Has anyone tried homebrewing to save money

goodmorningsunshine

Oh, I remember ......the grapes, potatoes?? the heated tray, the sterilising bottles, the funnel and tube for decanting into wine bottles, the fancy corker and personalised labels.

Every year, birthdays, fathers day and christmas - I knew what I was buying as gifts.

My old boss gave it a go as well, he came up with Banana and raisen wine, but just dont look into the bucket if your feeling off colour !!!!

Potent - you could say that.

SailorSam

brewboy wrote: »

Looking forward to moving onto wines, bought a cellar 7 Shiraz kit from my local supplier in Northern Ireland Geterbrewed.Looking forward to trying it, apparently you get 30 bottles of wine for £29.99 so its gotta be worth a try. Has anyone had success with brewing this wine kit?

Have a go with flavoured tea bags it works out cheaper than the kits. Probably 10 t-bags to the gallon.

cyclonebri1

Have to agree with the thumbs down to the kits, it is each to his own when it comes to home winemaking, but given it's mooted here on a :money::money: site, the use of readily available materials has to be forwarded.

So many recipe books and most of the raw ingredients in the kitchen cabinet or on there way to the bin make it my no brainer.

The wine is genuinely better in most cases when natural ingredients and guide book recipes are followed, imho of course.;);)

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Our latest brew is 5 gallons of elderberry, with a bag of raisins. Picked and made in Sept; and already finished. Being drunk now. I suspect it was the incredibly warm weather as it usually takes three months not one.

27col

I used to make beer and wine years ago. But I gave up because I was drinking far too much during the process. Now I drink very little, perhaps a can a day, and feel much better for it.

cyclonebri1

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Our latest brew is 5 gallons of elderberry, with a bag of raisins. Picked and made in Sept; and already finished. Being drunk now. I suspect it was the incredibly warm weather as it usually takes three months not one.

Bet that's funky Ribena:D

But seriously, less than 2 months is, in my view of course, far to short a time to let the flavours age correctly?, but must say if it tastes ok then....................;);)

cyclonebri1

27col wrote: »

I used to make beer and wine years ago. But I gave up because I was drinking far too much during the process. Now I drink very little, perhaps a can a day, and feel much better for it.

If I could only drink it as fast as I could make it, I would feel a whole lot better:D:D:D


This is another reason for proper homemade wine rather than kit stuff, think of the health and green reasons for getting out foraging, (foraging in Tesco's aside that is):o:o;)

brewboy_2

I never heard of making wine from tea bags, do you have a recipe? What sort of % does it turn out?

cyclonebri1

brewboy wrote: »

I never heard of making wine from tea bags, do you have a recipe? What sort of % does it turn out?

Jumping in on the other posters toes, tea, or any other similar additive does not add to strength. It simply adds tannin, (bite or flavour to you or me).


The strength in amy wine comes from the fuirt sugars used and sugar added when acted on by a yeast thet can withstand a certain strength concentration of alcohol.

To put that another way, wine yeast stop working at the point the alcohol stops them. To get super strength wine you need specific yeasts.

And tea wine gets it's sugar or in your words "strength" from the added sugar and sultanas or raisons,

brewboy_2

I made the wine kit and it was ready in 7 days although I only got 27 bottles out of it and not 30, the wine tastes fantastic,really chuffed that I made it as good, much better than my usual bottle from the shop at a fiver ish. This worked out at £1.11 per bottle