Rowanberry wine

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
1,308
Reaction score
8
Location
mansfield
heres one i mentioned earlier in threads, i made this about 17 years ago, bit nieve then, the taste then was very dry, but maybe i didn't make it properly. i didn't freeze them, maybe thats why!!!! lol

1.5kg rowanberries
juice of 1 lemon
60g sultanas, finely chopped
5cm lenght of root ginger, chopped and pounded
1l white grape juice
100ml strong black tea (for the tannin)
1.4kg sugar
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tso pectic enzyme
4.5l unchlorinated water
Yeast (sherry yeast is good for this)

Method
Pick over the rowan berries, de-stalk then freeze for 48 hours (this destroys the preasorbic acid in the fruit and makes them sweeter). When the rowanberries have frozen long enough remove from the freezer and set aside to defrost completely.

Combine the rowanberries in a bucket with the sultanas and ginger then cover with 1l boiling water then mash down (this should sterilize the fruit (if you want to be absolutely certain they're sterile add 1/2 tsp sulphite)).

Allow to cool to blood temperature (no higher than 40°C) then mash the fruit once again and add the pectic enzyme, lemon juice and tea. Cover and set aside (if you used sulphite you will have to leave for at least 24 hours, or until the sulphur smell has gone).

When ready, prepare a yeast starter by combining the yeast and 1 tsp sugar in 200ml lukewarm water. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 20 minutes to activate. When ready add to the pulp mixture and stir in with a sterilized metal spoon. Cover and set aside to ferment for about 6 days (stir well each day).

Strain the pulp into a demijohn then combine the sugar with 1.5l water in a pan. Bring to a boil, dissolve the sugar then take off the heat and set aside until lukewarm. Stir the grape juice into the syrup mix then add to the demijohn and make up to 5l with more water. Fit a bung and a fermentation lock and leave to ferment in a warm place for two weeks. Rack the wine ino a second fermentation jar, add a bung and a fermentation lock and allow to ferment for a further two weeks. Rack again then allow to ferment out (ie until fermentation stops). Rack into bottles and stopper with corks.

Lay the bottles down in a cool place and allow to mature for at least 12 months (2 years if you can). This is an excellent dry white wine, somewhat reminiscent of a fine fino sherry.
 
one for the patient brewer!

i'm sure i've seen these trees/shrubs and their berries while out and about, but i'm always a bit wary that i could be picking the wrong berries and make a poisonous brew! Apart from keeping an eye on the plants to check their flowers and leaves through the spring and summer, is there a fool proof way to identify them when the berries have ripened? i looked it up on wiki but couldn't find much to help with that.
 
hi, these trees grow everywhere, seem to be popular round roundabouts, new estates, etc, tell you what, how about i photo the leaves and post on here, the berries are orange, and hang in clumps of around 20-30 per stalk, the tree will be laden with them!!
 
You can't miss them, they're everywhere - especially in the welsh mountains.

row_tree.jpg
 
i think i'll take a few big piccies with me if i go picking red berries cos many are poisonous and i don't want to mis-identify the tree/fruit. The leaves are fairly distinctive, fruit likewise, but other identifiers would be nice for peace of mind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowanberry

also shows flowers ... only useful if you're around in spring/summer.

http://www.toof.org.uk/identify/rowan/rowan.html

..... this one also shows the bark, and mentions a bird or two that likes the berries (so if you're a twitcher that'll maybe help). Some more detail about the berries also - i quote - "Fruits are almost round, fleshy red berries, up to 10mm across. They are orange at first, with yellow flesh. They ripen in September and each has between 2 and 8 seeds (usually 3 or 4). Each fruit has a tiny “star” in the middle which is a remnant of the calyx and reminds us, that it belongs to the same family as dog rose."
 
just another note on the tree there is 2 sub spieces if you look at the serated leaves some are completly serated others are half smooth.
i've been told that the half serated leaf varieti are a sweeter berrie and are normaly the ones used for jam i don't no if this affects the wine but this is the type i'll be using.
 
There's loads of Rowan around here. Whenever they build a new housing estate around here (which they do a lot), they plant Rowan.

I doubt I'll be brave enough to do this one though.....Has anyone made Rowan Wine with good results?
 
Hi, I'm thinking about having a go at this having noticed some Rowan berries.... Any news on how it turns out?

Cheers
 

Latest posts

Back
Top