Hello from West Berks

[jezbrews]

Hey.

So, I got into homebrewing because of my parents. They often make various wines (we have nettle and apple wine ready, and elderberry port in the making), and my dad pretty much always has a kit on the go. I've picked up on this and made my own cider and oak leaf wine (which turned into oak champagne before sadly going sour last year and I missed the leaf picking window this year, next year fingers crossed!). I do make the occasional wheat beer kit but I'm more interested in the country brew. I've got some meadowsweet beer conditioning which I adapted from an old book and now I have 2kg of rowan berries. I really don't like the idea of just flavouring bought alcohol with wild stuff, because whilst they can be very tasty, it does feel a bit like cheating (even though I can't actually produce spirits at home for the obvious reasons).

So right now I am concocting a recipe (rather than the alcohol itself) for a high alcohol content "wine" out of pure rowan berries (that is, rowan + water, no other added flavours, rather than "pure" relying on the juice because that wouldn't go very far). Because they have a bitter/sour/astringent flavour, I'd say they're in the middle of a sloe-redcurrant-juniper triangle. In my mind, they will make an excellent still high alcohol drink, enjoyed like gin. I'm looking for the 20-25% range for final ABV :)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[Personal91]

Hey.

So, I got into homebrewing because of my parents. They often make various wines (we have nettle and apple wine ready, and elderberry port in the making), and my dad pretty much always has a kit on the go. I've picked up on this and made my own cider and oak leaf wine (which turned into oak champagne before sadly going sour last year and I missed the leaf picking window this year, next year fingers crossed!). I do make the occasional wheat beer kit but I'm more interested in the country brew. I've got some meadowsweet beer conditioning which I adapted from an old book and now I have 2kg of rowan berries. I really don't like the idea of just flavouring bought alcohol with wild stuff, because whilst they can be very tasty, it does feel a bit like cheating (even though I can't actually produce spirits at home for the obvious reasons).

So right now I am concocting a recipe (rather than the alcohol itself) for a high alcohol content "wine" out of pure rowan berries (that is, rowan + water, no other added flavours, rather than "pure" relying on the juice because that wouldn't go very far). Because they have a bitter/sour/astringent flavour, I'd say they're in the middle of a sloe-redcurrant-juniper triangle. In my mind, they will make an excellent still high alcohol drink, enjoyed like gin. I'm looking for the 20-25% range for final ABV :)

I would recommend using EC-1118 YEAST and step feeding it ( adding more sugar as you go along so the yeast cultures are not messed up by too much sugar/osmsis problems by the concentration issues :) )

you will according to theyre website reach 18% abv but i think if step fed you could achieve a greater percentage and also achieve a healthy brew :)

 

[JFB]

Welcome mate, Love the sound of what your up to:thumb:

Cheers
John, also brewing in West Berks

 

[jezbrews]

Hey personal91.

I ended up using the high alcohol yeast from Crossmyloof brewery. They state their yeast can tolerate up to 18 or 20% and yeah, I'm step feeding it. It's a very slow process though. It's producing about 1% of alcohol every 3 days, so it'll be Christmas by the time it reaches 20!

JFB,

Thanks, it's going quite well. It hasn't gone bad yet and the planty smell has gone, leaving a sophisticated pale pink sweet liquid behind! I had a little taste at 3% and it's promising.