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Ok folks,

I've got a collection of elderberries and rosehips. Would it taste nice making a brew out of these two ingredients and if so what %age of each should I go for.

TIA
Big Al

There's certainly nothing wrong or imbalanced about the mixture, and they're both rich vitamin C sources so, if nothing else, you can make a great cold remedy. I would have thought that anything under 25% rosehips, though, and their flavour would simply be swamped by the elderberry. You'd still have a perfectly good wine but, if you've got enough, I think I'd try a 50-50 mixture first of all.

Mike

Thanks Mike.... 50 / 50 it is. I might also stick a chilli in as a surprise and blame the rosehips.....

Hi,just a question about those rosehips.
I noticed several variety's growing in my neighborhood.
Which ones are the preferred type for winemaking,the slim looking elongated ones or the bigger ones,shaped more or less like a small tomato?

Or can I use both types in a single brew?

dont quote me on this scrap but I think i remember someone on here saying that the smaller red "wild" variety are sweeter in flavour than the softer rose hips, that you can get in varoious colours, including red. Which I think are the tomoatoey ones. I have personally made rose hip syrup from orange tomatoey ones and found them very nice. So much so that I made my rose hip wine from those. I put a small amount of the smaller versions in just in case...

The small hard rosehips are dog rose (Rosa Canina),these are what kids in WW2 were paid to pick and it was made into rosehip syrup....... not a personal memory!! I think thes e have the most vit C.The big tomatoey jobs are Rosa Arvensis ( I think) thats native in the south,but not round here. I' ve got an odd memory that we used to open up the berries take out the seeds and put them down girls blouses as itching powder.......

That's not an odd memory - that's what rose hips are for (but it's the fibrey stuff around the seeds that did it).

Oh, how we laughed! Went out with one or two of them later (the girl's that is, not the rosehips).

Mike

Thanks for the advise,much appreciated.
Now let's hope for some better weather this weekend.
I've spotted a couple of promising places for a little foraging.
This may well be the last opportunity to pick some wild fruits this year,the temperature is dropping rapidly the last couple of days.

Unless someone can tell me if unripe figs are any good for a little brewing experiment?


...Hmm, bonus itching powder

scrap wrote: Unless someone can tell me if unripe figs are any good for a little brewing experiment?

Dont waste the space a figs! even the lushious ripe figs i used turned out something that is only barely drinkable. Unripe, ppppyahagh

Agreed in spades - figs and dates make wine that can only be describes as eeeeearrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

This from someone who has, in the past, drunk some pretty rough stuff and pretended it might mature well.

Mike

Right,I'll leave 'em for the...now that I think of it,nothing seems to eat unripe figs.
That should have been taken as a warning.

There is one thing that can be done with unripe figs, and that is to capture that lovely vegetal siesta-under-the-fig-tree scent in a liqueur. Take a couple of handfuls of unripe figs and a few leaves as well , cover with water and simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the water turns green and it is the strenght of a green tea. Strain, add sugar and boil to a syrup. Mix with 40% alcohol until it is palatable. I did this a couple of summers ago and it gets better with age, very nice after dinner in small glasses! (the original recipe hint was on a south-african historical brews website http://funkymunky.co.za/thirsty.html)

scrap wrote:bigger ones,shaped more or less like a small tomato?

We have LOADS of those round where I live! I didn't know what they were...I thought they looked a bit rosehip-y but I couldn't find anything online about them.
probably should have asked on here but I don't have a picture I could have uploaded...