12d (edited) • Herbal Medicine
Herbal Health Wines
I was wondering if anyone in this group knows anything about or has made herbal health wines?
I am interested in making a Hawthorn Berry and Schishandra Berry Red Wine to help support my health by drinking a glass of it a day.
Hawthorn Berries were chosen as they support heart health, improve circulation, reduce blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, combat inflammation, aid in digestion, and are packed full of potent antioxidants like polyphenols, proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids.
Schishandra Berries were chosen as they contribute to better blood flow, improve heart function, enhances oxygen exhangte in tissues, helps with insomnia and palpitations, protects against myocardial infarcation, lowers LDL cholesterol, increases indurance, stamina, and energy levels, help with cognitive function by improving mental clarity, focus, and concentration, are neuroprotective, support liver detoxification, is an adaptogen that reduces fatigue, stress, and prevents cortisol-induced burnout.
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Why a wine and not an infusion (water decoction) or a tincture?
Well, the answer is threefold. I am looking into making it into a wine, as not only would the decoction extract most of the water-soluble constituents of the berries, the alcohol during its fermentation process would draw out the alcoholic constituents as well.
Also, Red Wine, when drunk as 1 cup per day, offers cardiovascular benefits due to its polyphenols, especially resveratrol, catechin, and epicatechin, which can help protect blood vessel linings, reduce LDL cholesterol, reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, and prevent blood clots.
So for me, it's about maximizing the beneficial aspects, specifically the polyphenols found within wine, hawthorn, and the schishandra.
Also, I am using this as a health tonic/drink in addition to medicine to support heart health, especially. When I utilize tinctures, which I often do, they are more medicinal in nature and less nutritive/nourishing.
It is this nutritive/nourishing aspect of wine that I am looking for.
Hope that makes sense.
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I have read some about this topic, and a lot of the recipes I find online use either fresh or frozen berries (in Australia, we can only get dried), and some of the recipes seem very weird.
Based on what I have read, the following is what I put together, but I would love for anyone who has experience in wine making to look over it and give any advice/improvements/modifications to this theoretical recipe I have put together.
Heart Supportive Wine
Ingredients:
- 10g Wine Yeast (Lalvin D47)
- 1 Organic Lemon
- 2 Organic Oranges
- 1kg and 500g White Sugar
- 4 litres of Spring Water
- 1.5 kg Dried Hawthorn berries
- 500g dried Schisandra berries
Method:
- Rinse the dried Hawthorn & Schisandra berries to remove any dust in clean spring water.
- Place in a large stainless-steel pot along with the spring water. Allow this to sit overnight covered.
- The next day, bring the berries to a boil and reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 30-40 minutes (decoction) covered, to extract the maximum number of constituents from the berries.
- Allow this to completely cool.
- Measure this liquid and if need be, top up with further spring water until 4 litres have been reached.
- Wash the lemon and oranges and remove the zest.
- Squeeze juice from the fruit.
- Add to the berry decoction the citrus zest and juice.
- Rehydrate yeast by adding it to a small amount of room temperature spring water for 5-10 minutes.
- Add Yeast and Sugar to the decoction and stir well.
- Your win should begin to bubble now.
- Add everything into a carboy and secure it with a wide-mouth water lock.
- Allow this mixture to ferment for 10 – 14 days.
- After this primary fermentation is completed, siphon this mixture into a new clean carboy through a nutmilk (paint strippers bag), leaving behind the fruit and sediment.
- Ferment this for 4-8 weeks.
- After this secondary fermentation is completed, taste the wine, and if to dry, it can be back-sweetened after stabilising it.
- Stabilise the wine by siphoning it again into a clean carboy (to ensure any sediment is left behind once again and add in 1 Campden tablet and ½ tsp Potassium sorbate.
- Optional: To back-sweeten, mix a simple syrup using equal parts sugar with spring water. down. For 4 litres of wine (1 gallon), use 100 grams of sugar (1/2 cup) to start off with. Dissolve 100g of sugar in 100 mL of water in a saucepan on gentle heat. Allow to cool completely before adding to the wine. Mix well and taste. If need be, add more simple syrup.
- Allow the wine to mature for 2 weeks before pouring it into clean wine bottles and corking.
- The wine should be ready to be consumed; aging the wine for 2 months or longer will mellow it and improve its flavour.
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Herbal Health Wines
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