Affiliate disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Chamomile wine is a lovely floral wine that’s easy to make at home. Use honey instead for a homemade mead for even better flavor!
You can use several different varieties of chamomile to make chamomile wine, but one of the best types is German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla). The flowers of German chamomile are fragrant and sweet, yielding a delightful floral wine.
There is also Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) which has a slightly more bitter taste than other types. This variety can also be used for either chamomile wine or mead.
To make chamomile wine, you’ll follow the same basic process as with any small-batch country wine.
You’ll infuse the flowers to take in their essence, add some sugar or honey for sweetness, pitch in some winemaking additives to balance things out and toss in a strain of winemaking yeast to get it all fermenting.
This little mixture will ferment for a week or two during which the most active part of fermentation will occur. The wine will then be siphoned over to a clean vessel for secondary where it ferments more slowly for anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. This part should happen somewhere cool and dark.
The wine will then be bottled and left to age for a few months before drinking.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Most of my recipes are written assuming that the reader is familiar with basic winemaking terms and common practices. If you are new to winemaking, you may wish to look over these introductory guides to help you:
- Beginners Guide to Making Fruit Wines will take you through the entire winemaking process step by step.
- How to Make Mead (Honey Wine) may seem very similar, but there are a few particularities when working with honey.
- Equipment for Winemaking covers all the necessary equipment you’ll need to make your first batch (besides your ingredients).
- Ingredients for Winemaking includes everything else that is required to make wine (besides yeast).
- Yeast for Winemaking may seem intimidating as there are dozens of common strains available (and hundreds of obscure ones). Selecting the right one is important so I’ve broken it all down for you.
Ingredients for Chamomile Wine
You’ll need just a few ingredients to make chamomile wine or mead.
For those newer to winemaking, you may wish to have a look at this primary post on winemaking ingredients to grasp the purpose of each of these elements and what they do in winemaking. More possible substitutions are also included there as well.
To produce a one-gallon batch of chamomile wine, you will need:
- ½ cup dried chamomile (or 2 cups fresh)
- 3 lbs honey (or 2 1/2 lbs sugar)
- ½ orange zested and juiced (or 2 tsp Acid Blend)
- ⅛ cup raisins (or 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient)
- 1 cup of strong black tea (or ¼ tsp Wine Tannin)
- Wine Yeast (preferably Lalvin D47)
First off, you’ll need to source your main ingredient: chamomile flowers. You will need ½ cup (10 grams) dried chamomile, but if you happen to be growing chamomile in your garden, you can substitute 2 cups of fresh blossoms.
Next, you’ll need to add in some sweetness. If making chamomile mead, use 3 lbs (1 quart) of honey. For chamomile wine, you’ll need around 2 1/2 lbs of sugar.
You’ll see many older wine recipes calling for citrus juice, black tea and/or chopped raisins. These are perfectly fine to use in wine or mead making, but they can affect the color of your wine.
When making chamomile wine you’ll need to add some acidity to balance the wine and provide the right environment for your yeast to do their job. You can add this acidity naturally with the juice and zest of half an orange, or instead opt for a few teaspoons of acid blend.
You’ll also need to add some tannins to chamomile wine. You can brew a cup of strong black tea for this recipe or use ¼ tsp wine tannin powder. (Know that using black tea can darken your wine.)
You’ll also need a little something to ensure your yeast are well fed. You can use ⅛ of a cup of raisins, chopped, or simply add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient. Raisins will affect the flavor of your wine, so stick to golden raisins or sultanas if you prefer this route.
Yeast for Floral Wines
As to yeast, you have multiple options available to you. Many recipes recommend Montrachet yeast for chamomile wine. For floral wines, Côte des Blancs or Lalvin D47 are also often recommended.
Red Star Montrachet (or Premier Classique) is a strong fermenter with a relatively low alcohol tolerance (13%) leading to more residual sweetness. Red Star Côte des Blancs is a slower fermenter and will help preserve the subtle flavors of chamomile. It also has a low alcohol tolerance (12% to 14%).
Lalvin D47 has a slightly higher alcohol tolerance (up to 15%) and adds more complexity to wines. For chamomile mead, Lalvin D47 is the preferred yeast choice.
Winemaking Equipment
Other than these ingredients, some winemaking equipment will also be necessary. This will include:
- One Gallon Glass Carboy (often sold as a kit with a rubber stopper and water lock together)
- Rubber Stopper and Water Lock (if not included above)
- Brewing Siphon
- Wine Bottles or Flip-top Grolsch bottles
- Bottle Corker and clean, new corks for bottling the wine
- Brewing Sanitizer
Making Chamomile Wine
To make chamomile wine, begin by boiling a few quarts of water.
Once boiling, remove from heat and add the dried chamomile. If using, also add the black tea, chopped raisins, orange juice and orange zest. Stir and cover.
Let this mixture steep for 15 minutes.
Finish by adding the sugar or honey and stirring until dissolved.
Let the mixture cool. Pour the mixture through a strainer into your primary fermentation vessel. If using wine additives (acid blend, yeast nutrient, wine tannin) add these and stir to incorporate.
