Seasonal Wine, May - Gorse

[LordEoin]

I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and test some raisin stuff:
1 - Does the vegetable oil make a difference?
2 - How much do raisins contribute to sugar?

I measured out 1 gallon of water, took a gravity reading to make sure my hydrometer is ok, it said 1.002 which is a little off...
I boiled 250g of chopped standard raisins (with veg oil)  in this gallon of water.
A head of frothy scum formed on the top from the oil.
I put the pot into a sink of cold water to cool.
The oil clung to the sides of the pot and layered the top of the liquid.
I dipped a clean knife into it and it got covered in manky oil.
I strained the liquid back into the demijohn, topped up and and took a gravity reading.
It measured 1.010 and distroyed my demijohn and hydrometer with oil.

Results:
1 - Does the vegetable oil make a difference?
Yes, it is nasty crap that will wreck your head come cleaning time. All your equipment will have a film of oil on it.
2 - How much do raisins contribute to sugar?
250g raisins will provide 8 gravity points in 1 gallon.

An unexpected third outcome:
The Lidl raisins said sultanas on the back in other languages, so i thought, maybe they're the same thing, so I googled it and this is the diffrerence:  source
Raisins are dried white grapes. They are dried to produce a dark, sweet fruit. The grapes used are usually Moscatel.
Sultanas are also dried white grapes but from seedless varieties. They are golden in color and tend to be plumper, sweeter and juicier than other raisins. Also referred to as Golden Raisins in the US.
Currants are dried, dark red, seedless grapes. They are dried to produce a black, tiny shrivelled, flavour-packed the grapes were originally cultivated in the south of Greece, and the name currant comes from the ancient city of 'Corinth'.

[Garry]

Nice work LordEoin, thanks 

By your analyses, I could reduce the OG of the lidl cider by 3 points leaving out the raisins, which would only bring the abv down to 6.2% from 6.5%. Still not sessionable, so it's probably best to leave them in the recipe? I'll have to make cider shandys I think!

[LordEoin]

no worries, it was annoying me!

An unexpected 4th outcome:
Boiled raisins are f**king delicious!

[Will_D]

Well as I added nearly 10 times too many to the Blueshed Lidl Turbo cider we wait with baited breath!

I don't know if they were oiled/waxed/or treated with Veet but sure whats a bit of oil in yere like.

Keeps my old joints lubbed up a treat!

[johnrm]

An unexpected 4th outcome:
Boiled raisins are f**king delicious!

Next time you're doing a curry, pop in a handful as early as possible and cook on a low heat.
Beautiful!

If you're into making icecream, Rum an Raisin is loverly!

[LordEoin]

Today I strained all the liquid (not sure what you call it at this stage, it's no longer must and not yet wine, unimportant...) into a demijohn today, removing all of the flowers and raisins.
It'll probably sit there bubbling away for another month

[Will_D]

Are you getting any coconut aroma?

The River Cottage gorse wine recipe was for a pina-colad wine.

Every gorse bush round Malahide I've sniffed and sampled has no coconut aroma at all?

[nigel_c]

Was up around Howth and its FULL. Have to venture up with a bag and get some on th ego.

MMMmm coconut. Must dig out out a small bottle of my coconut and pineapple mead for the next NCB meet up.

[Will_D]

Was up around Howth and its FULL. Have to venture up with a bag and get some on th ego.

MMMmm coconut. Must dig out out a small bottle of my coconut and pineapple mead for the next NCB meet up.

Oh!! Yes Please

BTW: For picking the flowers were thick long gloves!

[LordEoin]

Every gorse bush round Malahide I've sniffed and sampled has no coconut aroma at all?

Weird, all the ones around me smell strongly of coconut/vanilla.
From Wikipedia: 'Gorse flowers have a distinctive coconut scent, experienced very strongly by some individuals, but weakly by others'.
Maybe it's like how some people taste cucumber and some don't...

Also, a quick blast through the goolemachine to see how it is in beer suggested using them with bittering hops, but not flavor/aroma hops, and 'dry hop' with about 250g of dry flowers for a 7 gallon brew.'

Here's a description of a gorse beer : LINK

Also, In Folklore it was said that the Danes (Vikings) could brew beer from the flower tops of Gorse source

[Chris]

The raisin thing was annoying me so this is what I went with,

1litre dandelion petals
1litre gorse flowers
2 oranges
2 lemons
2litres grape juice (Lidl 79c per litre)
2 kg sugar
8 litres H2O
Cup of Barry's tea
Champagne yeast

Steeping at the moment will update with OG tomorrow.

Gorse and Dandelion Rose

OG 1.080. FG1.008. ABV 9.3%

Just bottled really happy quite sweet very summery with a beautiful colour.
Pic below
https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A9JtdOXmGp0pxc

[LordEoin]

Looks good  Where did the color come from?
Mine's still bubbling away mad. It's going to take another while yet.

[Chris]

The champagne yeast worked really quickly. The colour is from the Lidl blended red and white grape juice. I split the batch in two. One half in secondary to age a little and bottled second half as per pic with champagne corks, cages and a little sugar for carbonation and immediate consumption. Considering the FG 1.008 I expected it to be much drier but it is quite sweet.

[LordEoin]

Yeah, I racked my dandelion wine a few days ago and was surprised at how sweet it was too.

[LordEoin]

I opened a bottle of this and although it's still a bit young as wines go, the verdict is in.
Will i brew this again next year? Hell Yeah!
It's lovely and clear, the aroma from the gorse stayed, it's nice and light, you can taste the raisins and the gorse.
The vinometer says it's 17% but that can't be right...
here's a pic of the clarity and colour: (nice full glass for 'research' sake)