavor that I didn't like.

Just something to keep in mind. Use what tastes best to you, and the highest quality juice is going to come from fresh oranges. Squeeze them yourself.

Absolutely! I taste everything! I had to postpone probably 6 wines till (hopefully) this year because of poor flavor.
After flavor organic is the next most important to me. I've read some oranges had up to 15 different pesticides identified. To think they all wash away is naive as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Clover]

Bottling day!
This is my #2 honey suckle. #1, made with Keller's procedure, will not be made again.
Delicious! Fruity and crisp, a bit astringent so we'll see where this goes in a few months.
Bench testing for back sweetening was shocking. Bone dry it's delicious. Semi-sweet it's delicious. Sweet it's delicious. The sugar didn't improve the wine, it made different wines! I never had that happen before. I made it off-dry and bottled. This year I'll definitely make a larger batch and bottle to three different sweetness levels.

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OK, @BigDaveK, I have enough honeysuckle in the freezer for my wine. May put the must together today. Quick question about yours where you put the flowers in for fermentation.

You say that it is fruity. I think you were the person who also made daylily wine and it originally came out fruity, as did mine, but we both lost that fruity flavor as it aged. Is the fruity flavor in your honeysuckle a fruity honeysuckle flavor, or like the daylily (which actually reminded me of the old zebra fruit stripe gum) fruity flavor? I really want to preserve the honeysuckle flavor as much as possible. I probably have enough to make 2 gallons, but will use what I have for just one, maybe 1 1/2, to get more honeysuckle flavor. Last year's honeysuckle I also followed Keller's tea recipe and like yours, it was lackluster, but I now wonder if more flowers may result in more honeysuckle flavor alone.

Thoughts?

 

[BigDaveK]

OK, @BigDaveK, I have enough honeysuckle in the freezer for my wine. May put the must together today. Quick question about yours where you put the flowers in for fermentation.

You say that it is fruity. I think you were the person who also made daylily wine and it originally came out fruity, as did mine, but we both lost that fruity flavor as it aged. Is the fruity flavor in your honeysuckle a fruity honeysuckle flavor, or like the daylily (which actually reminded me of the old zebra fruit stripe gum) fruity flavor? I really want to preserve the honeysuckle flavor as much as possible. I probably have enough to make 2 gallons, but will use what I have for just one, maybe 1 1/2, to get more honeysuckle flavor. Last year's honeysuckle I also followed Keller's tea recipe and like yours, it was lackluster, but I now wonder if more flowers may result in more honeysuckle flavor alone.

Thoughts?

Ooohh, I'm waiting for my honeysuckle!!!
I have some honeysuckle bushes flowering but the taste is awful. I think I'm a couple weeks away for the viney invasive ones to bloom.

I had a bottle of the honeysuckle wine a couple weeks ago and it definitely held the fruitiness. I was very happy with it. I'll definitely make it again this year with some tweaks. More flowers? Different yeast? I haven't given it a lot of thought yet. I will definitely ferment with the flowers again. I agree with your description of Keller's recipe as being "lackluster". I won't do that again.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Me too.
We're advertised as "Ohio's Outdoor Wonderland". An incredible place to live.

My pond is almost an acre. Every summer I chase away people fishing at least half a dozen times. I really like it when they say they have permission from the owner!!!!
And I have to lock up my canoe and kayaks because they'll use them.

If I had the money I'd have "No Trespassing" etched in boulders so I wouldn't have to replace them so often.

Land mines work too.

 

[BigDaveK]

Land mines work too.

The thought crossed my mind.
I was concerned about my outdoor cats so I decided against it.

 

[David Violante]

@BigDaveK

Dave, thanks for the recipe, I’m going to start this today. I have two winter honeysuckle bushes that smell just amazing. I was able to pick 8 cups. I think I’m going to use QA23 to enhance the florals, bring the SG up to 1.090, and use white tea for the tannin.

 

[BigDaveK]

@BigDaveK

Dave, thanks for the recipe, I’m going to start this today. I have two winter honeysuckle bushes that smell just amazing. I was able to pick 8 cups. I think I’m going to use QA23 to enhance the florals, bring the SG up to 1.090, and use white tea for the tannin.

Wasn't familiar with winter honeysuckle, had to google. Good luck!