Pine needle wine

Alcoholic beverages which are not classified as spirits.

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moered
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Pine needle wine

Post by moered »

Just knocking up a batch tonight, never done it before. Picked a bunch of ping needles from the forest next door today. adding sugar, raisins and lemon.

As Its an experiment I'm only making 1 gallon. Anyone else tried this? Will report how it goes!!
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by der wo »

No. But I did some experimentation with vapor infused needles. Not pine but larch and spruce. It's important, that they are really fresh soft and lime-green. Ripe will taste musty and like bath additive, fresh has fine fruity lemon flavors. Perhaps it's also important, if you ferment the needles. I don't know, if now is the season in NZ for that, in europe I would pick them early may. At this time the spruce needles look like this:
maiwipferln.jpg
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Re: Pine needle wine

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der wo wrote:No. But I did some experimentation with vapor infused needles. Not pine but larch and spruce. It's important, that they are really fresh soft and lime-green. Ripe will taste musty and like bath additive, fresh has fine fruity lemon flavors. Perhaps it's also important, if you ferment the needles. I don't know, if now is the season in NZ for that, in europe I would pick them early may. At this time the spruce needles look like this:
maiwipferln.jpg

I tried to pick the softest youngest parts I could, But probably is the wrong season. The wort is made now anyway, tastes quite nice, earthy. Not as much pine coming through as I wanted, but we'll see. I added some ginger, pepper and cinnamon.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by pythonshine »

how is your needle wine going?
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by moered »

It went good! Tastes.. christmassy. it didn't ferment completely dry though. Maybe not enough nutrients for the yeast i think. Came out about 11 percent. I definitely recommend it. lovely taste.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by pythonshine »

sounds like I have another project lol thanks moered! :thumbup: recipe?
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Re: Pine needle wine

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what amounts did you use
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by dieselduo »

Retsina is a Greek wine infused with pine resin. Pretty good
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by moered »

I don't think I waged anything because I brew how i cook, off the cuff. Maybe thats why it wasn't perfect :D

But approximately : 1.5 kg sugar, 1kg raisins, juice from 2 lemons, 1 teabag and however much pine needles I could be bothered picking. I also threw in some nutmeg and cinnamon.

Made a tea from the teabag and needles, added the sugar and juice. strained out, then added the raisins, simmered for a while and threw it into a demijohn.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I try to do a beer every spring with fresh spruce tips.
I use about one quart jar of loosley packed with spruce tips per 5 gallon batch of beer.
Gives it LOTS of sprucey flavor. One of my all time favorites.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:I try to do a beer every spring with fresh spruce tips.
I use about one quart jar of loosley packed with spruce tips per 5 gallon batch of beer.
Gives it LOTS of sprucey flavor. One of my all time favorites.
Hmmm...

That time of year, I'm listening...care to share. ..? :mrgreen:
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:care to share. ..? :mrgreen:
Do it! I think you would really like it.
I've done it with more and less barley, and I prefer the lighter beer, works better with the fresh spruce.
Needs to be the very new growth on the tips of the branches. They will be very tender, green, and tasty.
Do Not use anything older. Once the tips start to turn woody the beer will be oily and horrible. Trust me.

Not really a recipe, but here is what I do.
8# 2-row for a 5 gallon batch. Big handful of spruce tips in the boil, then another big handful near the end of the boil, maybe the last 10 min.
I have used mild hops, and citrusy hops, and not too much of them, both work well. Stay away from the piney hops, let the spruce tips do that job.
I like doing it with some black patent malt in there,too, just to give the beer a darker color. 1/4# - 1/2# of crystal malt won't hurt it neither.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Here they come... Will be ready for harvesting in a few weeks.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

I was wondering, can you freeze these? Have you tried? Do they lose freshness?

They are about ready in the neighbors tree, but I am up for a stout this weekend, and an IPA in 4 weeks. What's the 'sprout season' length?
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:I was wondering, can you freeze these? Have you tried? Do they lose freshness?

They are about ready in the neighbors tree, but I am up for a stout this weekend, and an IPA in 4 weeks. What's the 'sprout season' length?
I bet they freeze just fine. I froze some last spring, but lost power to my freezer and lost all contents.

I think you can pick them any time they are still green and tender. Once they start to develop a woody stem, it's too late.
A handfull of these in an IPA might be very nice! :idea:
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:
ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:I was wondering, can you freeze these? Have you tried? Do they lose freshness?

They are about ready in the neighbors tree, but I am up for a stout this weekend, and an IPA in 4 weeks. What's the 'sprout season' length?
I bet they freeze just fine. I froze some last spring, but lost power to my freezer and lost all contents.

I think you can pick them any time they are still green and tender. Once they start to develop a woody stem, it's too late.
A handfull of these in an IPA might be very nice! :idea:
Yeah, I make a great 2 hearted ale clone, and thought it would go nicely in that. But I want the stout made first. So maybe I'll freeze some this weekend, and use them in 4 weeks. I didn't want to have to move the IPA up. I am kegging an arrogant Bastard this weekend.
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Christmas in JUL-IPA

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

So, got my spuce tips!
SpruceTips.jpg
Had to post the beauty of a beast that gave me my little sprouts. I love this tree, and even more now.
img20160514_163700.jpg
I tasted the tips, they are very lemony crisp. So I think I will do a malty sweet citrus beer.

So, I think I am going to make a double ipa out of the 2 hearted ale recipe, by increasing the vienna malt from 2 lbs to 10, to match the pale malt. This will give me some yummy malt candy base. Then, I have to increase the hops, so I might use a German citrus hop in portions along with the Centennial hop. Throw in the spruce, of course, finisher off with 1098 slurry I collected today from the arrogant Bastard ferment. I'll start it in 4 weeks, pull it off 7/2/16. That will make it...Christmas in Jul-IPA.

Mmmmm. We'll see how this goes. .. :lol:
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Re: Pine needle wine

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Dam. Your making me thirsty
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Very nice, that sound like a great plan.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by HDNB »

The Banff distillery i visited last weekend is making a spruce tip Gin...soon to be released so i didn't get a taste...but they said they have to use a lot more spruce tips than they expected to carry it to the spirit.

dunno how that applies to wine, but FWIW, there ya go.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Thanks for that info, HDNB, I'm going to try a couple ideas for spruce shine.
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:Thanks for that info, HDNB, I'm going to try a couple ideas for spruce shine.
Of course you are.

Please be sure to let us know the sugar content of those, well ya :ebiggrin:
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Tis' the season for Christmas in Jul-IPA . My spruce ipa went so well last year that I picked 3 quarts this year. One for now, one to enter into a competition in November, and another next spring before they sprout again. It was a really wonderful beer. The spruce does not fade over time like hops, so at about 1.5 months to 2 months, it really peaked. An ipa to age! Get'em now, boys!
img20170511_203927.jpg
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Re: Pine needle wine

Post by OtisT »

Clear Creek Distillery in Portland makes a wonderful Douglas Fir eau de vie. Smells and tastes wonderful to me. They use the fresh, young, buds that come in spring. It's Brandy based, but I don't know how they used the buds. I would think steaming, but it has a nice green tint to it, so maybe a short maceration?

I will be trying this a few ways next spring.
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