Started Daylily Wine!

[MedPretzel]

Starting to look good! I used the common day lily - the orange one that is not posoinous and grows everywhere.


I've made a 5 gallon batch using the following recipe:


12 qts day lily petals, lightly packed
2cans ofApple Juice frozen concentrate
Water to 5 gallons
10 poundsgranulated sugar
10 tsp acid blend
2 tsp powdered grape tannin
3 tsp yeast nutrient
Lalvin 72B-1122 yeast



Pick petals only and wash. Be careful to remove all green portions of stem, as this can cause illness. Bring water to a boil and stir in sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and quickly pour overlily petalsin primary. Cover primary and set aside for five minutes. Add remaining water and apple juice concentrate to cool the must. Stir in the remaining ingredients and activated yeast, cover, and put in a warm place for five days,stirring gently each day. Drip drain and discard petals.





I'm not this far yet, but this is the rest of the methodology:


Pour liquid into secondary fermentation vessel and fit airlock. When wine clears, rack into clean secondary, top up and refit airlock. Rack, top up and refit airlock every 30 days as long as even a fine dusting of lees form. When wine stops throwing sediment for 30 days, rack into bottles and age 6-12 months before tasting.





[Adapted and modified from Jack Keller's recipe.]

 

[Waldo]

I have to ask Martina..How long does it take one to pick 12 quarts of flower petals?


I would like to see some pictures of the flowers in fermentation

 

[kaizen]

Way too cool. I know a couple of breeders (daylilies, and I don't
want to even go there.) and can get flowers in a snap. How is the
wine supposed to taste?

 

[MedPretzel]

As to the taste, I have no idea. This is my first daylily wine.





How long does it take? Well.

It was a 95 degree, 95 % humidity day, so it seemed like it was 100 hours, but in actuality, it was quite quick (maybe 1/2 hour?). My mom has huge daylily beds in her garden, and since the cat was away (in Europe), and you know how mice will play (hehehe), I raided her daylily stash. They would have all died by the time she got back anyway. I just picked them off the stems, and went inside to the nice, air-conditioned house and destemmed/deflowered them (hey, where are your minds!) and rinsed them off in about 1 hour. So, all in all, it took me about 2 hours, I would say. I put them in the freezer there, raced over to my house in a cool, air-conditioned car, and they've been in the freezer ever since, until the day beforeyesterday.





I have taken some pictures. Just nag me to post them. I'm too lazy to get the camera now. It's a nice light-orangey-pink color right now, and the yeast was pitched yesterday. It's takin' off like a storm.





I might have to add more concentrate to it, since JK's site said "2 cans" for a one gallon batch, but I added a little more daylily to get the daylily umpf.





We will see.

Remember: Nag me. I might not get to it til Sunday (QuiToBee WineFest on Saturday), but I will definitely remember.

 

[kaizen]

Nag nag nag. Consider yourself nagged, you deflowerer of little flowers.

 

[Waldo]

Knowing that the best things in life are worth waiting for and being in training from Hippie to learn patience I will defer my nagging. At leat until after Sunday. No pictures by Sunday !! The nagging will begin

 

[MedPretzel]

The daylilies.... Frozen... More to come soon.

 

[Waldo]

Looks good Martina....They look like............Daylilies

 

[kaizen]

I think you need more yellow.

 

[MedPretzel]

Stirring the daylily.....

 

[Waldo]

I am trying to imagine what that will taste like Martina.

 

[MedPretzel]

Another pic of daylilies in the carboy:

I still have yet to top up. The SG is at about 1.060 now, but I added some sugar water, so the SG was initially lower (it was at 1.050 before transferring).

 

[Waldo]

Bubble, Bubble, No Stems or Rubble


Daylilies Fermenting, Look at them Bubble

 

[Waldo]

Comon Martina...whats the latest on the daylilies

 

[MedPretzel]

Oddly enough, Waldo, the daylily wine is still bubbling away at a very quick pace. SG is at about 1.040.... I think we'll have liftoff any minute!

I've been superduper busy (got my juice yesterday, will post pics soon). Pitched the yeast for Niagara and Concord winestonight.

Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[MedPretzel]

Still bubbling away!

 

[MedPretzel]

The bubbling has died down a little. It was a very active fermentation, and it looks very pink right now, yet a little bit lighter than the picture shown.





The smell is very good.

 

[MedPretzel]

Daylily wine update:

Hmmm. Just noticed that it looks darker... In real, it seems lighter than before. Strange?!?!? Doodoodoodoo! (Twilight Zone theme)

 

[MedPretzel]

Well, it's still slightly bubbling. Just discretely, but still there.





I have a suspicion that some MLF is going on (sigh). But that's okay. I racked it tonight and topped it up with some concord.





We'll see. I'm becoming skeptical.

Martina

 

[MedPretzel]

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I have posted something about the daylily wine.


I jumped the gun today and racked. Yesterday I added sparkelloid to the wine, and it cleared considerably overnight.


Waldo, I thought of you.

It has cleared beautifully, and I still cannot get over how much it cleared since last night. I think I really am going to like this one, and might even do another batch next summer.


I tasted a bit while I racked, and it seems that I will sweeten this one up a bit. I stabilized today, and must wait another few weeks (if I can manage that!) to see if any more sediment will fall. Then, my plan will be to filter, and then to bottle a week or so after that.


That is the initial plan.