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

missychrissy

I started off a gall of coffee wine a few days ago. Despite the low temps in my house it is fermenting vigorously.

shandypants5

missychrissy wrote: »

I started off a gall of coffee wine a few days ago. Despite the low temps in my house it is fermenting vigorously.

I made Coffee wine a few years back and its lovley.

Its a great "breakfast" wine..:D

missychrissy

Do you literally mean that you have it for breakfast?

I've just given it a stir and still fermenting vigorously. Gonna start some more next week.

I'm going to filter 7 galls of wheat wine tonight and then bottle tomorrow. 4 galls is the first ferment and the remaining 3 galls was a second ferment using the same wheat. The latter is much lighter and drier but I think more alcoholic than the first batch. If I have time I also have 2 galls of cranberry ready for filtering and bottling.

Nice_Username

I have tea wine (made from used teabags) and beetroot wine maturing in the loft - will be ready for next Christmas. Today I'll be brewing another 40 pints of real ale (Tom Caxton). I always use cheap bottled 'still water' from Morrissons (about 12p per 2l bottle) as you get a purer water with less chmicals than tap water to the results are better). Then I keep the bottles and re-use them for the beer itself when it has finished fermenting in the fermentation bucket.

Happy brewing! :beer:

missychrissy

I'm hoping to try beetroot wine this year too. What's it like? It should be a glorious colour. My only red wine is elderberry

I'm off on holiday on Monday for a few days but when I get back I have 4 galls of apple, 4 galls of cranberry and 6 galls of rosehip ready for filtering and bottling. They all taste good - I have the odd glass 'on draught' at the moment as most of my fermenters have taps - great for taking off a bit to test SG and for sampling of course.

My coffee wine is about ready for the final racking and should be about ready for bottling next month. Tasting pretty good so far and I'm going to fortify it with some brandy prior to bottling. It's a bit on the lines of Tia Maria though not quite as thick.

Nice_Username

missychrissy wrote: »

I'm hoping to try beetroot wine this year too. What's it like? It should be a glorious colour. My only red wine is elderberry

Yeah a gorgeous rich, almost luminous red! Haven't tasted it yet, I'll resist until Christmas. I like the sound of coffee wine - which recipe are you using?

missychrissy

I can't remember who posted the coffee wine recipe but it was one of the threads on this site. I'm sorry I can't acknowledge them. However, I can give you the recipe.

'For one gall:

5 tablespoons instant coffee
3 lbs sugar
1 gall hot water
yeast

Put the sugar, coffee and water (in that order) into a bucket and stir well. Cover with a cloth and keep warm. Stir daily for 3 days then add yeast, continue to stir daily and then on 7th day put in demigohn and fit an airlock. Keep in a warm place to ferment. Can add brandy or rum 2 - 3 caps brandy or 4 - 6 caps dark rum.

Costs less than £1.'

I dissolved the sugar in the water gradually on the hob and then poured it over the coffee. I did 2 1 gall demijohns initially and then 3 gall batch in a 5 gall fermenter. It ferments very vigorously, even at quite low temps, so you need to allow some space for this.

I found the 2 one gall batches were quite sweet whereas the 3 gall batch fermented very rapidly and was quite dry. I therefore added them all together. They were all started in Dec and I think they are still fermenting ( SG keeps going down) but I will be racking them off again next month and hopefully they will soon be ready for bottling.

I taste on a regular basis all of my wines. I always take a sip when I take some off to test the SG. Go on - - - try your beetroot - - I want to know if it's a good one to do. I love my elderberry and I think last years will benefit from a couple of years in the bottle. I did 16 galls in 4 batches - one was too sweet, one was too dry and the other 2 were not bad yet different. All were made to the same recipe but I'm always amazed at how different they can turn out. I tried several different blends with them until I found 3 I really liked. I love elderberry made into mulled wine - I used Lakeland's mulling wine syrup - gorgeous!

M.Holloway

Does anyone here do it?

Me and my flatmate brew at the moment using kits and a fermenter but we're thinking of getting a mash tun and doing it properly.

At the moment we're getting about 40 pints for £25

Does anyone brew their own beer from ingredients here?

i.e. what we need and what we don't who the best suppliers are etc etc

Cheers!

ormus

yrs ago now.
ive only ever done it with kits. the final product varied from really good to pretty bad.
i do know the kits these days are far better than they were 20 yrs ago.

jrrowleyws

A couple of friends brew, they would advise looking up a local brew shop and heading over for a chat. You can usually get decent deals if your starting out and will get proper advice for each piece of kit.