Seabuckthorn (seaberry) Wine

Hello, anyone else ever try making seabuckthorn wine? We planted a pile of them for wildlife habitat and decided to try using the fruit. Very labor intensive to pick but we managed around 7 lbs and decided to start a wine (and a mead but that's for another time). Its been an interesting adventure.
Recipe I used:
2.2 pounds berries/ gallon
1/2 tsp acid blend/ gallon (could have skipped)
1/2 tsp pectin enzyme/ gallon
nutrient
campden as per usual
EC1118 yeast
sugar to sg of 1.092

I started this back in September by combining the fruit with the campden and pectin enzyme. Note the nuclear orange color, berries are high in fat which has led to issues.


I just racked it a second time yesterday, getting rid of the "fat" was a challenge to say the least. Next time I plan on trying to separate the fat/ juice prior to fermentation. It is clear when in a glass but is very orange.



As for taste, its very very sour and tastes like the fruit prior to fermentation minus any sweetness. I am trying to decide if I should back sweeten it a touch or just enjoy it dry. Seabuckthorn has a very unique flavor, and none of it has been lost. I definitely could have got by with less fruit but would rather have too much flavor.

Anyone else ever tried a wine with these berries? Any other ideas out there? Enjoy it dry or sweeten?

I've grown some but not enough ripened to do anything with, maybe this year. Your not kidding when you say they are sour.

I've read the commercial growers in Europe just cut the branch the berries are on then freeze them. When they're frozen you can knock them off the limb into a bag. Just be careful the thorns on mine are sharp.

You can also split your wine and do half sweet and half as is. Good luck and let us know which you like better.

scarekrow said:

I've grown some but not enough ripened to do anything with, maybe this year. Your not kidding when you say they are sour.

I've read the commercial growers in Europe just cut the branch the berries are on then freeze them. When they're frozen you can knock them off the limb into a bag. Just be careful the thorns on mine are sharp.

You can also split your wine and do half sweet and half as is. Good luck and let us know which you like better.

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I have read about harvesting that way but it seems like a shame after working so hard to get the bushes established. If your bushes perform anything like ours the berry crop can be very heavy during a wet enough year. I would say we could have picked around 5lbs/ female bush this year if we didn't elect to just take the easy ones. We have a few hundred bushes going so hoping the wine makes it worth sucking it up and picking enough for a 6 gallon batch next year. I will provide an update come bottling. I have noticed another trace of fat gathering in the wine following the last racking, tis is a stubborn batch.

Can you describe the flavour of the berry in a little more detail? I've never tasted them & short of growing my own, will most likely never get a chance to try them. I've been curious about them since I saw them in the Gurney's catalog.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

Can you describe the flavour of the berry in a little more detail? I've never tasted them & short of growing my own, will most likely never get a chance to try them. I've been curious about them since I saw them in the Gurney's catalog.
Regards, GF.

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It is a difficult flavor to accurately describe. I suppose citrus is the word I'd use, very citrus and very tart, maybe a bit like a super sour unsweetened orange but I think that's stretching it. Its not a completely revolting flavor or anything, but the berries themselves are very strong flavored. I have read that juice from them is good when watered down approximately 10x and heavily sugared. While tasting the wine, I took very small sips and found it enjoyable, too big a sip and you have major lip puckering going on. I am brain storming on trying a bit of blending with some of it, I think a small amount could make an entire carboy have a "hint" of flavor. Watch for them being used in landscaping and I'm sure you could try them sometime, very popular for that use and you cant really confuse them with anything else.

AlbertaGuy said:

It is a difficult flavor to accurately describe. I suppose citrus is the word I'd use, very citrus and very tart, maybe a bit like a super sour unsweetened orange but I think that's stretching it. Its not a completely revolting flavor or anything, but the berries themselves are very strong flavored. I have read that juice from them is good when watered down approximately 10x and heavily sugared. While tasting the wine, I took very small sips and found it enjoyable, too big a sip and you have major lip puckering going on. I am brain storming on trying a bit of blending with some of it, I think a small amount could make an entire carboy have a "hint" of flavor. Watch for them being used in landscaping and I'm sure you could try them sometime, very popular for that use and you cant really confuse them with anything else.

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Interesting. Just did a little research online & discovered they have 15 times more ascorbic acid than oranges. This is good news, as that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) will eventually age out. You could blend or do some acid reduction with calcium carbonate; or you could just bulk age that seaberry wine for a year (or 2) and let the excess acid age out on it's own.
Regards, GF.

Well, I was starting to worry about the fat being in there as nightmares of rancid off-flavors were running through my head. I rented a wine filter and ran it through, what a different it made.



I had a quick sip and the sour has really subsided, its definitely a dry slightly sour wine but pleasant to sip already. I'm letting it sit a while here as I also filtered a sea buckthorn mead at the same time (same issues) and a small amount of honey may have entered the wine (same yeast, same age). I understand fermentation is unlikely after filtering but after all the effort why risk it. No further sediment had settled out in the wine, it appears as though only a fat haze remained. Coarse filtering is all that was needed as the fine filters didn't seem to change the wine very much, apparently the fat particles are fairly large (learning experience here as well). I filtered the entire batch of wine but only coarse filtered the mead, that way time can tell me what is absolutely necessary to make a good product. I'll get a summary post into the recipe area at some point, just wanted to update any interested parties.

Ananas de Sibérie, Argasse, Argousier, Argousier Faux-Nerprun, Bourdaine Marine, Buckthorn, Chharma, Dhar-Bu, Épine Luisante, Épine Marrante, Espino Armarillo, Espino Falso, Faux Nerprun, Finbar, Grisset, Hippophae rhamnoides, Meerdorn, Oblepikh...

That wine is looking & sounding awesome!
Regards, GF.

Have just racked my sea buckthorn wine for the first time into a carboy, son said it looks like Tang. Watching your post, glad to hear the sour should age out... Did you try clearing agents, like those that come with wine kits, to settle out the oil? Cleaning the equipment is challenging also.

I made liqueur soaking berries and sugar in vodka, then straining it , just shake it up to mix in the oil to drink, tasty.

Acreagegal said:

Have just racked my sea buckthorn wine for the first time into a carboy, son said it looks like Tang. Watching your post, glad to hear the sour should age out... Did you try clearing agents, like those that come with wine kits, to settle out the oil? Cleaning the equipment is challenging also.

I made liqueur soaking berries and sugar in vodka, then straining it , just shake it up to mix in the oil to drink, tasty.

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I just rented a filter after a long secondary. The flavor has continued to improve, i opened another bottle here a few weeks ago and it's a very nice dry wine. Kind of hard to guess the parent fruit now so i would say the flavor is becoming more complex. I really enjoy it. Cleaning the equipment was a challenge, lots of scrubbing and a good strong solution of stericlean was needed. I only picked enough berries to do some deserts with this year, hopefully i will get around to starting another big batch next summer.

I am interested in making my own seaberry tea and I stumbled across this thread in my internet search. I was backpacking through Asia last April and came across seaberries during my travels. They had an interesting flavor and I found the hot tea locals served me very nourishing. I live in Michigan and I've been searching to see where I can get a tree to grow and make my own hot seaberry tea. I hope someone here can help me out!

I got my plant from One Green World. They are here in Oregon, but they are on the internet. Also Raintree in Washington. Both have unusual and unique plants.

scarekrow said:

I got my plant from One Green World. They are here in Oregon, but they are on the internet. Also Raintree in Washington. Both have unusual and unique plants.

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Thank you!

Any nurseries sell plants? Getting them from seeds could take forever...

Update: Looks like Raintree does sell online. That is great!