The wine yeast should be added last. Rehydrate the yeast in ½ to ¼ cup of luke warm water for 10 minutes before adding it to your carboy.
Fill the carboy with enough water to bring the level to the neck of the carboy and seal with a water lock. In 24 to 72 hours, a nice active primary fermentation should be seen bubbling away.
Ferment your chamomile wine in primary for 7 to 14 days, until you see fermentation begin to slow. At this point, you should see some sediment at the bottom of your vessel.
It is now time to rack the wine to a clean fermentation vessel, leaving this sediment behind. Siphon the wine to a clean carboy for secondary and top with enough water to bring the wine to the neck of the carboy (this is important as you want to decrease the wine’s surface area that is exposed to oxygen).
Seal with a water lock and ferment until the wine or mead clears. For floral wines, secondary often lasts about 4 weeks. For mead, secondary fermentation will be longer (about 2 to 4 months) since honey takes longer for yeast to digest than sugar.
Try to keep your wine in a cool and dark location during this time, out of direct sunlight.
Sample your wine towards the end of secondary. The wine will be somewhat rough (floral wines benefit from some aging before drinking) but you should still get some sense of the finished flavors. If needed, adjust to your taste.
To backsweeten, rack the wine to a clean carboy to avoid stirring up any sediment.
Many then choose to stabilize their wine at this point. Stabilizing the wine is done by adding 1 Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate to halt the yeast. Why is this done?
Adding sugar before bottling can cause fermentation to restart and bottled wine to burst under the resulting pressure.
If you’d prefer not to stabilize your wine before backsweetening, you can add sugar and put the wine back into ferment for another month before bottling.
If you’d prefer not to wait that long, stabilize the wine, wait 24 to 48 hours for the yeast to die, then add sugar in the form of a simple syrup. Waiting a week before bottling is still recommended to be sure fermentation does not restart.
To backsweeten mead, follow the same steps, but add honey in place of sugar. Know that some clouding is natural and may occur when backsweetening.
Once ready, bottle the wine and seal with corks. Allow the wine to age a few months before drinking. Floral wines really do improve with age as the flavors greatly improve and mellow.
Ways to Preserve Chamomile
Looking for more ways to use chamomile in your everyday life?
- Chamomile Jelly
- Chamomile Tincture
- Herbal Oxymel
- Herbal Infused Honey
- How to Make Herbal Vinegar
- Drying Herbs
Chamomile Wine (& Mead)
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried chamomile flowers
- 2 1/2 pounds cane sugar, about 2 cups per pound or 3 lbs honey (for mead)
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient, or ⅛ cup raisins, chopped
- 2 tsp acid blend, or ½ orange zested and juiced
- ¼ tsp tannin powder, or 1 cup strongly brewed black tea
- Wine Yeast, see note
- Optional ~ Campden Tablet and Potassium Sorbate for Stabilizing, I do not use these
Instructions
- Bring a few quarts of water to boil.
- Once boiling, remove from heat and add the chamomile flowers. If using, add the chopped raisins, black tea, orange zest and orange juice.
- Cover and steep for 15 minutes.
- Next, add the sugar or honey and stir until dissolved.
- Let cool for another 10 minutes.
- Pour the mixture through a strainer into your primary fermentation vessel. If using any winemaking additives (wine tannin, yeast nutrient, or acid blend) add these now.
- Rehydrate the yeast in some room temperature water for 10 minutes. Once rehydrated, add the yeast to the carboy.
- Top with enough water to bring the level to the neck of the carboy and seal with a water lock.
- Ferment in primary for 7 to 14 days.
- Siphon the wine to a new fermentation vessel for secondary, leaving the sediment behind.
- Top up with water as needed and seal with a water lock.
- Ferment in secondary until the wine or mead clears (4 to 6 weeks for wine and about 4 months for mead).
- Sample the wine and adjust to taste as needed (see notes below for info on backsweetening).
- Rack the wine into bottles and seal with corks. Let age for several months before drinking.
Notes
Yeast
For chamomile wine, there are several yeast options for you to choose from. Some particularly good yeast choices include Red Star Montrachet, Cote des Blancs and Lalvin D47 (Lalvin D47 is highly recommended for chamomile mead).Stabilizing and Back Sweetening
If your wine tastes too dry at the end of secondary, backsweetening is an alternative. To do so, rack the wine to a clean container and add 1 Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon of potassium sorbate to stabilize the wine. (Stabilizing the wine will halt the yeast, preventing a rapid ferment caused by the added sugar). Once stabilized, wait 24 to 48 hours, then add sugar (or honey for mead) to taste. Sugar can be added by making a simple syrup of equal parts water and sugar heated in a saucepan. Add sugar and put back into ferment for 1 week before bottling. Amounts vary based on personal preference, but I recommend beginning with ½ cup sugar for a one-gallon batch of chamomile wine. For more information on backsweetening, see notes within the article.Floral Winemaking Recipes
In search of more Floral winemaking recipes?
