The advantages of home brewing when you fancy a cheap tipple

shazzle

cool.... will go and buy harris superyeast and nutient, is wine tannin ok? and how much yeast/nutrient? I assume a lidded bucket will be ok? how long the whoosh last? demi john how long? Sorry if I sound dumb xx thanks xx

mr2jay

shazzle wrote: »

cool.... will go and buy harris superyeast and nutient, is wine tannin ok? and how much yeast/nutrient? I assume a lidded bucket will be ok? how long the whoosh last? demi john how long? Sorry if I sound dumb xx thanks xx

OK, I tend to not go for the first stage of fermenting in a bucket first - I usually go straight to Demijohn but I only fill 2/3 of the way up to allow for frothing. Bear in mind that if it is in a sealed bucket, you will be building up pressure which is not a good thing.

Bubbles seem to start passing through the airlock within the hour and it generally takes 2 days to settle down, where I fill the demijohn up to the shoulder.

In the demijohn, the time taken depends on what you are brewing. All you need to do is to watch the bubles and when they stop passing through, you have hooch. Almost everything I have brewed though has improved considerably if left for at least a month in the bottle prior to drinking

Using wine tannin is fine - a strong black tea is just a more natural way to introduce it to the brew

edit - Sorry, just read it completely - buy the wine yeast in sachets to begin with and dump the lot in. Sure, it is meant for a 25l bucket but they will sort themselves out

shazzle

Is this any good? Do I then also need nutrient? I am slowly getting it xx Thank you for being here ..

mr2jay

Sorry, can't see what you are trying to show

mr2jay

This is the yeast I buy

http://www.simplynatural.org.uk/acatalog/Champagne-Yeast-by-Youngs.html

And yes, you will need either yeast nutrient

http://www.simplynatural.org.uk/acatalog/Yeast_Nutrient_by_youngs.html

Or a handful of sultanas (Does the same job )

shazzle

Sorry it was vinkwik by Harris.. I have a great shop located near home that have loads supplies (Homewinemaking in Gornal).. I am slowly taking it all in.. thanks for your patience x

mr2jay

No problem - it can be disheartening when your first attempt fails...

By learning how it happened, you can learn. I am sure you'll be producing some mighty fine booze before too long

FireWyrm

Well, my Rose wine is done and I'm ready to rack into a clean Demi john. I could resist a specific gravity reading and this of course meant a little taste...I'm a little worried though, it tastes very dry, does anyone know how to sweeten wine and if so, how much for a demijohn? The ferment has stopped bubbling so I'm about ready to add the stabiliser now. The apricot is also looking nice.

I have another idea, a variation on the tea idea above. I have some amaretto fruit infusion tea from Whittards, actual whole spice and fruit. I don't like it much as a hot drink, but I recon it might make a nice infusion for wine making purposes.

The mead has stopped bubbling but everything I've read says thats entirely normal and not to worry. Ill probably rack that out in about two weeks and leave it to sit for a while.

mr2jay

With sweetening, you don't sweeten the demijohn

Get some wine sweetener like so

http://www.simplynatural.org.uk/acatalog/Youngs-Wine-Sweetener.html

This is placed in each bottle before you rack it to sweeten each bottle. I have some sat there ready fro the Raspberry as that is going to be pretty tart fresh out the demijohn

mr2jay

So, this weekend I ended up being uber-creative

I have finally nailed my label designs for the final bottles for the hampers. We have decided that the current batch of rhubarb won't be good come Christmas as I forgot to stabilise the wine prior to bottling it. This is an important step as it stops the wine continuing to ferment, eventually oxidising the wine. This is what happened to my first batch.

So, we have 2 bottles ready for the hampers, looking good. Need to bottle the Merlot and the Blueberry and Apple tonight (both for personal consumption) before starting my Christmas Cherry and Cinnamon wine for the hampers