Gorse flower wine - some advice please.

[surlymonkey]

I was wondering if anyone has a quick 'n' easy recipe for gorse flower wine. The recipe from CJJ involves using boiling water, and the time frame is about 1 year.

I've read that there is no need for the hot water, as this apparently makes the wine more cloudy, (this would be beneficial as I don't have any large pans to boil the water). It would also be great if I could produce the wine in a short time frame. Is this possible?

[MKG]

Well, I've had a look at a couple of gorse recipes, and I can't see anything in them which could possibly cause cloudiness - so I wouldn't worry on that score. The hot water merely speeds up the extraction of the flavour. On the other hand, if you use cold water and leave the flowers in the must for, say, three days after fermentation has started, then the forming alcohol will do that job just as well.

In my experience (which doesn't include all that many pure flower wines apart from the teabag version) flowers tend not to have too many flavours which need to be developed too much. Most flower wine recipes advocate 6 months maturation, but that's just for purists. The thing which does need time to develop is the bouquet. So, if you're more bothered about the flavour than the smell, you can drink it much earlier. I always advocate tasting your wines as soon as they've finished and making up your mind at that point how long to mature them for - you'd be surprised how many times, even with heavy wines like elderberry, you can cut short the time suggested in the recipes.

I think I'd bet at this point that your gorse wine may be perfectly drinkable after about a month. A year, I suspect, is far too long for a flower wine - you'd be drinking it at the point of its deterioration rather than anything else.

Mike

[Cassiepod]

oooooh I've just tasted my gorse wine this weekend! It had never cleared so I had alomst written it off, however I'm a hopeful soul, so given that we were drinking already i opened this and it was delicious. I don't think it made much alcohol SG is 1.022 but I never measured it at the beginning.... but it was a scrumptios wine, perfect for adessert wine.

I did use CJJ Berry's boiling water method, so that may be why it never cleared but well worth it I started it March 2008 and it's been sitting hopefully for two years....

[surlymonkey]

I think I'd bet at this point that your gorse wine may be perfectly drinkable after about a month. A year, I suspect, is far too long for a flower wine - you'd be drinking it at the point of its deterioration rather than anything else.

That's the sort of thing that I can live with, just one month

Cassiepod, glad it turned out ok after two years.

I'm just waiting for another one of those sunny days when the flowers are waiting to be turned into wine!

[Cassiepod]

it's a very painful process collecting gorse flowers..... they are prickly and some spikes stick out through the flowers

[kit-e-kate]

I've just started my first attempt at gorse flower wine! I'm following a very simple River Cottage recipe. Really looking forward to trying it in a few weeks time!
: )

[surlymonkey]

oooooh I've just tasted my gorse wine this weekend! It had never cleared so I had alomst written it off, however I'm a hopeful soul, so given that we were drinking already i opened this and it was delicious. I don't think it made much alcohol SG is 1.022 but I never measured it at the beginning.... but it was a scrumptios wine, perfect for adessert wine.

I did use CJJ Berry's boiling water method, so that may be why it never cleared but well worth it I started it March 2008 and it's been sitting hopefully for two years....

I just saw something regarding cloudy wine in the CJJ book. He mentions that over-boiling the ingredients or rushing the initial straining, which should be slow & thorough. Sticking the wine in a cold place for a few weeks, or filtering it, might solve it.

I'm not sure if all this applies to flower wine, but hey, ya never know!

[surlymonkey]

I've just started my first attempt at gorse flower wine! I'm following a very simple River Cottage recipe. Really looking forward to trying it in a few weeks time!
: )

Yeah, I spotted that. Hugh mentions using brewer's yeast & golden granulated cane sugar instead of the usual ingredients. Link to hugh's gorseflower wine recipe: http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/ch ... e_p_1.html

[wads]

I just finished making gorse flower wine. I used the river cottage recipie, my brew was cloudy due to unsettled yeast, I boiled 10 pints of flowers for 20 mins, left in in the barrel for a month and a half, bottled it and it was all cloudy due to pouring from the top of the barrel and disturbing the yeast. i left it in wine bottles, poured each into a jug carefully as possible trying not to dredge up the sludge. washed the sludge out and poured it back into the bottles. it is not cloudy but crystal clear yellow, and it tastes amazing.
I will need to drink loads of it to test how safe it is before giving it away to folk at church, don't want to kill my neighbour.
just picked 7 pints of elder flowers, cant wait

[kit-e-kate]

it is not cloudy but crystal clear yellow, and it tastes amazing.

Mine also! It tastes a wee bit like Hoegaarden...

Hugh mentions using brewer's yeast & golden granulated cane sugar instead of the usual ingredients.

I can't remember using golden cane sugar, think i might have just used the ordinary white stuff.

[StripyPixieSocks]

We're gutted we missed the gorse season, we read about the recipe about a day after all the flowers disappeared

Anyway, I wanted to know if it tastes in any way coconut-ty? Hugh said it tasted like pina colada so I'm quite curious.

*Goes off to console herself with elderflowers instead*

[fenris]

i have a gorse wine question! mine had cleared quite a lot after a month so i racked it into a second demijohn and topped it up with a little pineapple juice, whereupon it clouded up and started bubbling again. i thought okay, the yeast must be using the sugar from the juice so that makes sense, but over a month later it's still going! this is my first ever wine so i dont know if this is normal. the airlock is still going and it's cloudy. should i be doing something or just let it get on with it?

[kit-e-kate]

We're gutted we missed the gorse season, we read about the recipe about a day after all the flowers disappeared

Anyway, I wanted to know if it tastes in any way coconut-ty? Hugh said it tasted like pina colada so I'm quite curious.

*Goes off to console herself with elderflowers instead*

Mine does a little bit, but i collected flowers quite early and they hadn't developed their scent particularly. What i can say is that the scent they did have is very well preserved. I guess if i'd got nice coconut scented blooms it would be coconut scented wine! : )

[Rambling Rob]

I made gorse flower wine this year. Since then I have discovered that many people combine their gorse flowers with dandelion heads and say this makes a much superior wine. Has anyone here made any?

[Rattyhorses]

we made our gorse wine using hughs recipe on the river cottage site and i cant say it tastes of pina colada or co-conutty but its a lovely golden yellow colour and tastes lovely with lemonade