Has anyone tried homebrewing to save money

Nordman

Recently there was a sale on at wilkinsons and a homebrew kit for 6 bottles of white wine (including equipment) was on offer for £10. So i thought i would have a go and its now bubbling away in my spare room. Has anyone tried these kits before and do they offer value for money longterm?

cyclonebri1

Nordman wrote: »

Recently there was a sale on at wilkinsons and a homebrew kit for 6 bottles of white wine (including equipment) was on offer for £10. So i thought i would have a go and its now bubbling away in my spare room. Has anyone tried these kits before and do they offer value for money longterm?

Bet you don't wait 'til it's ready:D:D

You can make wine out of virtually anything organic, get a recipe book, you'll be amazed.

System

I do it - you definitely save money and its always interesting! some kits are better than others, I usually get them from brewuk (or at least read the reviews on there)

rustyboy21

Just be ready for a really bad head and hangover in the morning !

Been there, got the Tshirt ! lol

anotherbaldrick

Nordman wrote: »

Recently there was a sale on at wilkinsons and a homebrew kit for 6 bottles of white wine (including equipment) was on offer for £10. So i thought i would have a go and its now bubbling away in my spare room. Has anyone tried these kits before and do they offer value for money longterm?

Yes Once.. Did it indoors in the dining room , soon after starting fermentation I found I was getting hit by a wet jet as I walked around the room . Finally tracked it down to a pin size hole in the vessel.

Leif

My mother used to brew wine from kits. It was drinkable, albeit not what you would call a good wine, but it had alcohol in. When I was a kid, a school friend brewed beer from a kit. We drank some, and my skin came out in large red blotches.

cyclonebri1

The most adventurous wine I made was Birch Sap Wine, it's in all the old recipe books.

Basically you can only collect the sap from a birch tree the middle 2 weeks in March in a normal year
This is when the sap is rising at it's best.
Select a tree min 10" in dia, drill a wine cork sized hole through the bark and layer below, this is the ring that the sap rises up.
Drilled cork will collection tube into a gallon container and ity should be full in about 2 days, then you deal with it as most other wines.

Wine kits?, :eek::eek::eek:bah, they are for wimps;)

RockPaperScissors

We were going to buy the same kit!

Going back to get the large beer brewing barrels soon!

We already make our own sloe gin and alcoholic ginger beer and we'll be starting the elder flower champagne in a couple of weeks - it's amazing how much money you can save and it definitely helps to stock pile for special occasions like Christmas! We also give home-brewed alcohol to family as presents with our own labels etc.

Give it a try! The kits are really easy and they have everything you will need at Wilko!

SailorSam

I make wine with the flavoured tea bags, much cheaper than the tins of syrup you can get.

cyclonebri1

SailorSam wrote: »

I make wine with the flavoured tea bags, much cheaper than the tins of syrup you can get.

Tea wine is 1 of the best and easiest, loads of cold tea, bag of sultanas and some sugar, drop in the yeast and bingo.

The kits are of course fine, but the real fun apart from drinking the stuff is in making wine from ingredients you probably wouldn't expect to be drinkable.


Just a point, this thread would probably be better placed in the old style saving section?

greyteam1959

I have been brewing my own beer & wine for several years now.
Always have loads on the brew.
Don't listen to anyone that tells you the kits are cr*p.......they are so good now that you can't tell the homebrew from the shop bought.
If you brew using fruit etc you might get some funny brews tho !!
Headaches ????......rubbish you only get them after drinking that horrible Fosters & the like.
Buy a Beaverdale wine kit....middle of the road pricing, brew it up bottle or bag it leave it for a couple of months & you have a superb wine !!
Best price for Beaverdale kits is here
http://www.creativewinemaking.co.uk/
If beer or lager is your thing then have a go at those kits.....the are superb these days.
HTH