Country Wines and Foraging

alanywiseman. · May 11, 2012

I have completed a few WOWs and a couple of tea wines and now want to get to grips with country wines. I have been looking at a couple of recipies online and am a bit confused. Why are soild materials measured in fluid units? i.e. you need 6 pints of nettles for a nettle wine or 2 quarts of dandilion petals :wha:

Secondary I want to start foraging for the ingredients. I live in a Glasgow but have spotted a few brambles growing around me (dewberries i think). However I do not know how to spot elderflowers/elderberries or damsons. I have looked on line to try and get some help but have so far been unsucessful. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction of a good book/website to help me out? Or have any tip or tricks for urban foraging?

Cheers

Moley · May 11, 2012

1). No idea. Fruit and veg is always given by weight, flowers and leaves are usually given by volume. Dandelion can be good (if we get a dry spell when you can pick them) but it can take a year or two before it's worth drinking. Pick only where dogs are unlikely to have been walkies. Nettles, pick them young and only take the top six inches or so. I don't think I've ever made it so I can't comment.

2). It will be at least a month before you will find any elderflowers, and possibly longer. Elderberries and damsons, you're looking at September / October.

charlie_mead_face · May 11, 2012

this is a great book, very detailed with good photos and includes the poisonous plants can be confused with the tasty ones
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hedgerow-River- ... 140880185X

alanywiseman. · May 11, 2012

Thanks for the reply Moley.

I just want to get a head start one finding the trees and bushes so that then the berries arrive i will be ready. I am looking to make wines that will take a year or two to mature and I now have enough DJs.

screamlead · May 11, 2012

I did a nettle last year and it turned out superb, nice colour and a mellow wine to boot!

alanywiseman. · May 11, 2012

THanks for the book suggestion Chalie, I will get it and give it a read.

How much nettles did you use for your wine screamlead?

hedgerow pete · May 11, 2012

your on a massivly steep slippery , slippery slope, i suggest that you take a dirty great big run up and join me,

for a start up wines with grapes :rofl: it will never catch on :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

i started with country wines and moved to fruit juices and no matter what i still my hedgerow wines, guess where the nick name came from, when the wife and i started stepping out, we really did go stepping out , so i could collect my dinner or a gallon of wine.

a first one and a fairly easy and quick wine isg to be either nettle and or oak leaf, both are just kicking in now so off picking we go, with the nettles forget the last post of the first 6", i would slap you if you ever picked that many :nono: :nono: :nono:

at the very top of a stinging nettle stem is a set of leaves, it is the very tip set of leaves we want no more than that tips only no stems ever !!!

i would suggest that if you start to get confused and gawd knows i did with the whole volume to weight picking try this idea, when they were writen and most hedgerow recipes are well over 40 years plus, we had no digital scales that could read very small amounts, in those days we had a pinch, today you will have 1.5gm :wha: :wha:

for a gallon of wine a carrier bag of reasonable loose nettle tops will be oknot so hard packed the handles snap with the weight but a reasonable amount, i was taught it had to be as hard as a feather pillow but no one has them any more, lol

the oak leaf is also a good starter wine aswell roughly the same amount of leaves

the only thing your are going to struggle with is the time to ferment to drinking, i was shown to do a gallon a fortnight with the odd five gallon here and there becauce what you make today you will drink in a years time, so do you have some room for some stores ?

my two house wines are rhubarb and elderberry both of which i do in five gallon lots and many many lots we do :lol:

yellafella · May 11, 2012

hedgerow pete said:
your on a massivly steep slippery , slippery slope, i suggest that you take a dirty great big run up and join me,

for a start up wines with grapes :rofl: it will never catch on :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

i started with country wines and moved to fruit juices and no matter what i still my hedgerow wines, guess where the nick name came from, when the wife and i started stepping out, we really did go stepping out , so i could collect my dinner or a gallon of wine.

a first one and a fairly easy and quick wine isg to be either nettle and or oak leaf, both are just kicking in now so off picking we go, with the nettles forget the last post of the first 6", i would slap you if you ever picked that many :nono: :nono: :nono:

at the very top of a stinging nettle stem is a set of leaves, it is the very tip set of leaves we want no more than that tips only no stems ever !!!

i would suggest that if you start to get confused and gawd knows i did with the whole volume to weight picking try this idea, when they were writen and most hedgerow recipes are well over 40 years plus, we had no digital scales that could read very small amounts, in those days we had a pinch, today you will have 1.5gm :wha: :wha:

for a gallon of wine a carrier bag of reasonable loose nettle tops will be oknot so hard packed the handles snap with the weight but a reasonable amount, i was taught it had to be as hard as a feather pillow but no one has them any more, lol

the oak leaf is also a good starter wine aswell roughly the same amount of leaves

the only thing your are going to struggle with is the time to ferment to drinking, i was shown to do a gallon a fortnight with the odd five gallon here and there becauce what you make today you will drink in a years time, so do you have some room for some stores ?

my two house wines are rhubarb and elderberry both of which i do in five gallon lots and many many lots we do :lol:

Just looking outside at our Rhubarb plants and the other way at a large bush of nettles in the field, will both take a year before they are drinkable? I am keen to try but just want to know what sort of time to a) ferment b) sit in demijohn and c) wait once bottled until drinkable, I only own 6 demi johns so losing two from my production line would be a big hit

