unusual alcoholic brews

[Crastney]

I'm talking about fruits that can be fermented, but aren't usually, like maybe strawberries, raspberries, bananas, watermelons - these are all high sugar, high liquid content, and (imo) would be ideal candidates for squishing, juicing, and fermenting into interesting alcoholic beverages.

What do you lot of home brew experts think about this?

 

[Moley]

Raspberries are good, strawberries don't justify the expense, bananas make a useful addition but aren't that great on their own, and I would imagine any form of melon would be rather insipid.

 

[Crastney]

I think I've seen watermelon liquer - and it is sweet and has high liquid volume, so thought maybe it'd be ok, I guess the high liquid volume would lead to a low initial SG.

 

[piper]

Raspberries are good, strawberries don't justify the expense, bananas make a useful addition but aren't that great on their own, and I would imagine any form of melon would be rather insipid.

I think the best place for cheap fruit is to go to a market just before they are closing. I bought 3 punnets of strawberries for 50p each and made a really nice wine. I also bought a box of Sharon fruit for £2 - they're also known as Persimons, and I found a recipe online. Racked that one last night and it shows promise, but a little on the dry side (SG=0.988).

 

[screamlead]

Heres something you may see on UK Markets - Loquat

They are called Mushmulla here in Turkey and i have 2 trees in my garden and 3 out the back - i made some wine 2 years ago with these. They have 3 big seeds inside but are very juicy and very sweet - i used an electric juicer to gather the juice 5 ltr and added 1kg sugar fermented out to a very nice pale golden wine very drinkable. No crop last year but the fruits are already set this year so hope to make some more. Didnt add anything to it and it took ages to clear, i didnt have pectolase or pectin then but will give it a dose this year.