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–+ gallon, or about 4 bottles
Rose Hip Wine
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Rosehip Wine

Rosehip wine is a refreshing delight for sipping during spring and summer, and is quite simple to make.
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time14 days
Secondary Fermentation42 days
Total Time56 days 1 hour
Servings: 1 gallon, or about 4 bottles
Author: Ashley Adamant

Equipment

  • Bottle Corker
  • Wine Corks
  • Wine Bottles
  • One Step Sanitizer
  • Winemaking Auto-Siphon
  • One Gallon Carboy

Ingredients

  • 2 to 3-½ pounds fresh rosehips or 1/2 to 1 lb dried
  • 2 1/2 pound scane sugar or honey for mead
  • 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
  • 1 teaspoon acid blend
  • 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
  • wine yeast see note
  • Optional ~ Campden Tablet and Potassium Sorbate for stabilizing only needed for backsweetening

Instructions

  • First, wash rosehips to remove any lingering bugs or insects. Next, trim the stems and ends off. 
  • Coarsely chop rosehips. If desired, place in a brew bag and tie closed.
  • Place the rosehips in a wide-mouth carboy and top with sugar.
  • Boil water and pour into the carboy. Stir until sugar dissolves.
  • Once cool, add the acid blend, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. 
  • Add the wine yeast last. (If the yeast requires rehydrating, be sure to do this 10 minutes before adding to your wine.)
  • Finish filling the carboy with enough water to bring it to leave about 2 inches of headspace. 
  • Seal with the waterlock and let the mixture ferment in primary for 8 to 10 days.
  • Remove the bag from the wine and give it a good squeeze to remove the last of the juice. Discard the bag and siphon your wine to a new carboy for secondary ferment, leaving the sediment behind. 
  • Allow to ferment in secondary for 6 weeks before racking to a clean fermentation vessel and fermenting for another 3 months. After this, you may need to rack the wine again to discard sediment and continue to ferment until the wine is clear. 
  • Once the wine clears, it is ready for bottling. Taste the wine before bottling and adjust as needed. If backsweetening, put back into ferment for 2 weeks to 1 month.
  • Bottle your wine with corks. Allow to bottleage for 18 to 24 months before drinking.

Notes

Amount of Fruit

You can use anywhere from 2 lbs to 3-½ pounds of fruit for this recipe. Dried rose hips can be used as well, but they should be crushed and soaked in water overnight to rehydrate first. About half a pound of dried rosehips should be enough for 1 gallon of rosehip wine.

Yeast

For rosehip wine, select a wine yeast with a moderate alcohol tolerance. It should ferment clean or add light fruit characteristics. Montrachet wine yeast or champagne yeast will work well with rosehip wine. About ⅕ of a packet will be needed for a single gallon supply of wine.

Stabilizing and Back Sweetening

After checking your wine at the end of secondary, you may find it too dry for your taste. In this case, backsweetening is an option. To backsweeten, move the wine to a clean fermentation vessel and add 1 Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate to stabilize the wine and kill the yeast. 
If you do not stabilize your wine before adding sugar, it can ferment rapidly in the bottles and they may burst. Once stabilized, add sugar to taste (I suggest adding about a ½ cup of sugar at a time for a one-gallon batch of rosehip wine).
To add sugar, make a simple syrup by dissolving 1 part sugar and 1 part water in a saucepan.  Add this to your wine and put back into ferment for at least 1 to 2 weeks before finally bottling.