Not the first thing you think of making wine from, but this was inspired due to a huge glut of runner beans many years ago.
A long time ago, on peeling a huge harvest of beans to remove the stringy bits, I found I had a large amount of peelings and they had to have a better use than just throwing them on the compost heap, so I tried making wine out of them.
As it was a first go as I could not find another reference to it anywhere, I decided to go a little bit mad and use 50/50 muscovado sugar and supermarket sugar. The result was, lets say interesting. I still have a few bottles if anyone fancies trying it. It was more like a whiskey, earthy and buttery, strong and a sipper. Not the best wine I've ever made.
So, you learn from your mistakes and I had another go at brewing this unusual wine. The results were a lot better. It still has that whisky, earthy undertone, but a lot more palatable.
This recipe for this runner bean wine has an aroma of sherry, is smooth, a slight sweetness and a dryness from the tannins in the beans all topped off by a strong boozy hit. This is a warming wine.
The extra good news is that because we are cooking the runner beans and then using the cooking water, we can then eat the runner beans. I love mine with lashings of slated butter and doused in a really good balsamic vinegar.
Anyway, let's get brewing...
Ingredients
1.4kg (3lb) Runner beans
1.4kg (3lb) Sugar - 50% Supermarket (granulated) Sugar & 50% Brewing Sugar
4.5 litres (8 pints or 1 gallon) Boiling Water
Campden Tablets
Pectolase
White Wine Yeast
Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp Tartaric Acid
Equipment: (We have a fruit wine starter kit if needed for £25)
Brewing Bucket
Demi-John with Air-Lock
Siphon
Muslin or Straining Bag
Steriliser
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Bottles & Corks & Corker
Method
1 - Peel and string your runner beans
2 - Pop them in a large saucepan and add the 4.5 litres of water.
3 - Bring the pan up to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the beans are cooked.
4 - Strain the beans into a clean sterilised bucket through the straining bag and remember to keep the water.
5 - Leave the runner bean water to cool to 20°C. Pop the beans on a plate with butter and balsamic vinegar and enjoy eating while the bean juice cools.
6 - Add the sugar to the bean water and stir to dissolve.
7 - Add the tartaric acid, yeast nutrient , pectolase and stir.
8 - Take a sample and a reading with your hydrometer and keep this safe.
9 - Add the yeast and stir
10 - Loosely put the lid on and put it into a warm cupboard (20°C) for 7 days.
11 - Siphon into a clean sterilised Demi-John & pop in the airlock.
12 - Put this back into your warm place (20°C) until no more bubbles pass through the airlock.
13 - Once fermentation is complete, check with a hydrometer it should be around 0.996. Use this new reading with the original reading to work out the ABV of your wine.
14 - Rack off into a clean Demi-John add 1 crushed Campden Tablet and leave to clear.
15 - Once clear, bottle and keep for 6 months to condition.