Your thoughts on rosehip wine

[Loonylark]

Hi, I'm looking for some thoughts on making rosehip wine, as I've not tackled it before.
I've found various recipes, some of which say freeze the picked and washed hips first then crush once defrosted and in the fermenter. Others don't mention freezing but say to chop the hips. Quantities of hips to use vary greatly too and the variety of rose to use (rugosa or canina being the ones I've seen mentioned.)
So, if you've made it in the past - preferably successfully! - what did you do?

 

[jtratcliff]

I've never tried rosehip...

I've tried other fruit wines where the recommendation to freeze/thaw was to break the cell walls of the fruit so that the juice is more easily extracted...

But not sure how effective that would be for rosehips but it shouldn't hurt anything.

Have you found Jack Keller's wine recipes? He had a massive list of country wines. His original website is offline now but there are mirrors and copies still to be found...

Google "Jack Keller rosehip wine" and I'm sure you'll find some useful info...

 

[Loonylark]

Thanks so much for your reply. I've started a batch with just a kilo of fruit which I froze then bashed before adding H2O and sugar plus a crushed Camden tab last night. Will continue tonight with next step.
I haven't heard of Jack Keller (I'm from the UK, where C.J. Berry is the usual source) so will check him out

I've never tried rosehip...

I've tried other fruit wines where the recommendation to freeze/thaw was to break the cell walls of the fruit so that the juice is more easily extracted...

But sure how effective that would be for rosehips but it shouldn't hurt anything.

Have you found Jack Keller's wine recipes? He had a massive list of country wines. His original website is offline now but there are mirrors and copies still to be found...

Google "Jack Keller rosehip wine" and I'm sure you'll find some useful info...

Thanks so much for your reply. I've started a batch with just a kilo of fruit which I froze then bashed before adding H2O and sugar plus a crushed Camden tab last night. Will continue tonight with next step.

I haven't heard of Jack Keller (I'm from the UK, where C.J. Berry is the usual source) so will check him out.

 

[Loonylark]

Oops, posted reply twice - sorry!

 

[SatchIce9]

There's a rosehip recipe in Judith Irwin's book, 'A Step by Step Guide To Home Made Wine'. She writes,"Wash the hips well, then cut them in half or crush them with a piece of wood or mallet." She also warns, "Do not process them in an electric mixer as this will break the seeds and release the bitterness."
Her recipe uses 900g of fresh rose hips and 1.35Kg sugar, to the imperial gallon.
Tempted to try it now as there are still rose hips around in the hedgerows to be be picked, when all the blackberrys and elderberrys are gone. Rose hips are supposed to be very high in Vitamin C, so that's a good execuse to drink! (who needs excuses though, right?)

 

[Loonylark]

There's a rosehip recipe in Judith Irwin's book, 'A Step by Step Guide To Home Made Wine'. She writes,"Wash the hips well, then cut them in half or crush them with a piece of wood or mallet." She also warns, "Do not process them in an electric mixer as this will break the seeds and release the bitterness."
Her recipe uses 900g of fresh rose hips and 1.35Kg sugar, to the imperial gallon.
Tempted to try it now as there are still rose hips around in the hedgerows to be be picked, when all the blackberrys and elderberrys are gone. Rose hips are supposed to be very high in Vitamin C, so that's a good execuse to drink! (who needs excuses though, right?)

Certainly no excuse needed for a quiet glass or two!
The amount of sugar is interesting for only 900g hips; C.J.Berry has 1kg hips and 1.5kg sugar though. He does have a reputation for making sweeter wines, as was probably more common in the '70's - my book of his is from 1978!
Thanks for the info

 

[SatchIce9]

Judith Irwin describes her Rosehip recipe as a "Medium Sweet Social Wine". Her 1.35kg/3lb of sugar seems quite a lot to me. 1350g /4.5l = 300g/l of sugar, which is a potential alcohol of 17% (V/V) according to the scale on my hydrometer. As most wine yeast would top out at 14-15%, I'm guessing the excess sugar in her recipe would not be fermented, leaving it on the sweet side she describes. I usually prefer to only put in enough sugar to ferment to dryness, then stabilise and sweeten to taste, before bottling.

 

[Loonylark]

Judith Irwin describes her Rosehip recipe as a "Medium Sweet Social Wine". Her 1.35kg/3lb of sugar seems quite a lot to me. 1350g /4.5l = 300g/l of sugar, which is a potential alcohol of 17% (V/V) according to the scale on my hydrometer. As most wine yeast would top out at 14-15%, I'm guessing the excess sugar in her recipe would not be fermented, leaving it on the sweet side she describes. I usually prefer to only put in enough sugar to ferment to dryness, then stabilise and sweeten to taste, before bottling.

Yes, me too. Relying on adding sugar at the start to provide finished sweetness seems a bit hit and miss to me, and I'm a dry kinda girl.
Guess tastes change

 

[Loonylark]

Yes, me too. Relying on adding sugar at the start to provide finished sweetness seems a bit hit and miss to me, and I'm a dry kinda girl.
Guess tastes change

Just taken first gravity reading - 1.090, which would give me an alcohol level of just over 12%, if all goes to plan. Yeast now added, plus nutrient, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[jtratcliff]

here's one of the archives of Jack Keller's recipes:

https://swguildpa.com/wp-content/up...ler-Complete-Requested-Recipes-Collection.pdf
He has 3 separate recipes starting at page 245