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

nopot2pin

missychrissy wrote: »

Thanks Akom for the link to that forum. I will spend some time reading it.

I have a large family so at family get togethers quite a bit of wine consumed. Sometimes I just put a 5 gall fermenter with tap up on the worktop to use on draught. Saves on bottling which is the part I hate most. That's ok for wines best at room temp but I always bottle white and rose so that I can chill them in the fridge.
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You can get the wine bag type things, that fit in the fridge...
The smallest holds about a gallon. LINKY
I know thats only 6 bottles, but, it is much quicker and easier for family get togethers to have one or two of these around.

missychrissy

I've got one that I was given but I cannot work out how to fill it. It looks like the boxes of wine that you buy in the supermarket.

I have 4 sons, all with wives or girlfriends,as well as my parents, brother and family, and we tend to amass at my house. That's about 14 drinkers in total so you can imagine the consumption when we get together. I'm situated in the middle of the country in N Yorks and as my family live all over the country I'm well placed for hosting our special occasions.

However, my sister in law is hosting my mum's birthday get together in Co Durham in Dec so I will just be taking lots of bottles with me.

We are a close family and nobody ever tots up who spends what. We just all muck in.

Nitha

Missychrissy I've got some cartons of cranberry and welches purple grape juice to make a juice wine with. I'm going to start it after Christmas. I'm tempted to try a Ribena wine using the ready made 1l cartons.

Austin_Allegro

Nitha wrote: »

Missychrissy I've got some cartons of cranberry and welches purple grape juice to make a juice wine with. I'm going to start it after Christmas. I'm tempted to try a Ribena wine using the ready made 1l cartons.

I've heard that processed (as opposed to pure) fruit juices like Ribena don't make good wine because the additives affect the fermentation, although it might be worth a try I suppose.

I've made very drinkable wine using fruit teabags (ginger ones are nice), you just shove the whole lot (about 20 bags should do for a gallon) in a pan with sugar and let it stew, then when it's cooled put it in the demijohn and add yeast.

Austin_Allegro

missychrissy wrote: »

I have found that most wines continue to ferment, though more slowly, despite being cold, but I cannot work out why the odd one stalls especially in the summer months.

Do you use nutrient? I used to get stuck fermentations but since using nutrient I haven't had any. I was wary at first because it's a phosphate (chemical fertilizer) but it doesn't seem to affect the taste or cause headaches or anything. A big bag (for about 20 gallons of wine) only costs around £5 or so online.

Austin_Allegro

Primrose wrote: »

missychrissy - Do you have a couple of hot water bottles you could put close to your fermenting vessels and then wrap the whole lot round with a nice thick blanket of some kind? This would generate some gentle heat to keep your fermentation going. We've tried this in the past in very cold weather when the central heating has been switched off at night and that extra little bit of heat did help keep the fermentation ticking over.

I recently read 'The Colditz Story' (10p from charity shop :rotfl:) and in that the prisoners made some homebrew for Xmas. In order to keep it warm they had to keep the demijohns (which were made out of old jam tins I think) under the covers with them at night, so they couldn't turn over in case they spilled the wine...of course they were all single men so this might play havoc with the love life of a married couple...!

Nitha

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

I've heard that processed (as opposed to pure) fruit juices like Ribena don't make good wine because the additives affect the fermentation, although it might be worth a try I suppose.

I've made very drinkable wine using fruit teabags (ginger ones are nice), you just shove the whole lot (about 20 bags should do for a gallon) in a pan with sugar and let it stew, then when it's cooled put it in the demijohn and add yeast.

I think you have to boil the Ribena first, but thinking about it I've only seen recipes for cordial Ribena wine so maybe ready made doesn't work in the same way.

Teabags sound good and cheap! I have a coffee wine recipe too that I've always wanted to try.

Austin_Allegro

Nitha wrote: »

I think you have to boil the Ribena first, but thinking about it I've only seen recipes for cordial Ribena wine so maybe ready made doesn't work in the same way.

Teabags sound good and cheap! I have a coffee wine recipe too that I've always wanted to try.

Herbal teabags are excellent for quick and cheap wine. It never seems to be particularly strong - around 9-10% proof I'd guess, but it's a good everyday drink.

You can also make wine with old teabags from the teapot. It's a bit of an odd taste - like a very dry sherry - but not a bad mixer.

missychrissy

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

Do you use nutrient? I used to get stuck fermentations but since using nutrient I haven't had any. I was wary at first because it's a phosphate (chemical fertilizer) but it doesn't seem to affect the taste or cause headaches or anything. A big bag (for about 20 gallons of wine) only costs around £5 or so online.

I always use nutrient so that's not the problem. Fortunately, I've only had 2 wines cease fermenting but still havn't a clue why.

missychrissy

Nitha wrote: »

I think you have to boil the Ribena first, but thinking about it I've only seen recipes for cordial Ribena wine so maybe ready made doesn't work in the same way.

Teabags sound good and cheap! I have a coffee wine recipe too that I've always wanted to try.

I started a gall of coffee wine off yesterday. I can't fit anymore 5 gall fermenters into my boiler cupboard or I would have set off 5 galls. I got the recipe off this site though I can't remember who posted it. I'm going to try adding brandy to it and then start another gall off and use rum with that so that I can work out which one I prefer. When I bottle some of the wine fermenting in the boiler cupboard and free up some space I will try a batch of 5 galls. My Mum loves Tia Maria so I'm hoping it will be something similar and it is very cheap to make.