Hawthorn Berry Wine Recipe

This is an easy hawthorn berry wine recipe, the most difficult thing is picking the hawthorn berries. Be prepared with anti-septic cream for your scratches!

Hawthorn Berry Wine RecipeHawthorn is found growing wild and as a hedging plant. If foraging for the berries do be careful about venturing onto private land as the owner may well want the berries for himself.

Never strip a tree bare or take more than you can use just because it is there. A lot of wild birds depend on hawthorn berries to get them through the winter.

Ingredients for Hawthorn Berry Wine Recipe

  • 2 to 3lbs Ripe Hawthorn Berries
  • 2 Oranges
  • 1 Lemon
  • 3lb Sugar, preferably Demerara but white granulated will do
  • 1 Gallon Water
  • Wine Yeast (A general wine yeast)
  • Yeast Nutrient

Method for Hawthorn Berry Wine Recipe

  1. Strip the berries from the stalks, a fork makes this an easier task. Wash well. If you immerse the berries in cold water for a few minutes, any hidden insects will float off.
  2. Place into a fermenting bin or wine bucket and crush a little. A traditional potato masher is ideal for this.
  3. Boil the water and pour over the crushed berries. Put the lid on the bin and leave for 7 days, stirring daily.
  4. Zest and juice the oranges and lemon, place into a large pan with the sugar and strain the liquor from the bin into the pan. Put the pulp into a muslin bag or similar and squeeze out any remaining juice to extract all the flavour.
  5. Heat the pan whilst stirring until all the sugar has dissolved and then allow to cool back down to 20°C . Pour back into the fermenting bin which should have been washed to remove any sediment.
  6. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient, allow to ferment for 3 or 4 days.
  7. Strain into a demijohn, topping up with cooled boiled water as required. Fit the airlock and leave in a warm place until fermentation has finished
  8. Rack, as necessary, and add 1 Campden tablet after the first racking to stop secondary fermentation.
  9. Syphon into bottles

This hawthorn berry wine recipe makes about a gallon of wine. Allow 6 months minimum for the wine to mature when bottled.

Posted in Country Wines
8 comments on “Hawthorn Berry Wine Recipe
  1. Mark Chaney says:

    Plenty of succulent berries this year, last years is now ready to bottle, also makes excellent mulled wine, add cloves and a pinch of cinnamon!

  2. Ron says:

    Thanks for the receipe, I’m trying it with about 9 pounds of berries now. Just not sure how much cooled boiled water to add to the demijohn, how much (if any) air space to leave on there, and how to know when to transfer it from there to bottles.

    • Stewart says:

      Thanks, this sounds very interesting. I have made Elderflower and Elderberry wines plus Cider. I’ll put together a wine making kit..

  3. Michael says:

    Never made Hawthorn berry wine myself but got one from a friend. It tasted like a rose or homemade white wine.

  4. JeannieBeannie says:

    I’m at the demijohn stage; the liquid is quite thick, and not much seems to have happened in the three days it’s been in the bin with the yeast and nutrient. I’m guessing that this will be quite a long ferment, and wondering if I should add some more yeast. Any advice gratefully received 🙂

    • John Harrison says:

      Keep it warm and it should take off. Remember yeast is exponential growth and once it builds it goes quickly – adding more is of little benefit.

      • JeannieBeannie says:

        Thanks 🙂 it did get going quite nicely, but seems to have stopped now. I’m guessing the thickness will reduce over time.

  5. Nick says:

    Do you remove the seed before you crush the fruit…?

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