Willow Wine

I know what your thinking, your thinking "What the hell is this guy doing? He's making a mockery of homebrewing!"
Your probably right, but oh well.  I do have a good reason for this though. Willow contains salicylic acid which is the main part of aspirin. Also my wife @Sidheherbal makes Tinctures out of herbs and grain alcohol. I figure if I can brew a wine out of the herbs then maybe that would be cheaper (and I would get to brew more often).

I decided to go with a simple willow bark wine to start with (because we are running out of the tincture). I boiled 3 ounces of willow with 2 gallons of water for 30 minutes, then transfered that to the carboy. I then made a simple sugar solution of 1 gallon of water and 7 lbs of white sugar. To make the solution just heat until it becomes clear. I then put that in the carboy.

I wanted to use the troob of the pine wine since it was still a little active and I was transferring that to a secondary but I don't think it was quite enough so I also pitched in (two days later) the saved troob from the volcano mead and the apple cider I had made earlier.

I made this on New Years Day.

I tasted it today, there is a faint alcohol smell under the bitter earthy smell of the willow. There is no alcohol taste and it is still way to sweet, I also cannot taste the willow in it as strongly as I thought I would but maybe it will come out later after it ferments out some.

So it's Tuesday march 1 and I have learned another lesson, even if a "wine" seems to be stuck at 1.022 for two weeks, it probably isn't. I had bottled this about 2 1/2 weeks ago and its carbonating nicely. I did not mean to carbonate it but it's doing it. I have lost one bottle, but it may have been bottle fatigue or cracked earlier I'm not sure what happened.

As for the taste it is wonderful. it could be a little dryer but it is still very good. the willow taste is even less than prior but so is some of the sweetness. The smell is still the same as prior.