Hi there....looking in my freezer, i've got blueberries, raspberries,
and strawberries. Even some rhubarb. Has anyone ever made a really
crazy concoction wine using whatever you had left in the freezer? I
was wondeirng how this would work out... this multi-berry wine...
or maybe it would end up being insanity wine!????

Any thouights? recommendations...from experience?

Thanks.
Rick Vanderwal
Fremont, MI

Rick,
Been there, done that...from scratch and twice from leftover top-up. I
usually call it a Mystery red wine. Let's see, the first time it was a combo
of excess top-up from strawberries, blackberry, dandelion, and pumpkin. It
came out as a basic red wine, which tasted very nice (hard to describe
though). I did do a Rhubarb, strawberry, & blueberry combo from scratch with
what I had leftover in my freezer, it came out as a red wine with
strawberry/blueberry overtones, but you couldn't taste the rhubarb (rhubarb
usually gives in to the stronger flavors). My most recent combo (which is
still sitting and aging) was a real mix of top-up from a number of batches
rhubarb, plum, grape, apple, cherry, & strawberry. My feeling is that it
will come out as a red wine, but with a difficult taste to describe - just
your basic fruity red wine.
I chose a basic fruit recipe for a 1 gallon carboy, used 4-6 lbs of
whatever fruit I had left, and I always add 1 can of 100% frozen Welchs
grape juice to give it a bit more body. When you're walking on the wild
side, you do need to watch the amount of sugar you add so you can hit the
11-12% alcohol level. I usually start with a bit less than for a normal
fruit recipe, and add more to get the starting SG up to the 1.080-1.090
range. It's fun to see what you get, and it has always been drinkable-better
than some wines I've made from strictly one fruit, veggie, herb, or flower.
Darlene
Wisconsin

"winogeneral" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi there....looking in my freezer, i've got blueberries, raspberries,
> and strawberries. Even some rhubarb. Has anyone ever made a really
> crazy concoction wine using whatever you had left in the freezer? I
> was wondeirng how this would work out... this multi-berry wine...
> or maybe it would end up being insanity wine!????
>
> Any thouights? recommendations...from experience?
>
> Thanks.
> Rick Vanderwal
> Fremont, MI
>

Rick - Look at Lum's berry port recipe. Looks like you have most of what is
in his wine. http://www.geocities.com/lumeisenman/
Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA

"winogeneral" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi there....looking in my freezer, i've got blueberries, raspberries,
> and strawberries. Even some rhubarb. Has anyone ever made a really
> crazy concoction wine using whatever you had left in the freezer?

I've made blueberry and raspberry wines but never together . However ,
I've heard that those two do go together but not with strawberry .
Maybe blueberry and strawberry ?
Rhubarb , not sure about that one ? Might want to be careful of the
type of yeast one uses , certainly the amount of sugar.

Rhubarb is a great addition to many wines. I would not single that one
out as being problematic.

I made some lavender wine..and I found a pound bag of blueberries in
the freezer so I threw them in to add color. It's a nice shade and the
blueberries added some depth to the flavor. It's not ready yet( Only
had little taste from the hydrometer readings) but it's pretty yummy
and it smell wonderful.