Honeyberry Wine?

Unless there are other keywords to use in the search (honeyberry, honey berry, honeyberries, honey berries and various deliberate misspellings in order to catch the odd typo), I found nothing. Even a Google search only found a few appropriate topics, the closest being a thread on the winepress forum from 2006 with a few replies from Jack Keller stating that he hadn't heard of any wines made from them, and was trying to research the chemical properties of the berry. Also, on his wine recipe site, the only "honeyberry" reference is for a local name given to hackberries (I wouldn't draw that comparison to hackberries! They're an elm, anyhow).

Aside from all of the other nicknames of "honeyberry" given to various local species, what I'm referring to is the Lonicera kamchatika, or the "real" honeyberry. The information on this plant is everywhere and easy to find, so I won't waste space by going over it here; what I'm looking for is how to make wine from it and I can't find a thing. It's NOT the same as most other berries. It ripens about 2 weeks ahead of strawberries, and my friends about an hour or so north of here have several plants. They're not, as I said, like other berries, not even blueberries to which they're most frequently compared. I've only eaten them (they live up to their name!) fresh and in jelly that my friends made (1 half-pint jar, did NOT last long!!!). I didn't have any sort of testing equipment with me, not even a hydrometer. I've got plans in the works to get them growing here, though.

So, --- anybody? I wasn't able to find anything on this site. I know there'd be some potential problems, such as temperature control since the hottest part of the year would be coming on shortly after the wine would be racked to secondary, but what else?

Anyways, I'm looking forward to next spring when maybe I can get my hands on enough berries to try making some wine from them.

Thanks in advance.

- Tim

Is measuring their sugar, acid, pectin etc too technical? I have no idea what kind of gear is needed to do that as I generally just google a recipe and add the pectic enzyme, extra sugar & acid blends it says to. But I think the book 'Vines to Wines' might have some useful info on testing your own fruit & parameters to aim for. Or you could just do it by taste, since you're the one drinking it.

Thank you Nikkimaija.

My point was this ----- I have no data on the berries and apparently no one else seems to, either. The season is very short, and is in the spring. I was hoping to have what I needed (recipe-wise) ready when they ripen.

I did find a somewhat distant "cousin" to the honeyberries that's been made into wine. I'll use that as a starting point and go from there.

journals.usamvcj.ro/horticulture/article/viewFile/4921/4578

I found this while looking for info about honeyberry bush. Hope it helps

I've never heard of or tasted a honeyberry, but I'd be interested in doing so. How would you describe it?

Fruit wine recipes are pretty basic and repeatable across the board though. Fruit, Sugar, Pectic Enzyme, Tannin, Water to volume, and Yeast. I'm thinking you could maybe find a similar fruit/berry of equal sweetness and just sub the honeyberry for the recipe. You could also make several one gallon batches, different amount of berries and amount of sugar, etc. and see where the sweet spot is for your tastes. If you have one or two that don't meet your taste, you can blend those two together to get closer to where you like it.

http://www.lahaveforests.com/lahave-blog/haskap-wine-anyone.html found that website if you are looking, I have a few plants so let me know how it comes out