Your favourite wine and using canned fruit

[redser]

Just wondering what people think makes the best wine? I have rhubarb and raspberry on the go but that's it from this year's crop. But I want to keep brewing and have read that canned fruit can make good wines too. So to get the practise in I'm going to try some. Any recommendations? (I know it's cheating using canned fruit and not home grown).
Thanks!

[Kleftiwallah]

Just gorra be Elderberry. Why buy stuff for winemaking, when the hedgerows are growning with stuff?

Cheers, Tony.

[redser]

Thanks Tony. Been looking around for good foraging spots but coming up with nothing really. Would love to find some elders for the flowers and berries, so the search continues. Plenty of brambles by the roadsides but have read that's a no no. Most land around here is privately owned so not much going on.
Still think the canned-fruit based wines could be good. It's a small investment for a nice return. I will be drinking it afterall

[rustylady]

Rather than tinned fruit, why not use fruit juice?

[Kleftiwallah]

If a farmer is actually willing to tell you which are his fields! I should just head down a convenient bridleway and pickaway. I should love to take such a matter to court when these 'persons' seem to be able to plough up rural pathways with impunity.

Cheers, Tony.

[redser]

Well the problem is there arn't many paths or walkways left. There was an old Victorian hospital nearby that had a derelict walled garden. Hundreds of ancient trees with all the fruits you could imagine. But they locked it up and the days of hopping over orchard walls are gone for me
I didn't consider using fruit juice RL. I just got a book from the library and it had a chapter about using tinned fruit. But thanks, I'll look into that.

[kernowyon]

My best one to date was a Kiwi wine, got the fruit from A**a at 10p a punnet reduced, but the worst part was peeling 5lbs of them!

we have an old convent near us that has been part developed into flats but the far end of the very overgrown plot is full of different types of plums, gage and mulberries, bad year this year but previous years have made some great jams and wines.

[veggiechicken]

I have a friend who makes the most disgusting 3 week peach plonk with a tin of peaches. Be warned

[redser]

Thanks Kernowyon! Must keep an eye out for bargains

Three weeks VC! I think I can last longer than that. Peach sounds nice. I'll have 2 Demijohns free soon. So it's peach aaaaaaand ... kiwi maybe?

[zazen999]

Well the problem is there arn't many paths or walkways left. There was an old Victorian hospital nearby that had a derelict walled garden. Hundreds of ancient trees with all the fruits you could imagine. But they locked it up and the days of hopping over orchard walls are gone for me

That's nice of them! Campaign to get it open again even if it's once a year for a harvest. Makes your blood boil doesn't it?

On the topic of wines, I use either reduced fruit [if I can't find any for free], or smoothies make a nice wine, really fast to ferment, and once filtered even look good! Or the fruit tea bag wine. But the cheapest has got to be elder; 20p a bottle [£1 for the sugar, elderberries free, yeast and pectolase cost pennies and that makes 6 bottles]. So if you can find any elderberries at the moment, that's really your best bet for really cheap wine.

Or there is ribena wine, jam wine [all those jars that start to clag up the cupboards...now you know what to do with them]...

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Kernowyon! Must keep an eye out for bargains

Three weeks VC! I think I can last longer than that. Peach sounds nice. I'll have 2 Demijohns free soon. So it's peach aaaaaaand ... kiwi maybe?

I'm really not sure about the peach, redser. maybe, given time it would be drinkable..........

[redser]

Thanks zazen, great advice and ideas. I'll have to keep searching for elders. It seems to be a real delicacy used in lots of stuff.
It's not all bad on that hospital. It's always been a mental hospital and has been run into the ground over decades. They're gradually closing it and the site will be for the new national mental hospital. Dont know how the trains will cope all the traffic. Anyway the local transitions towns group have created plans for renovating the garden and keeping it going as a community garden. They've been in talks with the council so fingers crossed they are successful and they have an elder or two

VG, time eh? Like a couple of years? Ok, I'll keep pondering ...

[Two_Sheds]

plans for renovating the garden and keeping it going as a community garden.

Have you volunteered your services yet? Seems only fair, if you want to scrump

My currant* faves:
- elderberry
- raspberry
- fruit tea bag



* see what I did there?


Get yourself a copy of this A Step by Step Guide to Making Homemade Wine: Amazon.co.uk: Judith Irwin: Books from your library, it's the best one I've used. Lots of ideas for cheap one, good ones, award winning ones, using varied ingredients (even coffee and tea).

ime, fruit juice wines have been awful ~ thin and nasty tasting

[mrswadders]

Hi Zazen
how would you go about making wine from jam/jellies, quantities I mean?, have got quite a few bits lurking

cheers

[zazen999]

Jam 3lb
Sugar 1 1/2lb
Water up to 1 gallon
Chopped Raisins 1/2lb
Citric acid 2 tsp
Pectolase 1 tsp
Yeast 1 tsp
Yeast nutrient 1 tsp
Tannin 1 tsp
Campden tablets
Pour boiling water over jam in bin
Leave to cool, add pectolase, acid and a campden tablet
Leave for 24hrs
Add raisins, tannin, sugar, yeast and nutrient
Leave for 5 days
Strain into demi-john
Ferment until S.G. 1.000
Rack and add campden tablet
Store for 6 months
Bottle when clear
Drinkable after 3 month