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Rose Hip Wine

I have seen several recipes for rose hip wine. A Rose hip is the little fruit-thing left when a rose is done flowering, right?

Do these things get "ripe" like other fruit do, or do you just get them off the plant when the flower falls off? I think I was a little rash today and plucked all mine off my one rose bush. It was about half a gallon of them, are they "ok" to crush and make a must out of?

Which is better? I have seen recipes with 2.5 lbs of rose hips and 3 lbs of sugar and one with 4 lbs of rose hips and 5 lbs of sugar per gallon of wine.

I guess all that sugar just goes to the alcohol, and that is not really a bad thing anyway!

Thanks!

Alex.

Reply to
Alex Brewer
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I have never made rosehip wine but 5 lbs of sugar sound like way too much. I do not think it would all ferment out. I would recommend you use a hydrometer to add the sugar and shoot for a given alcohol content. Then sweeten if you need to.

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Alex, your recipes call for much too much sugar. Go to

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and scroll down to Rose Hip Wines for three recipes.

Your rose hips were reddish when you picked them? If so, they were ripe.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

I heard that rose hips are better after a frost - sweeter when wrinkly?

Reply to
Pickle

I heard the same thing, but don't know what changes with the frost. Could be sweetness, could be acid. Don't know. Where I live, we cannot depend on a frost, so I pick them when I need them (for tea or wine) and they always turn out just right.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

Frosts come pretty early (by your standards) here in Alaska. Sitka Roses grow wild all over the place here. The Sitka Rose hips seem to be sweeter after a frost hit them. The hips containing insect larve are also pretty evident her as they remain very firm after a frost whereas those that ripen without insect larve tend to go soft when very ripe.

Later, A. J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Reply to
A.J. Rawls

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