Homemade wine

Pink.

Hi LydiaSophia,

These older threads might on making wine might help to get you started:

Homemade wine from frozen fruit

Home made wine and stockists of equipment

Homemade Lager/Beer/Wine

Pink

needaspirin

Hi LydiaSophia
Pick up 2 demijohns from a car boot sale or your local Freecycle group. Buy a Brewmaker Basic red or white from Morrisons and make up 6 bottles (1lb sugar needed).
You can decant into second demijohn and store or fill spare bottles.
If you get hooked on making it you can work your way up to 5 gallon (30 bottle) batches.

pol

If you want cheap and quick, you can't go wrong with fruit teabag wine. You can brew it straight into the demi if you use concentrate, so no need for buckets, and it's ready to drink in 3-4 weeks.

try here for instructions

pol

GooeyBlob

Great thread! I've been making my own wine for several years and it's saved me thousands of pounds over this time. I recently visited HM Customs website and was shocked at the duty rates on alcohol - 8 quid on a litre of vodka for example.

Anyway, here's a very simple quick and easy recipe for a nice white wine:

1 litre of orange juice from concentrate
1 bag of sugar
1 tsp pectolase
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp cold tea from teapot (optional)

Dissolve sugar in a pan of water, then cover and allow to cool. Pour orange juice into a sterilised demi-john and add yeast, pectolase, cold tea and sugar solution. Top up to within few centimetres of top with cold tapwater, put the airlock in place, then leave in warm place for 2 months to ferment.

Hey presto, six bottles of highly drinkable white wine for about one pound fifty.

Pandora123_2

Peeejaay wrote:

Hi all,
I have been making wine for about 10 years now and the most successful one I make is Marrow & Ginger. I gave a bottle to one of my employees who used to import all his wine and he offered to buy from me at £6 a bottle! Its very easy and I'd be happy to give the recipe if anyone wants it but winemaking recipe books are easily attainable from librarys and second hand bookshops or charity shops or Amazon.
Happy Boozing!

Can you please post this recipe? Thank you

jobbingmusician

Here's another vote for the marrow and ginger recipe, please!

I've been making wine for over 20 years, as well - nowadays I only make from raw ingredients. I prefer 'PYO' ingredients such as elderberries and blackberries, but I'm quite happy to make wine from very cheap or free fruit from markets, from time to time!

Elderberries are the 'gold standard' of HM red wine, I think. A good elderberry wine can give a fine red wine, or even port, a real run for its money (at virtually no cost!) HM red wine is far less likely to give you a hangover than shop bought, unless you really over-indulge. Commercial red wines can have some VERY nasty added ingredients.

Kantankrus_Mare wrote:

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?

I wouldn't panic yet. I've had yeasts which take about a week to 'wake up' and then go on to bubble away quite happily, and produce excellent results!

Happy fermenting, everyone!

Kantankrus_Mare

Since I last posted on this thread ive acquired an allotment and have made several different wines from fruit.

Bramble. elderberry, gooseberry, and sloe.

The bramble I made in the summer........i think I got greedy and made around 90 bottles of didn't taste too brilliant when first bottled but is just starting to improve.

Guess Im impatient as Im tol it should really be left at least 9 months.

The nicest Ive made so far was a combination of bramble and elderberry which i will definitely be making again.

mmmmmmmmmm happy brewing and drinking :beer:
x

jobbingmusician

A tip to all winemakers, which I found in a book a while ago.

Collect up empty half wine bottles - you know the sort, the sort that come with expensive half bottles of wine, or sometimes the sort you get on aeroplanes (but remember you have to be able to fit a cork in the top). Bottle at least one half bottle of the wines you make. THis is the one you taste to see if the wine is ready yet - as time is a great healer, with inferior wines as well as with the heart

Sideways

Hi all,

After drinking commercial wine for years I decided to have a go at making my own. That was three years ago and my larder now holds over two hundred bottles of wine at various stages of maturation, and that obviously doesn’t include what I have already drunk! I am hooked and I would reccomend this rewarding hobby to anyone.

I only make 'wine' from fresh or frozen fruit, not kits. I am lucky in that I live in a rural area where there is an abundance of fruit waiting to be picked, all free of charge. Elderberries and blackberries represent the lion’s share of my wine stock. My family and I have a wonderful time walking around the lanes picking fruit on warm summer evenings when the fruit is ripe. I clean and freeze most of it so I will have fruit all year round.

There was an initial outlay for equipment, my most expensive outlay was for a decent, hand-held corker at £16 but much of what you need can be picked up quite cheaply, seek out your local home-brew shop, they will be happy to get you started.

I recently worked out how much it is costing me ‘per-bottle’ to produce. I reckon I have now got it down to well under £0.60p a bottle. :j
This figure should continue to fall over time as I use the same equipment.

Technically, what I make is not really wine as it is not made from grapes but I quickly learned to see it as an alternative to wine, not a replacement. I still enjoy commercial wine but tend not to buy it anywhere near as much as I used to. Also, homemade wine makes a great gift for friends and neighbours. I even have a neighbour who often ‘makes a small donation’ (selling home-made alcoholic drink is illegal without the proper licence) to my ongoing production costs in return for the gift of a couple of bottles! :T

vfairbrass

I am going to try with elderflowers from the garden - my first ever attempt this year. Any hints?
Valerie