How to make Oak Leaf Wine for Home Winemakers
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- Wine from oak leaves? It sounded crazy to me too but it is a thing. Easy for any novice home winemaker to make their own wine from either spring or summer oak leaves. Simple ingredients include oak leaves, oranges, lemons, sugar, water, yeast, and a few other standard wine making ingredients.
Really Interesting. Thanks for sharing
My pleasure. Let me know if you give it a try!
My Grandmother used to make oak leaf wine. She died about 25 years ago but my mum still had the recipe on a small bit of paper so I gave it a go. It turned out very nice, strong but also very sweet. The PH hit 3,2 without adding any extras but it might has something to do with how long you simmer the fruits etc... I used 4 lemons and 5 oranges + 2 spoones of ginger and 12lbs of sugar for 4 (british) gallons. My grandmother also left the leafs in water for 7 days and bottled the wine for minimum 6 months. I only tried the young version now and have to wait. But that video was a great help for me as beginner, there is not much about oak wine but you created very good and rare content - thanks!
Thanks Dean. I am glad to hear from someone who had it from an "old timer". I hope that what we've made stands up to the standards of our elders. Let me know if you try a summer version, and I am curious about it. I like this version so much it may be a yearly addition to my celler.
Great video. I have a 500 year old Oak tree close to my house. Gonna have to make some ancient wine from it 😊
Thank you for making this video. It's informative and well presented. Please make more videos about country wines.
My oak leaf wine is now fermenting nicely
Thanks for the video! Really great insight. Of all of the few resources in making leaf wine available anywhere this video really is above all. I’m about to set one up as a mead, replacing sugar with a simple flower honey.
How did the mead turn out?
@@winemaker3269 it was the fastest drinkable mead i ever made. Not only did it ferment super fast. It also cleared (tannins!) faster than anything ever before. I backsweetened and sterile filtered and had it bottled 7 weeks from the start.
I currently hawking oak trees to harvest the youngest leaves possible for another batch.
Excellent presentation, thanks for sharing, I’ve made country wines- weird wines like peanut butter- but not oak leaf- yet!
Best wishes, Barnie.
Let me know if you give it a try! I made another batch and found that you can use too many leaves! I'd say that you should gently press them but not pack them.
It tastes really good
Thanks for liking
Excellent tutorial, well thought out.
Glad it was helpful!
What a wonderful idea for a wine
Thanks!
thank you
You're welcome! I'll be making another batch this spring - it's become one of my wife's favorites.
About the pH where you wondered. I took a pH reading early on after adding the juice of a single Orange. It was at 3.40 but just overnight it rose to 3.75. so i assume the longer you steep the more alkaline it gets. Which would explain what you saw after your extreme long steeping time.
Hey thanks for the feedback! You may be correct, although I never considered that. I usually assume I just messed something up. I am making another batch this spring so we'll see how it turns out.
@@winemaker3269 i had a talk with a biologist and fellow mead maker about it. I was confused since i read that oak leaf is supposed to lower pH. Finally figured by his feedback. Oak leaves have a pH of 4.5 which is acidic compared to water. But alkaline compared to what you expect from a wine like drink. So measure and adjust after some steeping.
@@winemaker3269 hmm you say this spring… are you australian? I picked my leaves more around early summer in Germany. My batch fermented to 13%abv dry in just 6 days. And has already cleared impressively. (Used pectic enzyme). Still don’t know how it will be tasting. If it’s palatable, I’m thinking of doing one with autumn leaves when they are yellow/red.
Is there no acid in the oak leaves? Also, wondering if there is a more "country" source of citrus flavor. Any ideas?
You can replace the sugar with honey, honey is pretty acidic on its own
There is no acid in the leaves. As far as other sources of flavor, you can try something like apple juice, which will be a pretty subtle flavor. You'll mostly likely still need to augment it with some type of acid addition (acid blend). Let me know what you come up with.
Give it a try! The trick is to check it though, and make adjustments as needed.
My wine turned a dark red/ black colour after I boiled it, is this normal?
I have not had that experience. Did you go ahead and ferment it? Is it clearing any now?
Dude, what is on your feet at 8:30-ish?
LOL....that would be grass clipping from walking barefoot in a newly mowed lawn. I have noticed a few bare feet moments in the video now that you pointed that out. By the way, I'll be going out to collect more oak leaves soon. In Missouri it's just about the right time - they are about at full sized but still fresh and free of insects.