Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi
I was just preparing a mountain of runner beans for freezing and cooking when my husband walked in and suggested we make wine out of them (wine-making is his latest hobby and has already taken care of my blackcurrant and gooseberry surpluses this year (hic!)). There is a recipe for runner bean wine in his book, but we wondered if any of you have ever made it, and whether you think it is worth making.

I have made it and would advise you not to bother. It tastes of runner beans! When I first started making wines I thought, great, I can use up all my surplus produce. Oh dear me, what a mistake! I had wine that tasted of pea pods, wine that tasted of beetroot, even my huge courgettes made a wine that tasted of courgettes!! I know wine taste depends on the drinker but I really would stick to fruits and flowers and turn your extra runners into a nice chutney, or give them away!

Years ago my Dad made some runner bean wine well all i can say is the weeds on the patio were killed off so that took care of the ten bottles he made. One taste and we never tried it again.

On a brighter note i do remember the beetroot wine did seem OK but he didn't make veg wine again.

Some years ago my late husband made parsnip wine and it was lovely,he also made elderberry which was good.
Bren

Thanks - I think we'll probably give that one a miss, then!
I'm glad you mentioned parsnip wine, Bren - we were wondering about that one too, and we started off our first batch of elderberry last weekend. It's just a pity we will have to wait so long before we know if any of our brews are drinkable!

We used to be keen winemakers many years ago and tried making wine from various vegetables - although not runner beans. I have to admit that none of our vegetable wines were very successful and we rapidly decided, after wasting a lot of hard work and effort, that only wines made from fruit produced anything that was worth drinking. Elderberries produce good wine - if you're very patient. You have to wait several years to get a really good drinkable wine from them as they are very high in tannin in the early days. We found some ten year old bottles of it at the back of our garage long after we'd stopped making it and it was absolutely delicious.

Primrose wrote:I have to admit that none of our vegetable wines were very successful

You shouldn't give up till you've tried making wine from Mangelworzels. As with Elderberries, it takes several years to really reach its peak. I'd hoped to bring some to Malvern this year, but have found out that we're due to be away for this year's dates.

Primrose wrote:You have to wait several years to get a really good drinkable wine from them as they are very high in tannin in the early days.

Agreed. Of course, many of the best red wines made for laying down are initially quite high in tannins and barely drinkable at that stage. Well worth the wait though.