Adventures in Homebrewland (image heavy - you have been warned!)

shelley_crow

I started mine off a few days ago. I'm a bit worried, the only sugar I had in was dark brown sugar so I used that. I'm keeping the demijohn warm but it doesn't seem to be doing anything? I followed all the other instructions in the OP to the letter. Am I going to be left with funky non-alcoholic apple juice? Thanks x

purplepixi

Jastons wrote: »

I have just been reading about how to make a live yeast culture for sourdough bread and was wondering if anyone had tried making their own live yeast culture to use for homebrew?

I'd recommed you have a look at the book called "Wine Making the Natural Way" by Ian Ball, I picked up a copy from Amazon for 1p plus £2.95 postage.

He talks about making a starter bottle, you basically get a normal size wine bottle add enough yeast to ferment one demijohn add 1/2 pint of cold water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and then pour 152ml of boiling water into a cup and dissolve 2 level tablespoons of malt extract, cover and cool. Then pour into the bottle, top up waith cold water and cover the top of the bottle (don't cork it), leave for 48 hours and the yeast will mulitiply in the bottle and then when you make your wine you use 3/4 of the bottle for 1 demijohn.

Then all you do is top up the bottle with fresh lemon juice and malt extract as before and top up with cold water, and after 7 days the yeast has multiplied to the same quantity as before and you can use it again. And aslong as you keep everything clean you can keep this going indefinately.

For a more indepth description I highly recommend having a look at the book, it is most insightful!

Gigervamp

Quick question. I have some fruit in the freezer and was wondering about using it to make wine. Is there a general rule of thumb about how much sugar to use per gallon for a dry wine?

pol

It depends on the fruit. Usually it's 3-4lb fruit to 3lb sugar and it'll be dry if you let it ferment out fully. If it's apples or pears you need to double the amount of fruit.

pol

Gigervamp

Thanks pol.

shelley_crow

shelley_crow wrote: »

I started mine off a few days ago. I'm a bit worried, the only sugar I had in was dark brown sugar so I used that. I'm keeping the demijohn warm but it doesn't seem to be doing anything? I followed all the other instructions in the OP to the letter. Am I going to be left with funky non-alcoholic apple juice? Thanks x

Anybody? Is it a wasted effort?

pol

Shelley-crow, what ratio of juice to sugar did you use? I can't see what difference brown sugar makes apart from the colour. I use it often in red wines. Try giving it a good shake, sometimes does the trick.

pol

shelley_crow

pol wrote: »

Shelley-crow, what ratio of juice to sugar did you use? I can't see what difference brown sugar makes apart from the colour. I use it often in red wines. Try giving it a good shake, sometimes does the trick.

pol

Hi, I used 50g brown sugar to 175ml juice as the OP did. I've just checked again, it hasn't frothed or bubbled but it smells like it has fermented? Should I syphon off once it has settled and add the other carton of juice? Thansk for your help.

pol

You only need the leave the starter for a short time and then add to the bulk of the juice, so I'd add it all together, give it a shake and see what happens. If it doesn't work you can make another starter to try and set it off again. Let us know how it goes.

pol

shelley_crow

I tried adding the rest of the juice and shaking it but I checked it yesterday and came to the conclusion that nothing had happened.

I started off another one a couple of days ago and nothing seems to be happening there either. At first I thought it was the sugar but it may be the yeast. I have been using Youngs Super Wine yeast. It was the only yeast I could get my hands on at the time. I'm really annoyed with myself because now I have wasted 7 litres of apple juice. Would it be best to try normal dried active yeast or give up and leave it to the experts?