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I want to have a bash at making hedgerow wines this year. I've got a couple of books, but does andybody have a tried and tested simply-can't-fail recipe to share please?

And any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

One question ... some recipe's I have call for "brewers yeast or dried yeast" ... will dried yeast really do? (does this mean dried yeast for bread making?)

any yeast will do. you might get better results with a brewers yeast though. - less sediment, more clearing etc.

Tell us what kind of stuff you find in your hedgerows (preferably all at the same time, unless you want to freeze a lot of fruit) and I'll try and find you something. Not guaranteed to be sure-fire can't-fail, but then neither is wine from grapes.

Bread making yeast is not very alcohol tolorent and will die off at around 5-6% alcohol, a proper wine yeast will survive up to 18% alcohol. I have drunk beer and cider made with baking yeast and found them to have a very pungent yeasty smell and taste (which i admit i don't like) whereas the brews made with brewers yeast have cleared, smelt and tasted okay.

I mostly get sloes (make sloe gine, etc with that), blackberries and elderflower... I'm sure there's lots of other things, but I haven't spotted them yet.

I'll use Brewers yeast I think .... .don't like the sound of that yeasty taste!

thanks folks

Blackberries don't make great wine by themselves, but luckily come out at the same time as apples. You'll find a million or so recipes for apple and blackberry wine on the net. Don't pick all of the elderflowers because they turn into elderberries, and those make a brilliant wine comparable with the best grape versions - although you do need patience, as it takes a long time to mature to get rid of the very tannin-y taste. Having said that, making elderberry and apple (or even elderberry, blackberry and apple) is also a good idea and reduces the waiting time. Aren't apples wonderful things?

Oh, and check your elderflowers, because there are two basic kinds (the white-white ones and the creamy-white ones). Making elderflower wine with the creamy-white ones, by all reports, gives you a gallon of cat's-pee.

And very definitely use a wine yeast. It's true that our ancestors didn't have that and still made hundreds of gallons of wine - but they threw at least half of it away.

You CAN make wine from sloes, if you like having your face turned inside out. Best keep those for the sloe gin (or vodka).

Brod wrote:Bread making yeast is not very alcohol tolorent and will die off at around 5-6% alcohol, a proper wine yeast will survive up to 18% alcohol. I have drunk beer and cider made with baking yeast and found them to have a very pungent yeasty smell and taste (which i admit i don't like) whereas the brews made with brewers yeast have cleared, smelt and tasted okay.

Ive used it without too much trouble. Just rack more often and be carefull not to leave it on the lees at all. It gets to significantly more than 5-6% too! Natural selection at work methinks

Elderflower season coming up. It makes the only flower wine that is really worth making Use plenty of flowers. I reckon a plastic carrier bag full gives enough petals for about a gallon. Don't have anything to do with a recipe that uses the flower stalks - they tend to make the wine bitter. Pull the flowers from the stalks, with a gentle movement, using your fingertips - not with a fork. Try not to bruise them. Only pick perfectly dry flowers, preferably with full sun on them, and get them steeping within two hours of picking. Each bush will have flowers at different stages of ripening. Ignore those that have only just opened ( pick them two days later) and those which are developing little green fruits behind the flowers. Pick all the flowers that you can reach, on each bush, over the fortnight. Any bunches that are not easy to reach will develop fruit and hang down with the weight and come within reach.
When it's fruit picking time, strip each bush of what you can reach and leave the rest for the birds and other wild things.
We usually do about 30 gallons a year of Apple as our main White and 30 or so of Apple and Blackberry, Apple and Plum, Apple and Elderberry as our Red. Birch sap and Elderflower are the only wines that we make in small quantities. Good luck. Tell us how you get on.

at the moment i`m collecting meadow sweet ,i`ve been told it makes a lovely wine,we shall see,have done gorse, and nettle from the hedgerow,my friends have done lemon balm which tasted delicious last year,
shell

You can make country wine out of almost anything!. M'grans 1960's WI book is great for it.

Rownberry not done this
rose hip :done this, when they say smash,up hips do not blend or mince as the seeds give a bitter after taste
Sloe: great chillie and sloe wine nice bite! winter warmer
oak leaf
birchsap
golden rod
used tea leaves...yes really, plus all the usual hedgerow fruits.

check out the recipie i put on the oak leaf wine thread its so simple even i did it.

Russ