The flower wine thread

[Sally Scheibner]

I have some Hibiscus wine settling now. It is very dark and taste wonderful. I’ve wondered the same thing as you about other flowers.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hope I am not hijacking this thread but has anyone here made day-lily wine? I am looking for a tried and true idea about the amount of petals I need to make a gallon. Jack Keller's recipe suggests 2.5 quarts which is about the same as I would use to make a dandelion wine. Does that work for day lilies too? I am thinking about making this a mead - and so using honey to replace the grape juice and sugar. Thoughts? Thanks

 

[Vinobeau]

Hope I am not hijacking this thread but has anyone here made day-lily wine? I am looking for a tried and true idea about the amount of petals I need to make a gallon. Jack Keller's recipe suggests 2.5 quarts which is about the same as I would use to make a dandelion wine. Does that work for day lilies too? I am thinking about making this a mead - and so using honey to replace the grape juice and sugar. Thoughts? Thanks

I made Day Lily wine in 2009 and I used 3 qts per gallon. I added some Welch's white grape concentrate. I did not care for it, as I recall, it tasted a bit "green". I backed sweetened to 1.02.

 

[BernardSmith]

Thanks Vinobeau. When you say that it tasted "a bit green", did you mean that it tasted too young to enjoy or did you mean by green that it tasted vegetative and if the latter was that because you included any of the non petal parts of the flower?

 

[Vinobeau]

It tasted vegetative. I only used the petals - but the are long and the ends are white and that part could have been the culprit. I never ate one of the petals to taste the different parts! Now, I must admit that I managed to drink ALL of the bottles - it wasn't bad enough to toss them!

 

[BigDaveK]

Hibiscus? I have quite a few mature plants in the yard. Well that's just swell......ANOTHER wine I HAVE to make!!

I also have quite a few anise hyssops - good tea, great jelly, really good liqueur. Might have to try that, too.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

There’s a regular hibiscus flower and then there’s Roselle, a wild form of hibiscus that actually has a type of fruit behind the flower. Roselle is what they make hibiscus (zinger) tea from. I used to have roselle growing here. I would use that before regular hibiscus flower I suppose.