Apples and rowan berries...will this work?

[Nana Caz]

Hi there,

Looking for advice and/or help with this please..got loads of apples and rowans nearby and I want to use a combination of the two. I already do a mean apple and rowan jelly - glorious colour - so why not wine???

Can anyone help please?

Fingers crossed,

Nana Caz

[farmerdrea]

I can't help with a wine recipe, but I was wondering if you'd share your apple and rowan jelly recipe?

Thanks
Andrea
NZ

[becks77]

Haven't tried this one but looks interesting
perhaps you could substitute some of the berries for apples
Good luck
Becks

Rowan Berry Wine
Origin: Ancient Period: Traditional

Ingredients:

2.25kg rowan berries
1.2kg finely granulated sugar
5l unchlorinated water
1 large lemon (zest and juice only)
1/2 tbsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Montrachet wine yeast
Celtnet recipes chicken recipe divider


Method:
Preparation

Sort and wash the berries for sundness and crush in a fermenting bucket. Boil together the water and sugar and pour over the fruit. Mash roughly with a sterilized potato masher then add the lemon juice and zest and allow to cool. Add the pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient and allow to sit in a warm spot for 12 hours. Add the wine yeast, wait unti the fermentation starts then stir daily for a week. Strain the liquor into a fermentation jar and top-off wth water if required. Add a sterile bung and fermentation lock and allow to ferment for three months. At this time rack into your second fermentation jar add a bung and fermentation lock and leave for a further month. Your wine is now ready to rack into bottles.

Once corked, leave the rowan wine in a cool dry place for at least ten months before tasting or one year for best results.

[Nana Caz]

Delighted to share...I got this from a friend in Abergavenny, Wales and it's passed on to you from the Scottish Highlands. It's been sampled already by a young man from NZ and he's still around to tell the tale!

2 lbs cooking apples
2 lbs rowans [weighed after stalking]
1 large lemon
water and sugar

Wash and cut up apples; do not peel or core.
Wash rowans and put in a preserving pan with apples, lemon juice and rind
Cover with cold water and simmer until mixture is pulpy - approx 45 mins
Strain thru' a jellybag/muslin cloth overnight
Do not press fruit as this will result in cloudy jelly
measure liquid and allow 1lb of sugar to every pint of juice
Heat juice and sugar, stirring until dissolved
Boil rapidly for about 30 mins - test to see if it sets
Pour into warmed pots/jars and cover when cool

Enjoy!!

Nana Caz

[Nana Caz]

Thanks for the receipe Becks...will give it a birl!

I thought maybe 2/3 apples and 1/3 rowans - what do you think? I'm very new to wine -making, just taking a guess. Don't want to be too heavy handed with one flavour and lose out on the other. Hmmm, having said that, the rowans would really be there for colour rather than flavour wouldn't they?

OK, so I'm way out of my depth...time to log out I think!

Nana Caz

[ina]

The only time I made rowan jelly (after a recipe similar to the one above) it turned out horribly bitter. Is it supposed to be like that?

[Nana Caz]

Ina,

Must be down to the way you're facing when you're stirring!! Mine got demolished very quickly and I can honestly say that the taste was anything but bitter. Maybe you used slightly more rowans than apples?

Sorry can't be of more help

Nana Caz

[Annpan]

I read that the trick is to freeze the berries first (even just overnight) apaently it softens the taste somewhat. Ideal for us as next-doors apple tree isn't ready yet and the rowans were good and ripe about a week ago.

What do you have the rowan jelly with?

I have read it goes nicely with venison, but oddly venison is not an every day meal here

[becks77]

Hi There,
I also am new to wine making but have made a few in the very distant past, would the rowans make a sort of ros`e perhaps with a ciderish overtone just guessing, there dosen't seem to be any hard and fast rules as far as country wines go, a bit like gardening what works one time may fail the next ....give it a go if you don't like it use it in cooking perhaps and try a different ratio next time. Just put some elderberry, black cherry cider and elderflower on to give it a whirl.
Previously have tried crab apple and that was divine it started out white and progressed to a beautiful rose colour and fizzy too....oooh the possibilities are endless, just going to freecycle for some more airlocks!

Best of luck
Becks

[farmerdrea]

Thanks, Nana Caz! I'm hoping our 2 rowan trees perform this year, or I'll have to go out foraging!

Cheers
Andrea
NZ