This is the first time brewing Lilac Wine. An unusual wine for me but one worth a try! I wish to acknowledge two online recipes used as my guide, Moonshiners Club and Practical Self Reliance.
I modified the ingredient amounts from the above recipes given the volume of lilac blossoms on hand and based my previous years of wine making experience.
The most time consuming aspect making this wine was picking the individual pink blossoms off to get the amount needed!
Murlo documented some of the wine making process on our YouTube Channel, Murlo Discovery Channel, called Murlo Lilac Wine.
Ingredients
12 cups distilled water
8 cups lilac blossoms
6 cups sugar
3 lemons
1/8 tsp tannin powder
1 tsp yeast nutrient
EC-1118 yeast
1/8 tsp Potassium Meta bisulphate to preserve
1 Campden Tablet
Instructions
1. Rinse lilac blossoms*, remove flower and place in the primary fermenter
2. Bring 2-3 quarts of water to a boil on the stove, add sugar.
3. Stir the sugar until dissolved, also known as ‘simple sugar’. Let the mixture cool. You may want to do this step before picking the blossoms.
4. Pour the simple sugar over the lilac blossoms, add 12 cups of water, lemon juice, yeast nutrient, campden tablet, and tannin powder.
5. Ensure the entire mixture temperature is between 20 – 25 Celsius or 68 – 78 degrees before adding yeast.
6. Allow 7-10 days to ferment in the primary before transferring the the secondary fermenter.
7. Transfer (siphon) the liquid only to the secondary when you get the same two specific gravity readings from one day to the next.
8. Transfer and add the airlock.
9. Leave in secondary fermenter for two months or longer if you wish to batch age. Check the water level regularly in the airlock.
10. Sediment will fall to the bottle leaving a clear liquid. I racked (transferred) a second time to eliminate the bulk of sediment (optional).
11. After three month, I bottled the lilac wine into 375 ml bottles
12. Taste tested one bottle after four months. See our tasting comments below.
Yield
I was able to get 10, 375 ml bottles from this batch.
Notes *
– Ensure the lilac bush has not been sprayed directly or indirectly with chemicals. Use only the pink blossoms.
– It took two people approximately 3 hours to pick the blossoms off to get 8 cups of dry lilacs. The blossom began to fall off on their own as time wore on.
– The ABV measured at 14.0%. I use the Brewer’s Friend online alcohol by volume calculator
– I did not filter this batch.
Tasting Notes: We found the Lilac Wine to be in light body – similar to a Chardonnay in terms of colour and taste. Smooth from beginning to end without any after taste.
The colour is clear with a very slight pink hue. Surprisingly, the lilac floral aroma carried throughout the process and is noticeable on the nose.
A short lived but strong citrus hit on the tongue almost a sweet bouquet and aroma with a smooth finish.
For the Next Batch
For my next batch, I would allow more time in the secondary to ago another month or two to see if the flavour profile changes. Will keep you posted!
Have you brewed Lilac Wine? Let us know what worked for you.