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[offthehipevents]

Hello from Buffalo NY!
I'm a Custom Framing Manager and Artist. I've been making country wines in one gallon batches for about 4 years now. I'm joining the group to have discussions about wines and learn some new things. Some of my favorite wines that I've made over the years are: blood orange and ginger, carrot "cake"(a back sweetened carrot and spice dessert wine) butterfly pea flower tea wine, and a simple thompcord grape wine that I'm sad to say I haven't been able to replicate because the grapes are hard to come by here. I'm also a Harry Potter fan and the majority of my wine lables feature some wizarding art.

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

Good thing you joined.... Looking at your location, it is not like you are going to be able to do anything else today!

 

[offthehipevents]

Good thing you joined.... Looking at your location, it is not like you are going to be able to do anything else today!

Omg your not kidding! No better way to spend a snowed in day than starting a new wine. It's also a great way to make some room in the freezer. This could be a good day to use all of those frozen pineapples and dream about the tropics!

 

[BigDaveK]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Rice_Guy]

Welcome to WMT

 

[ChuckD]

Welcome. If you’re looking for friendly wine makers willing to share their knowledge You have come to the right place.

 

[Shurt1073]

Welcome to WMT

 

[mikewatkins727]

Welcome aboard, @offthehipevents

 

[TechAdmin]

I'm also a Harry Potter fan and the majority of my wine lables feature some wizarding art.

Welcome to WMT. Can you share some pics?

 

[David Violante]

Welcome to WMT~ your butterfly pea flower tea wine sounds interesting… I made an earl grey tea wine a couple years ago that was pretty good. Your Blood Orange Ginger one sounds good too~

 

[hounddawg]

welcome to WMT,,,
Dawg

 

[offthehipevents]

Welcome to WMT. Can you share some pics?

Sure here are some of my favorites.

 

[offthehipevents]

Welcome to WMT~ your butterfly pea flower tea wine sounds interesting… I made an earl grey tea wine a couple years ago that was pretty good. Your Blood Orange Ginger one sounds good too~

Actually the butterfly pea flower tea wine has this amazing color too. It's like a lavender purple. It's very floral tasting but I really like it. I just bought more flowers so I can start a second batch.

 

[David Violante]

Would you be willing to share your recipe?

 

[Jovimaple]

Love the labels!!

 

[offthehipevents]

Would you be willing to share your recipe?

Sure, I used an organic apple juice as a base ingredient because I thought it would not overtake the flowers delicate flavor.
1 gallon 100% apple juice ( I used martinelli's brand)
2.5 lbs sugar
1/4 cup dried butterfly pea flowers
3 cups water
1 tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
1 crushed campden tablet
1/2 tsp pectin enzyme
Premiere classic yeast

Boil the water in a medium pan and add the butterfly pea flowers into steep. Let steep for 5 to 10 minutes, then strain. It should be bright blue. I then put this back on the stove and added the sugar and slowly brought the sugar water to a boil. Pour the apple juice into the primary. Then pour the blue sugar water over the apple juice. It will turn purple, this is normal. I added my acid blend, yeast nutrient and tannin right away but waited until it was completely cooled before adding the campden tablet. 12 hrs later I checked the AB/ SG with my hydrometer. I had 16% potential alcohol on mine. Then added pecitc enzyme. 24 hrs after that I added my yeast. This will turn grayish after adding the pectin enzyme but it turns back to purple during fermentation. After a week in the primary I transferred to a carboy. For me this fermented slowly and took a long time to ferment out. I racked it only once more after transferring to a carboy as there was very little sediment. It took about 6 months before I could bottle.

 

[David Violante]

Very cool - thank you... we've had some discussions on here in the past about using flowers directly in the primary or steeping them first. I was curious about which practice you used, and how many flowers also. Do you also back-flavor with some brewed tea or does it come through enough on it's own? I don't see that you did above, again, just curious.

 

[wineview]

Welcome. I’m born and raised in Buffalo. My last winter there was the blizzard of 1977. Packed my bags and moved to NYC. Still have family there and visit often. I found a very reasonable wine supply shop on Transit Rd. Buffalo Wine and Brew Shop 5864 Transit Rd Depew. Perhaps you know of it.

 

[offthehipevents]

Welcome. I’m born and raised in Buffalo. My last winter there was the blizzard of 1977. Packed my bags and moved to NYC. Still have family there and visit often. I found a very reasonable wine supply shop on Transit Rd. Buffalo Wine and Brew Shop 5864 Transit Rd Depew. Perhaps you know of it.

Yes I actually live not too far from there. Its one of my favorite local wine shops. It's called "Let's Do Wine"

 

[offthehipevents]

Very cool - thank you... we've had some discussions on here in the past about using flowers directly in the primary or steeping them first. I was curious about which practice you used, and how many flowers also. Do you also back-flavor with some brewed tea or does it come through enough on it's own? I don't see that you did above, again, just curious.

I did not back flavor with other tea. The butterfly pea flower had enough flavor on it's own. I did taste the tea I bought first. Some batches I've bought have more flavor than others. The ones I've bought on Amazon were way better than the ones I got at our local Asian market. You can usually tell just by smelling the dried product if it will be good. It should have a strong grassy floral scent. I actually like drinking this as a tea on it's own. The flowers are about an inch long so not many of them fit into a quarter of a cup. It doesn't take many to give a deep blue color. I have noticed that if you leave the flowers in it can turn almost blackish.