RobWalker · May 11, 2012

you can have it in the bottle after a few rackings in probably a month, that's fermentation and then racking off the sediment. after that it's fine to age in the bottle.

ask around, see what people are growing - most people would be happy to part with a bit of crop for a bottle of wine

blackberries and sloes come out in the autumn, we get loads in the fields behind us, go for a big walk when you next get the chance and see what you can find!

hedgerow pete · May 11, 2012

rhubarb wine can be drunk in 4 months start to finish if you use a good recipe, i would say at a suggestion that with a country wine its about 2 to 7 days in a fermentation bucket depending on the extraction method two weeks to have a big bubble in the demi john and then rack first time, and then demijohn again to finish say about a month in the demi john and then we will consider the bottling so say two to three months in a demi

the one thing you have to realise is that hedgerow wines are slower to drinking stage, parsnip can go two years before its spot on, i had elderberry wine still dropping tartic cyrstals two years after i started it !

tasted great when it was ready though,

most flower wines are all very quick to drink as its a thin wine say under 5 months, tea wines happen in about 3 to 4 months start to finish,

leaves turn around in 5 months onwards,

now fruits is where it starts to get complicated, some wines say a thin apple house wine, easy to do and drinkable in 6 months a heavy almost sherry apple wine , at least two years if not more before its spot on to drink, i can do an apple and elderberry thats good to drink in 8 months and a divine red port wine, (I have a massive soft spot for port wines, and i do mean really really massive soft spot) these puppies go well past the two year mark before i start to drown my liver in them.

so most country wines about the six month to a year mark will do and the bigger stronger and or more powerfull wines two years plus,

oldbloke · May 11, 2012

Dandelion wine surprised us by how good it was. Just started this year's 2 gallons.
Prolly going after nettles this weekend if the weather's OK.

Moley · May 12, 2012

hedgerow pete said:
forget the last post of the first 6", i would slap you if you ever picked that many :nono: :nono: :nono:

at the very top of a stinging nettle stem is a set of leaves, it is the very tip set of leaves we want no more than that tips only no stems ever !!!

:lol:

I told you it was one I've never made, thanks for the tip.

hedgerow pete · May 12, 2012

hmmmmm slapping men with wet stinging nettles, that topic is deffinatly on the wrong sort of forum :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

i must meta sulf my brain one day :lol: :lol:

country wines basicly covers anything not to do with grape, now i was brought up and trained on country wines so for me they are the better wines and grape is a poor cousin , now theres a heretic statement

if you want you can buy grapes when in seasson to make your own grape wine, but with hedgerows there more fun, the look on someones face when i have given them stinging nettles to drink is great

Moley · May 12, 2012

hedgerow pete said:
country wines basicly covers anything not to do with grape, now i was brought up and trained on country wines so for me they are the better wines and grape is a poor cousin , now theres a heretic statement

I can't find it at the moment, but I think it was David on the Harris forum who told this story.

If I recall correctly he was at some exhibition or trade fair, and there was a wine tasting stand by Rothschild or one of the other posh wine houses. He went along the row and commented on every wine, the aroma, the body, and that there were hints of blackberry or gooseberry or whatever. The girl on the stand was most impressed as he had identified all the taste notes she had on her clipboard, and said he must be some sort of fine wine connoisseur. He replied that, no, he merely made country wines at around 50p a bottle.

screamlead · May 12, 2012

Yep top of the tip for nettles too, i think i used a couple of bags worth or enough to fill a normal UK bucket as per the CJJ Berry recipe. Its honking down here at the min so hopefully the nettles with shoot up in a few days so i can get another on.
Just about to do a Barley wine too - did a search online and the recipe that comes up most is CCJ Berrys one too - but just wondering its calling for amylozyme? which i cant find anywhere - is that the same as Amylase or clearzyme which i do have??

I did a search for Barley Wine an the forum fobbed me off saying the words are too common!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Moley · May 12, 2012

screamlead said:
it's calling for amylozyme? which i can't find anywhere - is that the same as Amylase

:thumb:

alanywiseman. · May 12, 2012

Thanks for all the replys :thumb:

I am really loving the idea of this slippery slope but we will soon find out what SWMBO thinks of it. Sounds like nettle wine is a good shout at the moment and I can find/identify plenty of thoughs. It seems that you need 'enough' so I geuss I will try and fill a poly bag of nettle tips.

By take ing the tip do you prevent further growth of the plant? Should you leave tips on some of them to propagate?

screamlead · May 12, 2012

LOL nope the top dont sting you so you can easily pick them without gloves on and i would think they would be considered the 'sweetest' bit rather than the raggy leaves from the bottom or where the dogs wazz on em!! Give em a good wash anyway ha ha

Thanks Moley - sort of figured it was anyway as it says on the tin it does pectin and starch but just wanted to check. :thumb: :thumb:

yellafella · May 12, 2012

Sorry if its been posted but did a search and only beer came up, does anyone have a good recipe for a quickish nettle wine? I will be freeing up a demi john this afternoon and have my bucket at the ready to collect!!

alanywiseman. · May 12, 2012

Can you freeze the nettle tips? I may not be able to collect enough for a batch in one go so would be good to freeze small batches. A quick recipe would also be great :thumb:

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