Favourite things to homebrew from your garden?

[tallis]

I'm pretty interested in what people have home-brewed and enjoyed from their garden, to give me more inspiration about what to grow in my own

Currently I have dwarf apple trees, a white, red and black currant, blueberry, and raspberry -- all small and only planted last year so no fruits from them yet!

I'm intrigued by a bunch of the interesting sounding fruit bushes I've seen on some websites, like honey berry, but I don't want to waste money, time or effort in growing things that will be unproductive or not taste nice!

[burnie]

Firstly I found the Honeyberry most disappointing, I dug mine up and binned it, secondly not only fruit, but veggies make nice wine, my Dads Beetroot wine was glorious, try and find a copy of CJ Berry's home wine making book, loads of inspiration in there. At this time of year Rhubarb is at it's finest and makes a truly delicious blush rose type wine which will be ready to drink in August of the same yea.

[veggiechicken]

We used to make a lot of rhubarb, apple, sloe, plum, blackberry wines and Folly from grape vine leaves and prunings.

[tallis]

Shame about honey berry, it sounded really intriguing. And I have to say, beetroot wine sounds awful to me, but then I hate beetroot!

I have been thinking about getting a small plum tree, I'd need to get rid of the other tree in my back garden to fit one in though. Definitely going to have to get some blackberries. Not sure about rhubarb!

(I would love to have the space for a mulberry tree, but my garden isn't large and it sounds like the dwarf mulberry is very disappointing.)

[Jay-ell]

Mine aren't so much homebrew more like Gin Soaked - or brandy or rum. I find that soft fruits are great to just bung in a jar with a spirit of your choice with some sugar and just left to make a liqueur.

I can second Burnies recommendation on CJ Berries book - great ideas in there.

I've made tomato wine before. After it was allowed to mature for a year or two in the garage it no longer caused blindness and was relatively palatable.

I have honeyberries, choke berries, golden currants, pheasant berries, lingon berries (bought as smaller cheaper plants so not at full production yet). Traditional fruit like raspberries, black berries, currants are pretty reliable croppers so cash/time/space wise you'll be more productive earlier with varieties of these.

I haven't had enough time with the Saskatoons, Goji Berries, chilean guava and Dwarf Mullberries to have an opinion on them yet. I prefer to leave the Haw berries for the birds.

[tallis]

I prefer cider or wine to spirits, usually, though I'm definitely up for making my own sloe gin after having some very nice stuff in a gin bar last night

So far I (/ we) have made cider (some with natural wild yeasts, some with beer yeast, and some with wine yeast, the latter being more like apple wine than cider!), elderberry wine, nettle wine, and dandelion wine -- all from fruits/plants I or my friends have foraged. Plus we also bought elderflowers online and made elderflower wine.

Tomato wine is another one that sounds very dubious to me XD

I'll definitely get a hold of that book though

[Jay-ell]

Of course it doesn't have to be alcoholic. The same berries can be used with sugar to make a concentrate that can be diluted with water (or whatever) for a pleasant drink.

Home made blackcurrant cordial is a great way to use the excessive amount of fruit from my bushes.

[burnie]

Cj Berry said you can make wine from anything in the garden except Tomatoes, then someone bought me a book that said you can make a nice Rose type wine from them, so I did, you could put it on your chips, but you couldn't drink it, the only wine I ever made that I threw away. Beetroot wine made sweet is just like Port.

[veggiechicken]

Do you remember this thread? https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ine_62029.html

I never did have an invite to the tasting session. Maybe just as well!!

[burnie]

I might have told you this story before, I worked with a guy in Leicester back in the early 1970's, he won so many wine making competitions they made him a judge to give others a chance,
First the sensible, he told me that the finest wine you can make is Elderflower Champagne using a proper Champagne yeast.
Now the bizarre, he had a book the likes I have never seen before or since, in there was a wine made using the venom from an Adder. He also told me about a pub in Desford that had a bottle behind the bar that had lizards actually in the wine bottle(unopened just a curio), I went to the pub and sure enough there it was.