11 Unusual Plants To Brew Into Country Wine or Hedgerow Beer

Country wine is a wine made without grapes.  They are usually made with a fruit, vegetable or herbs and are made seasonally.  Hedgerow beers are made with foraged edible ingredients and can be pretty darn powerful home brews!  Making your own country wine or hedgerow beer can be an exciting, frugal brewing experiment for you and your friends.  Here are 11 unusual plants you can turn into a beer or a wine.

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Country wines are very popular in my English homeland.  My cousin and his wine introduced me to the “Monks wine” last year.  This wine is a fortified mead and the raspberry one went down a real treat!  Enjoying a bottle (or three) with my family reminded me about all the wonderful country wines I brewed and enjoyed with friends.  Some were amazing like my cherry wine, blackberry port or the some-what explosive elderflower sparkling wine!  Others were truly, utterly terrible like beetroot wine.  

Part of the fun with country wines is their seasonal brewing and drinking, even some fancy restaurants serve them.  They can be real fun to make with friends, especially if you forage for the ingredients then taste the brew together. The flavors you will experience in country wines are so wonderfully varied and exciting, you might even grow some of these plants to brew!  You can use a simple wine making kit or beer making kit to turn these plants into an interesting home brew!

Birch Tree

Birch can be tapped in a similar way to sugar maples here in the USA.  When the wrapped leaves appear on the tree, the sap can be gathered from trees which are at least 10-12 inches in diameter.  The sap is collected then made into wine.  A word of caution however, if the gathered liquid has an odor and color a bit like dog pee then the tree is infected with a fungus and should not be used to brew with.

Dandelion (and Burdock)

Dandelion and burdock are a very popular soda or soft drink in England, sort of like a root beer.  These two roots can be made into a more grown up drink as a beer, care should be taken however, it is a fine line between tasting good and medicinal but an interesting one to try.  Dandelions can  also be turned into a good wine to brew in the spring.

Nettles

Nettle beer is awesome.  It’s also probably super healthy since nettles are meant to be packed full of vitamins and minerals.  You will need to use stinging nettles (Urtica family) for this recipe and you need to pack some rubber gloves for foraging these!  Don’t worry, once heated in boiling water, the sting is gone!  Nettle beer is a great, light and refreshing beer perfect for having on a summer’s day.

Gorse

Photo Credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Ulex europaeus is quite invasive but usually in bloom all the time in more temperate climates.  The yellow flowers are nestled among some rather nasty thorns but the coconut scent makes some of the most unusual but delightful wines.  Gorse can be found in the highlands of Scotland (it was very abundant around Culloden (famous battle site for the final confrontation of the English and the Highland Clans in 1746 and the Jacobite uprising, for those history buffs).  They can be found in wasteland areas throughout the British Isles and in coastal areas from Virginia to Massachusetts.

Zucchini

If you planted more than one zucchini plant and you have an overabundance of zucchini can be brewed into a pretty good table wine.  You can read how to brew this wine here.  I find that this is a great way to use all those left over zucchini and you can make it your own by changing the recipe, adding a grape concentrate etc.

Quince and Persimmon

Photo Credit: Alex Loup on Unsplash

Quince are relatives of pears and when paired with persimmon in a wine can make a wonderfully fragrant dessert wine.  It is fruity, perfumed and a good one to chill.  Quince can also be added to vodka for a perfumed flavored vodka if you want to try making something a little quicker than brewing a wine.

Carrot

The humble carrot can most definitely be turned into wine and I make one every couple of years on Halloween!  The brew is pretty strong stuff and needs a lot of carrots to make!  It may be known as carrot whiskey in other parts of the world and it best if made with carrots with high sugar content.

Oak Tree

Photo Credit: Neemo Ofurhie on Unsplash

The majestic oak tree is one of my favorite trees.  My home in New Jersey was surrounded by big beautiful oaks and there were many near my childhood home.  In England, 6 pints of fresh green oak leaves and set you up nicely for a great country wine!  Oak leaves contain tannic acid or tannin which help to provide your country wine with some body and the astringent mouth drying of a dry grape wine.

Broom

Not the ones you sweep the floor with but Sarothamnus scoparius and should be carefully identified as it can be confused with the poisonous Laburnumn tree.  Broom flower wine only wants the little yellow flowers, not the green stalk or leaves attached to them.  You need about a grocery bag full of them to make a gallon batch but the delicate floral flavor has some wonderful honey notes making it quite a fancy table wine for a special date or your best mates and some posh nosh and fancy food!

Yarrow

Yarrow was once used as a bittering agent in beer before hops and has an interesting repertoire of medicinal qualities (if you’re into that sort of thing).  When it comes to brewing beer, it can be used to make a beer by replacing hops but will taste different to regular beer.  

Have you ever made hedgerow beer or a country wine?  What was your favorite?  Let me know in the comments!

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