Wine & beer from foraged ingredients

hardwood

Hi, I just got my gear to start brewing and plan on heading out soon to do a bit of foraging to pick up some ingredients, not really into lagers + ales so want to make some country wines and maybe some nettle beer and the like. Was wondering what other people have to say about dandelion wine, gorse wine, nettle beer and things like that? Favourite recipes? Things to look out for? Maybe some suggestions on what's in season at the moment would be good too!
thanks! - daithi

evolving_doors

Hmm elderflower all the rage in late august, seen a few threads in different fora on nettle buteditors are never encouraging
Could be wrong but everything only hinting at budding this time of year..if youre a first timer get a few kilos of apples and try cider! That'll get you ready and skilled up when the other 'fruits' appear..

or honey For some meed!

Basically anything with any sugar content in it, or else anything plus a tonne of sugar!!

Khannie

Think I will try some apple and blackberry cider when the blackberries roll around. I think that could be very tasty indeed. It would be hassle to sieve the blackberries for the juice, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it.

oblivious

Armelodie wrote: »

Hmm elderflower all the rage in late august, seen a few threads in different fora on nettle buteditors are never encouraging
Could be wrong but everything only hinting at budding this time of year.

elderflower blooms late spring to early summer, elderberry is later in the summer

sharingan

Khannie wrote: »

Think I will try some apple and blackberry cider when the blackberries roll around. I think that could be very tasty indeed. It would be hassle to sieve the blackberries for the juice, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it.

I would go with a good juice press. Even a small 1/2 litre one would be good for berries and such.

Over here, there are a few interesting breweries that have a lot of berry cider (blended with apple cider) and they are divine.

kellso81

I actually started a gorse flower wine yesterday. Just gorse flowers, sugar and lemon juice. Does about 15 litres. When we were picking the flowers they smelled lovely. Kind of vanilla with a slight coconut hint and i was getting very excited, we boiled it up and now it just smells like silage. Going to ferment it for two weeks then bottle for a couple and I'll get back to you!

sharingan

kellso81 wrote: »

I actually started a gorse flower wine yesterday. Just gorse flowers, sugar and lemon juice. Does about 15 litres. When we were picking the flowers they smelled lovely. Kind of vanilla with a slight coconut hint and i was getting very excited, we boiled it up and now it just smells like silage. Going to ferment it for two weeks then bottle for a couple and I'll get back to you!

Flowers are a bit delicate ... I wouldn't have boiled them.

Anyway, it is a good point - if you are looking to infuse anything into brew, the only thing that there is plenty of at the moment is flowers.

If you really know what you are foraging for, you might get some wild roots (e.g. dandelion root, as well as flowers). You could make a good root beer that way if you use regular spraymalt and some hops ( I plan to later in the year).

thesalamiblaa

Guys and dolls,

I folowed a nettle beer recipe from http://www.selfsufficientish.com/strongernettlebeer.htm

it is really really good, I made 20 litres by using the appropriate measures to suit, but I left it ferment for an extra 2 days as it was a still a little to boisterous for my liking......I didnt want bottle explosions!

Anyway, after racking in bottles for a week and then cooling in a fridge the end result was a refreshing slighlty grassy type ciderish beer full of fizz...delish, try it out

sharingan

thesalamiblaa wrote: »

Guys and dolls,

I folowed a nettle beer recipe from http://www.selfsufficientish.com/strongernettlebeer.htm

it is really really good, I made 20 litres by using the appropriate measures to suit, but I left it ferment for an extra 2 days as it was a still a little to boisterous for my liking......I didnt want bottle explosions!

Not a bad recipe, but the timings look a bit short to me. Always use a hydrometer to check if fermentation has stalled, especially when doing wild or semi-wild ferments. When making strong (high ABV) versions you need even more time to age or bottle condition, to let the flavours develop, otherwise they end up with a harshness that is undesirable for doing anything except getting wrecked.

Nice recipes though.

Degsy

Khannie wrote: »

Think I will try some apple and blackberry cider when the blackberries roll around. I think that could be very tasty indeed. It would be hassle to sieve the blackberries for the juice, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it.

You might need to sweeten that brew when its finished fermenting..the chances are the blackberry juice will ferment out bone dry.

Elderflower is in season now, in fact I have eight litres prepared which will hopefully start fermenting in the next day or two.

Third year doing this now, it's delicious stuff!

Wrote a little post in my blog about collecting elderflower.


I've also a demijohn of birch sap wine fermenting out (taking forever! :mad: )
Druss.

http://paddy-halligan.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/#!/druss_rua

Khannie

Nice article. I'm sold. I'm off work next week so will set about making some elderflower champagne.

Khannie

Well....I started the elderflower champagne brewing yesterday. Interested to see how it turns out. It smells great anyway.

kellso81

Khannie wrote: »

Well....I started the elderflower champagne brewing yesterday. Interested to see how it turns out. It smells great anyway.

Started one on Sunday, never done it before! Did your partner make you say an ode to the hag of the tree as well? No, must be just me then!
Anyway, I was reading somewhere that the leaves and twigs are poisonous. I threw the heads in with a lot of the small twigs still attached, should I have taken them off first?

Khannie

I think you're supposed to only put in the flowers. I "forked" mine to just remove the flower heads. The green bits are supposed to add a slightly bitter flavour if there are too many of them so if you find this to be the case, you know why. I've never done it before either though. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

edit: No odes were made. I went collecting them with the kids. They would have considered me more of a fruit loop than they already do.....

Degsy

Remove the larger leaves but stems,flowers and the occasional insect will do no harm at all!