Beer and Winemaking

doraexplorer

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=948049

this is the thread i used for making cider . its easy to follow ... hth

thanks again to mrDT for the thread x

JohnCGibbs

The fun with home wine and beer making is trial and error...start with a basic recipe then alter it, I also instead of dumping the lees after the must has been racked, but to store it in a demijohn and add other lees from additional ferments, in the end make a very nice concoction...

Austin_Allegro

Herbal teabag wine

1 kg of sugar
6-12 herbal teabags, (Cranberry and other red fruit ones work well to produce rose wine)
High alcohol yeast and nutrient
Lemon juice 2tsps

Mix teabags and sugar in boiling water and allow to cool to lukewarm. Remove teabags, pour mixture into jar, add yeast, nutrient and lemon juice, swirl around a bit, top up with cold water, add bung, leave for 3-4 weeks or until fermentation stops, bottle, drink whenever you like, pref. chilled.

You might need to add finings but I don't usually bother as I don't mind it a bit cloudy.

Costs about 20-30p a bottle and though I say so myself is better than most shop bought wines that cost around the £5 mark.

JohnCGibbs

2Cats1kidwhen you are ready to try rosehip wine, when they ripen, the guru's say you should at least wait for the first frost! This goes for damson, bullace, parsnip.
Elderberry is very good too!
Workmates of my Dad have said "Even he makes ordinary potatoe water stand up and say it's prayers" which is exactly what he did one year with a number of saucepans of potatoes that had been boiling for dinner...just add citric acid, pectin emzyne, tanin, sugar, yeast nutrient and general purpose wine yeast, gosh it was potent...those were the days!

2cats1kid

OK I won't dash out with a bucket quite yet then - should give me time to do some of that herbal wine in the meantime.

My dad was a demon wine maker. Don't remember him doing potato, but I remember elder flower/berry, dandelion, rose petal, parsnip and birch sap all plopping away at one time or another. The rose petal was like syrup, and the birch sap had you unconscious within a couple of glasses!

Ishtar

I made some mead about 18 months ago and it's just ready - will be great for Christmas methinks. It was very straightforward, just honey, water and yeast.

I'm waiting for the elderberries to ripen, then I'm going to try to make wine from those. Managed to get some brown demijohns via freecycle, so keen to give them a go. It's not quite homebrewing but I'm going to have a go at sloe gin this year - if I can find any sloes....they've been elusive for the past couple of years...

Thankfully my dad is a keen homebrewer so I can pick his brains (and raid his kit!!) if I need to. Not to mention his beer cellar, but that's another story!

D.

AussieLass

DH is going to try making some wine with this recipe. ATM we have a passionfruit vine that is producing hundreds & hundreds of passionfruit. :rolleyes:

Can anyone see the pictures as I can't which is a shame. Anyway just posting the link in case others are interested as the website is good.

exprog

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

1 kg of sugar
6-12 herbal teabags, (Cranberry and other red fruit ones work well to produce rose wine)
High alcohol yeast and nutrient
Lemon juice 2tsps

Could I just ask a few questions?

How much yeast is required?

What are 'nutrients' and how much is needed?

How much water should be used?

Thanks.

mummysaver

Oooh, hm wine, haven't done any for years, though I do have two demi johns in the garage that moved house with us, they used to have plum wine in, heaven alone knows what it is now, prob weed killer!

Going to read some threads, used to have a really lovely homebrew shop near where I grew up, but guess I might have to go online now, any recommended sellers?

Also need to have a think about where I can hide the stuff whilst it's brewing, don't want to open the garage to find ds and village teens all sampling and comparing!

meanmarie

2cats1kid,
Rosehip wine is really good, made some rather by accident about 30 years ago(long story!) forgot about it and when we found it about 3 years later it had cleared and was a beautiful amber colour, tasted really well...rather like a Tokay. Never really had the recipe so can't repeat exactly but will give it a go later on and as someone said, half the fun is the experimenting.

Am going to try some rhubarb later on...not made it but have tasted it and it makes a nice dry wine...we'll see how mine turns out!

Marie