Black Locust Wine

You may have seen our earlier post about Black Locust Jelly and our first experiences with this fiercesome tree. The second year we harvested flowers we tried our hand at wine making. It took six months to find out if it turned out halfway decent, but the wait was worth it. This delicious nectar has that fragrant perfume of the locust blossoms and works well sipped as a wine or used in various cocktail recipes. We lovingly refer to it as Boston Mountain Moonshine.

What You Need:

4 gallon-size ziplock bags filled with locust blossoms

2 gallons water

1 lemon, sliced into thin slices

1 orange, sliced into thin slices

12 cups sugar

2 packets of wine yeast

2 1-gallon vessels for fermenting (see below for options)

Instructions:

1. If you didn't strip the blossoms off the green stems when you picked the flowers, do so now. You want just the white blossoms without any of the stems.

2. In a large stock pot, add one gallon of water, the flowers, orange and lemon slices. We use our fresh well water, but if you have city water, you may want to use filtered water to avoid adding any chemical flavors to the wine. Bring this mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.

3. Let this sit for two days, giving it a stir a few times daily. After two days, strain the flowers out and return the liquid to the pot.

4. Add the sugar and bring the liquid to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool.

5. While it is cooling, prepare your two jugs. We did one gallon with an empty distilled water jug using a balloon with a few holes poked in it as a makeshift airlock, and the second gallon in a glass fermenting jug with an airlock. Both of our jugs performed well, with no noticeable difference between them once the fermenting process was done.

6. When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, fill each of the two fermenting jugs with half of the liquid. Add a yeast packet to each jug, fill the remainder of each jug with fresh or filtered water, and mix well to incorporate the yeast.

7. If you have a fermenting jug with an airlock, simply cork the top of the jug with the airlock. If you are using a balloon, slide the opening of the balloon over the top of the plastic jug and poke about five holes through each side with a small pin. This will allow the fermenting solution to "burp" out excess gas as the yeast works its magic on the sugar in the wine without bringing in anything from the outside.

8. For the first month, agigate it occasionally, then let it sit for six months. By this time, if you have used a balloon, the balloon should have stopped filling with gas, even after you agitate it. When the wine has fermented for a good 6-7 months, you can pour it out into wine bottles. We have ours ready to serve around Thanksgiving and enjoy it through the holidays and the dark winter. It brings us so much joy as we sip the wine steeped in the fragrance of summer to keep us warm in the coldest, darkest days of the year.