Furze Wine

[Will_D]

Furze aka. Gorse Wine Recipe.

This is taken straight out of C J J Berry's book "First Steps in Winemaking"

1 gallon of gorse flowers
3lb sugar (he really goes ott with sugar try 1kg to start)
2 Oranges
2 Lemons
1 tsp of grape taninin (or steep a couple of Tea bags)
Yeast and nutrient

6 pints of water

Simmer the flowers in a steeping bag in the water for 15 mins.Remove bag and strain. Zest the citrus and juice them. Add the zest and the juice, add the sugar.

Allow to cool to 22C or so, pour into a demi-john, add yeast and nutrient. Top up a bit but leave a headspace. Fit airlock and ferment for 3 or 4 days.

Strain into another demi-john.

Rack and top up as required.

Should be lovely in about 5 or 6 months.

Will

[DEMPSEY]

In Kerry this weekend and there is gorse everywhere. Will want to try using it myself

[Blueshed]

Will try this next weekend

[cruiscinlan]

I'm a bit confused about the gallon of flowers, is there a weight that that is equivalent to?

[Will_D]

A lot of flower wine recipes use volume as a measure.

As you pick/process them just put the flowers loosely into a gallon/5 litre bucket until full

Alternatively just stop before you are bored out of your tree!!

[Pheeel]

Gorse flowers are from that prickly bugger of a bush?

[Will_D]

Indeed Phil

[CC]

Thanks Will
All I need now is new fingers!

[Pheeel]

Great. The bees seem to love them so there must be something good in there. Luckily I have a plant in my front garden that I can strip!

[CC]

So just a quick bit of advice lads-
After 7 days my must has gone from 1.090 to 1.035...I've about 15l
I'm racking off zest etc today... should I be worried about stuck fermentation or just leave it tick along??
I used DAP yeast nutrient at pitching, pitched 2 rehydrated packs US05, and pitched and maintained at 17c
Healthy looking Krausen etc