root veg wines ++

[Brewer-again]

Just been reading through a new wine recipe book and had a surprise. If you make wine with root veg you can pour off the liquid and brew with it. But what I had not considered is you can still eat the potatoes,carrots, parsnips or whatever. You can even brew with rice water then eat the rice.

This was a bit of a revalation to me as it means you can get even more from your produce. In the past I had always poured the solids onto the garden ???

Even if you did not want to eat them straight away they can be stored as prepared and cooked veg, then use from the fridge or freezer.

[shirlthegirl43]

So juice the veggies then use the remains to eat?

[Brewer-again]

Just chop them as you would for dinner but in a bigger pan, then pour off the liquor when they are cooked and save for brewing and serve the veg, with a knob of parsley butter. MMMMM

[shirlthegirl43]

Interesting. I have a steam-juicer so would have to sort of 'half-juice' them if that makes sense.

[Brewer-again]

It is a bit of a trade off as with a steamer you are trying to keep as much flavour and vitamins etc, in the veg. Whereas if you boil them in a large pot you are expecting some of the flavour to be leached out to make your wine.

So perhaps the veg would not taste quite as good but if you had dinner with a few glasses of wine, who cares.

[shirlthegirl43]

I juiced a lot of apples with it and with the later batches, I found that if I juiced until the apples were soft (almost like mashed spud) then I got apple sauce and apple juice - RESULT. Expect I could do the same with veggies - only one way to find out!

[Flummery]

My Pa-in-law used to make a mean carrot wine - but then you had to eat carrots, carrot Korma etc for days afterwards. Doubles your value though!

[moggssue]

Do the veggies taste alcoholic???

[Flummery]

No! At this stage the roots are just boiled to extract the flavour (and sugars in many cases). The yeast is added when the liquor is cooled. THEN you get the alcohol!

[moggssue]

Hmmmph, not so sure its such an interesting idea now

More seriously, I take it you make root veg wine just the same as fruit or berry based wine?

[Flummery]

Yes - but less often now! I still maintain that the best (i.e. most like shop) wine is made from fruit. Propper wine yeasts are bred to ferment grapes so I always add a pound or so of minced raisins to a must too. Getting picky in me old age. I've supped some rubbish stuff in me time!

[moggssue]

I have a big sign in my kitchen, just under the shelf with all the wine, saying 'Life's too short to drink bad wine' .... for that very reason I havent tried making my own - but theres always a first time ....

[Brewer-again]

home produced wine is more than OK

I opened a bottle of grape and pear wine last week and it was far better than many of the cheaper grape wines I have tasted. Plus the main buzz is that :-
I planted the vine
Trimmed it for five years
picked the grapes
Then made wine with them.
Root veg always needs some fruit with it to provide body to the wine. But it is well worth doing if you have a warm corner somewhere. I brewed five demijohns of wine in the gap behind the sofa, worked really well.

[Flummery]

Got a row of demijohns in the hall, behind the kitchen door! 2 galls of sloe are looking good and the damson is just starting to drop its cloud. I love the fruit wines best.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Propper wine yeasts are bred to ferment grapes so I always add a pound or so of minced raisins to a must too.

Oh boy! Would you do that with the parsnip wine wot I will be starting this weekend??