Here's What You'll Need:
50g Dried Organic Rose Petals* (You can order them here.)
3 Cardamom Pods (optional, find them here.)
6 Liters Filtered or Spring Water
2 lbs. Sugar
2 Lemons-- preferably organic
Champagne or Cider Yeast (You can order it here.)
*You can definitely use fresh petals as well, but the measurements will be different, since the fresh ones are heavier. I think this would convert to about 6 cups of fresh rose petals. Check out some of the recipes I reference below to get the correct measurements.
If you don't have some basic brewing equipment, here are some things to pick up. You can often find these items on Craigslist, or you may have a brewing supply store near you. Otherwise, ordering them online is super easy.
There are quite a few ways to make rose petal wine. I think I chose the simplest method out there, but I would be interested in adding some extra dimension by following some recommendations in other recipes, such as using some black tea, adding raisins or other dried fruits, or using grape juice to replace some of the water and sugar. You can check out a few methods: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I pretty much just did the basics-- brewing the tea, adding sugar and lemon juice, and adding the yeast. While some methods call for soaking the petals for a day or two, mine was in the demijohns within a day.
Alright, let's get to it.
Here's What to Do:
1. Fill a stock pot with fresh water, and add the rose petals and cardamom pods to it.
3. Strain the liquid from the petals into another pot or brewing bucket. Press the liquid out of the rose petals, and compost them. Squeeze the juice from lemons into your liquid, and then add the sugar, stirring to dissolve.
4. Let you tea cool to body temperature, and add your yeast, sprinkling it on top of the mixture. Let that sit and dissolve for a couple of hours.
5. Decant your wine mixture evenly into two sterilized demijohns. Just look at that color! Add airlocks, and put it someplace dark with stable temperatures. I just put a dishtowel over mine, and keep it in the dining room.
6. Let it ferment, and rack it. The timing on this is not precise. Basically, you want to rack wine to remove sediments-- the more times you rack it, the more clear your final wine will be. Since this is a sparkling wine, and I didn't expect it to take that long to be ready, I actually didn't rack it-- but I probably should have done so at 3 weeks, when fermentation was slowing down. Racking is the process of moving the wine from one fermenting vessel to another, leaving behind yeasty lees and sediment. You do this with a syphon hose.
7. Taste it periodically, then bottle it. When it's a bit sweeter than you want it to be, but getting reasonably close to your desired dryness, syphon your Rose Petal Wine into bottles. I bottled mine at about 5 weeks, but the yeast culture I was using was my home-grown one, and yours will behave differently than mine-- so taste at least once a week (after 2 weeks) and make your own judgement. It is very important that you use swing-top bottles for this, since the brew will be building pressure as it digests the sugars. You risk having a big explosion in our home if you don't use bottles that are designed to release small amounts of pressure.
8. Let it sit and ferment some more, and check on it. I put some wine into a regular wine bottle and corked it loosely-- so I could open that up and taste it without releasing the fizz in the other bottles of wine. I recommend checking its progress this way! This part of the process took longer than I expected, but I have come to realize that my yeast culture was losing steam. If I had used a commercial yeast, I believe my wine would have finished much more quickly. So, this is the final step-- you decide when it's ready, according to dryness. Be aware that the longer you wait, the more pressure will have built up. I once let an apple cider sit for a long time, then lost almost the entire bottle to the "fountain effect" when I opened it (what I managed to save was deliciously dry and champagne-like though)-- so just get involved and see where your brew is at now and then. Once you are getting to where you want to be, I would recommend moving your bottles someplace cool (fridge, even) to seriously slow the fermentation until you get around to drinking those bottles.
Check out all those tiny bubbles!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEcVinUPlp_j099FGwdPOKKngEGAnyWTMhyphenhyphenjluvayaN60uuK3gkQeRs3OBQzmhi_QtdfXUySGhf7FqnsGRm3oToqmBNddWl-szfJ95ppzsOkhR0Zk0ReBjFoO6_1conXlsHZ3i4uJ3hXw/s280/IMG_4197.jpg)
Enjoy!
This post was shared at: Thank Goodness it's Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Tasty Traditions, Fat Tuesday, Party Wave Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Furgal Days, Sustainable Ways, The Home Acre Hope, Pennywise Platter, Tasty Traditions, Sustainable Living Link Up, From the Farm Bloghop.
PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to
support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or
other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation,
testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.
Ariana, that looks delicious! There is masses of red clover in the field behind us, so as soon as it stops raining that's destined to become wine :-) Pity you can't make buttercup wine...
ReplyDeleteHazel, have you made red clover wine? I know just the place where I could get unlimited amounts... Jeff is brewing an oak leaf wine that seems promising!
DeleteOh my goodness, beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteI love those dainty little bubbles in a sea of pink!
DeleteThis sounds so delicious and the color is beautiful! I've never used dried rose petals but I am so intrigued by this I'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteVisiting from What To Do Weekends :)
Thanks for the visit! Yes, I think that being able to make it with dried roses is a huge bonus. Fresh would work, too, if you have a lot. Something I did with our lilacs in order to save enough fresh ones to make wine with was collecting them and freezing them through the blooming season. I'm sure you could do the same with fresh (organic) roses. Ordering dried ones is super easy, though!
DeleteHi! I am visiting from Wildcrafting Wednesday - wondering if you think it could be made with fresh rose petals? We made Rose Petal Jam recently:
ReplyDeletehttp://thisonegoodlife.blogspot.com/2013/06/wild-rose-petal-jam.html
and we're hooked on the flavor!
Yes, it can definitely be made with fresh petals... But I haven't done it yet. Click on some of the links I referenced for measurements.
DeleteThis is so completely wonderful!! I am in the process of making dandelion wine but I really think next year I'll have it down pat. I know about the "explosion" part of it, too, since the guy at the wine/beer making store told me and I read another account online that said his bottles exploded! Thanks again and I'm PINNING this also. Linda Please come back with whatever wonderful posts you have....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.craftsalamode.com/2013/06/what-to-do-weekends-25.html
Oh my, it's so beautiful and would be so fun. Thanks for hosting The Farm Blog Hop.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI tried to comment before but it didnt post so I apologize if this comes up as a double posting.
I LOVE rose based recipes and I have access to copious amounts of very fragrant organic roses. I've never made anything like this so I'm trying to figure out what all I need.
What size of demijohns are you using? 2-3 gallons or 2-1 gallons?
How much yeast do you use per batch?
All the recipes just say to add yeast at a certain point but none say how much. A whole pack?
Thank you for your time and thank you for the recipe!
Hi Stephanie,
DeleteI am so glad you'll be trying it! Our demijohns are 1-2 gallons. Good question on the yeast-- I would do 1 tsp. per gallon. It's often sold in sachets, and in that case I just put the whole thing in! But it's usually about a tsp. anyway. Good luck!
I am so impressed with your resourcefulness! Who wouldn't want some Sparkling Rose Petal Wine?! :)
ReplyDeleteCould you use something other than refined sugar?
Thanks for sharing this incredible recipe with us!
Hi Rose!
DeleteYou could use honey or raw sugar... I have used both in other ferments. Just keep in mind that it will change the flavor-- in some cases, that's a good thing, but for roses I wanted to keep the flavors a little more "pure." Keep in mind that most of the sugar will be digested during the fermentation. Good luck!
So excited to make this! We have a 5 gallon carboy. Is that too big? Do we need demijohns instead? And I'm with Stephanie wondering how much yeast to use??
ReplyDeleteHi Mississippi Girl. You can definitely use a 5 gallon carboy-- they don't need to be filled up all the way. I just left a comment for Stephanie-- a good guide is 1 tsp. per gallon of brew. Good luck!
DeleteThank you so much! Looking forward to making this soon!
DeleteLooks yummy! Thanks so much for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop! Hope to see you again today at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/06/the-homeacre-hop-25-exciting-news.html
Stop by and say hi to our new co-host!
PS: One of our hosts featured your post!
Oh wow!!! I was jus tgoing to make rose petal syrup but this would be way more delicious. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing on Wildcrafting Wednesday!
He! @Ariana Mullins thanks for this lovely post. We are currently working on home made wine ideas to market purpose. Its a very helpful to us. We were trying to digg out some concept about wine making on internet.Mention some ideas on preservation.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for the information like this.. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteSparkling rose petal wine is a symbol of love so it indicate sign of joy and happiness around the globe. It is widely used throughout the world for occasional purpose and this types of wines may come in many ranges and by ranges we mean the quality, prices, making procedures.
ReplyDelete