Homemade wine

Kantankrus_Mare

Cant believe Ive been on this site for a fair few weeks now and only just found this thread!!

I have been making my own wine for years but mainly from kit.

I tried last year to make some plum wine from scratch and wasnt too chuffed with the results but have stuck it in the loft and hopefully it will mature and taste better.

I buy my kits from a local "Homebrew " shop and although they may seem expensive..I make gallons at a time and works out at about a pound a bottle!!

Suits me!!

I also used to be a mainly white wine drinker but a friend who is really into wine introduced me to some better quality reds and now I drink both.

Might give the back to basics winemaking a go again after reading some of your posts.

Anybody ever made any with cranberry juice as i love cranberry?

bugs

Not cranberry juice but have just made "easy cider" using cartons of apple juice which seems to have gone really well, we'll be drinking it within the month I think. With cranberry juice you might want to be careful where you source it as most of the cartons are sweetened/added water and even flavourings? M&S has organic apple and cranberry pure juice, on £5 for 3 at the moment, I know, not cheap, but it might be rather nice? Can you get long life pure cranberry?

Kantankrus_Mare

would really like to know how u make cider!!!

i drink strongbow when i go out as wine is too expensive in pubs

if its not too much trouble can you tell me how you make the cider
step by step tho with amounts ta

bugs

I'm not the brewing expert in the house (chief tester, me :beer: ) but it is detailed if you click here - note though, this isn't anything fancy, just an experiment, that seems to be coming out rather well!

Austin_Allegro

Wine from solid fruit or veg rather than juice takes a lot longer to make. The thing to remember about homemade wine is that it is not a better version of shop-bought, like home made jam, for example. So don't expect Chateau Lafite on your first go. . It's decidedly 'different' and in my experience often best drunk as a mixer. But at about 20p a bottle, who cares!

Kantankrus_Mare

Just got a five gallon kit from wilkinsons and I think I did the yeast bit wrong.......its not fermenting yet after 24 hours.

Am i right in thinking if i get another yeast sachet from brew shop it will get things bubbling?

MoJo

I was reading the thread "If things get tougher" and noticed that many people say they will give up wine.
I've searched around and can't find anything about anyone making their own.
I don't make it now, but have done in the past. My mother was forever making it, from all manner of things.

I know it's not 'free' to make, because of the initial equipment, but once you have that, there are few boundaries. And I'd be willing to bet that many people have someone in their family or friends circle who used to make it and have things like demi-johns stashed away somewhere - I know I have.

So, I guess this is just an intial post to find out if anyone is making their own and if they think it's a money-saving excercise?

I know my mother found it so. Using up gluts of fruit & veg & etc.

nuttywoman

At the moment we have strawberry, pear , elderberry and blackberry on the go at various stages.We did put all our stuff in the attic but 25yr old daughter has revived the wine making lark in us.
We had a nice couple of weeks in the summer going picking the berries, also bought boxes of fruit off the market - they let you have it cheap at the end of market days or on special offers.
One of the nice things about it, is that todays kids are facinated watching the airlock bubble - my sons friends were.
I suppose it is a money saving exercise once you`ve got some ready for drinking and always keeping some on the go but the main thing is its something we can all get interested in instead of watching the tv.
I`ve noticed charity shops sometimes sell winemaking stuff what they get donated.
val

robowen

My grandad and more noteably my mum's uncle both had allotments next to each other.
Both had gluts of fruit and veg to give out to the family and also to make wine with.
Grandads contributions were good but nothing could match anything uncle jo used to produce.
Some people have the knack of things like winemaking. He used to make wine from anything you could think of. Beetroots, carrots, potatos plus all the fruit you care to mention.....all of the wine was outstanding.

After my grandad died, we were clearing all of grans things out of her flat to move her nearer home. We discovered a couple of bottles of damson wine grandad made about 15 years ago. He'd stored them in the bottom of an airing cupboard and forgot about them.

It was fitting that we all toasted grandad with his wine before we left the flat for the last time. The wine was beautiful and well matured. It was bit like a port.

I took the other bottle to work with me and told me mates I made it :rotfl: Grandad wouldn't have minded. I sold his prize winning onions to the shop across the road years earlier..telling them I grew 'em. Grandad laughed and asked how much I made :rotfl:

rob :rolleyes:

tipsychick

When you say making wine, do you mean twelve or thirteen percent proof like a standard bottle of wine, or is it more like sloe gin, etc. at thirty or forty percent proof? Sounds a lovely idea, although God knows what I'd make it from in London!

TIA