White clover blossom wine???

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Rhys79

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I've found multiple recipes for red/purple clover blossom wine, but nothing for white clover blossom wine. Can you use white clover blossoms for wine? I have half my yard that's white clover (rental, not my problem :)). If I can make a batch of wine out of it, I can let the kids loose in the yard to pick them all while their in bloom.

TIA!
 
I'm sure that you can, but I wonder why there aren't any recipes around. I even checked Jack Keller's website, but he has many for red clover, none for white. So, my theory is that the white clover flowers must not have any flavor to them. What do they taste like?
 
Judging from your lack of a follow-up response, can we assume that white clover blossoms are, in fact, toxic? ;)
 
Quick google search found this...

http://www.fao.org/docrep/V2350E/v2350e05.htm

"White clover is regarded as a plant edible by humans (Launert, 1981): "An infusion of the dried flowers makes a fine tea substitute. The young leaves, gathered before flowering, can be added to salads, sauces and soups? on their own they can be used as a vegetable and prepared like spinach." Moderation in use is recommended possibly because of the cyanogenic potential of some clovers varieties; Wheeler and Vickery (1989) found that north American varieties had notably lower cyanogenic potential than most European varieties. Again, it is perhaps not appreciated that a type of dry "wine" can be made by fermenting flowerheads, sugar and wine yeast."
 
I have tasted white clover not as sweet as red clover,not really much of a flavor at all.don't know how it would be as a wine,dry maybe,but you could add a sweetener
after stabilizer has been added,back sweeten with Apple,Peach,raseberry,or wine condictioner.Just a thought,maybe worth trying.
 
Well on that note... I went and picked about a zillion white clovers thinking "hey, I can do this. Whatever flower. In your face... er... stamen"

Taking the recipe here for red clover wine #1, and amping up the clover 3x and increasing the volume from 1 gallon to slightly more to fit my 4L jug I've got around.

With any luck... I shant die. But I shall keep you all posted.
 
So... after pitching everything together I had to make the following additional changes to the recipe...

1) Acid Blend became Citric Acid
2) 1pt white grape juice became 1.5pt

I pitched everything in and gave it a smell while I was waiting for it to come to room temperature. Best way I can describe it is... unpleasant mowed grass. Pitched the yeast late last night once it was below 100 degrees. All I did was sprinkle it on top of the floating flowers and then punch down the cap. Yeast has taken off perfectly.

Checked it again around 5pm today to punch down the cap. Still has an off mowed lawn smell, but I tasted the spoon I used to punch down the cap and all I can say is sweet honey wonderment. I know the sweetness will decline, but the honey-flavor from the flowers is a good sign. Plus I plan to backsweeten with clover honey to reinforce the flavor.

So far so good.
 
Ok based on my auditory analysis of how much noise the yeast is making, and tasting of the cap mashing spoon... I have determined that the vigorous primary fermentation is done, and most of the sweetness is gone. Time for secondary...

My plan is just to gently scoop out the flowers with a regular ole strainer and syphon into a 4L jug tonight and take a gravity reading.

I may just be talking to myself, but the odyssey continues.
 
I've always gotten the best answers talking to myself!

Keep us posted. We are nosey, just don't have much to say!
 
I've always gotten the best answers talking to myself!

Keep us posted. We are nosey, just don't have much to say!

Good to hear! :)

It hit .996 today so I racked it and am waiting for it to clear before stabilizing, back sweetening, and bottling.

Way too much splashing took place during racking so I'm sure it got WAY too much oxygen. So I threw in 3tbls of sugar. Hopefully the yeasts will eat the sugar and in the process use up the oxygen. :/ We shall see.
 
How'z them clovers?

My dandelion wine is halfway to the finish line, so I'm curious about all things lawn-booze related!
 
Here's how it looks today. Clearing nicely. :)

cloverwine-59952.jpg
 
Update: It was done and dried out to 0.992 (almost sank the hydrometer). So since it already had a cover-honey bouquet, I stabilized it, and back sweetened with enough honey to bring it to around 1.015. Of course now it's cloudy again. Once it clears up I get it in bottles and let it age a bit.
 
My wife and I make jelly out of white blossom clover. It has a distinct taste of mild honey. We love it. Never made wine with it. I may have to give it a try tho.
 
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