"Rosa Canina", the Dog Rose, so called because Hippocrates used the roots to heal the wound from a dog bite. Possibly one of the healthiest and most spiritual ingredients to use for wine.
Spiritually it's associated with love, the Virgin Mary, and emotional healing; as a talisman offering protection from negative energies and also purifying energy fields; and faeries used the hips to make themselves invisible. I haven't seen many faeries so that's proof it works.
Health benefits from the polyunsaturated fats and antioxidants include skin health, reducing arthritis pain, improving heart health, boosting the immune system, possible protection from type 2 diabetes, and as an aid for weight loss. And of course the very high concentration of vitamin C will prevent scurvy, always a concern of mine.
This will be a healthy wine!
The flavor of the hips is tart from the ascorbic acid, surprisingly fruity, and the decision to make wine was made from the very first taste.
It's another invasive plant on the property, difficult to control, and older plants will easily reach 15+ feet into trees.
Initially I collected the individual hips as they ripened - time consuming madness! They're small and 3ish lbs are needed for a gallon of wine. Yes, I was having second thoughts. Then I accidentally discovered that when picked red they will continue to ripen to a deep burgundy which made harvesting much easier. I couldn't wait till they were all ripe on the bush because birds love them - I was finding an incredible number of half eaten hips.
And we're ready to go!
Interesting point - some recipes using dried rose hips call for a 1:4 ratio, dried to fresh, which implies a 75% loss to moisture. My own drying test only reduced the weight by 30% which makes me question all recipes using dried measurements.
The sauerkraut masher came in handy to crush the hips.
The hips (3.9 lbs) were steeped in hot water and before adding anything I checked the numbers. The must was tart and the pH came in at 4.01. The hips have sugars - fructose, glucose, sucrose, galactose, lactose, maltose - and the SG was a mind blowing 1.050! No way! Research told me the hips have approximately 3.3 gr of sugar per cup so I calculated sugar to get me around 1.090 though the hydrometer reading was 1.142. I went with 71B, a safe choice for fruit when you can't decide.
The must was delicious during fermentation. Tart with a strong "mystery" berry flavor - familiar but not identifiable. And each day the astringency increased which I assume is attributable to the seeds. And that leads to one drawback: I've read many descriptions that state this wine tastes awful until it's about 2 years old when it transforms into something magical. Two years....sigh....
Transferred to secondary yesterday at 1.022.
Much of the color in the hips come from carotonoids, unstable, so no surprise the burgundy color didn't last.
Explosive flavor - tart, very astringent, and the mystery berry flavor has become an unmistakable strong grapefruit! I truly hope the flavor continues to change because of all the country wines I've had on my list, grapefruit was not one of them.
Incredibly, I have enough hips for another gallon. The only change I'm considering so far is yeast choice. Suggestions?
Spiritually it's associated with love, the Virgin Mary, and emotional healing; as a talisman offering protection from negative energies and also purifying energy fields; and faeries used the hips to make themselves invisible. I haven't seen many faeries so that's proof it works.
Health benefits from the polyunsaturated fats and antioxidants include skin health, reducing arthritis pain, improving heart health, boosting the immune system, possible protection from type 2 diabetes, and as an aid for weight loss. And of course the very high concentration of vitamin C will prevent scurvy, always a concern of mine.
This will be a healthy wine!The flavor of the hips is tart from the ascorbic acid, surprisingly fruity, and the decision to make wine was made from the very first taste.
It's another invasive plant on the property, difficult to control, and older plants will easily reach 15+ feet into trees.
Initially I collected the individual hips as they ripened - time consuming madness! They're small and 3ish lbs are needed for a gallon of wine. Yes, I was having second thoughts. Then I accidentally discovered that when picked red they will continue to ripen to a deep burgundy which made harvesting much easier. I couldn't wait till they were all ripe on the bush because birds love them - I was finding an incredible number of half eaten hips.
And we're ready to go!
Interesting point - some recipes using dried rose hips call for a 1:4 ratio, dried to fresh, which implies a 75% loss to moisture. My own drying test only reduced the weight by 30% which makes me question all recipes using dried measurements.
The sauerkraut masher came in handy to crush the hips.
The hips (3.9 lbs) were steeped in hot water and before adding anything I checked the numbers. The must was tart and the pH came in at 4.01. The hips have sugars - fructose, glucose, sucrose, galactose, lactose, maltose - and the SG was a mind blowing 1.050! No way! Research told me the hips have approximately 3.3 gr of sugar per cup so I calculated sugar to get me around 1.090 though the hydrometer reading was 1.142. I went with 71B, a safe choice for fruit when you can't decide.
The must was delicious during fermentation. Tart with a strong "mystery" berry flavor - familiar but not identifiable. And each day the astringency increased which I assume is attributable to the seeds. And that leads to one drawback: I've read many descriptions that state this wine tastes awful until it's about 2 years old when it transforms into something magical. Two years....sigh....
Transferred to secondary yesterday at 1.022.
Much of the color in the hips come from carotonoids, unstable, so no surprise the burgundy color didn't last.
Explosive flavor - tart, very astringent, and the mystery berry flavor has become an unmistakable strong grapefruit! I truly hope the flavor continues to change because of all the country wines I've had on my list, grapefruit was not one of them.
Incredibly, I have enough hips for another gallon. The only change I'm considering so far is yeast choice. Suggestions?
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