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

Tubbss

Hi

I have been asked to make a "lemon wine". I was thinking of 4l white grape juice and 2 or 3 jiff lemons, 1kg sugar and my usual yeast and nutrient. Would this work?

Zooxanthelle

So now that it's getting colder I thought I'd look up this thread once again. Nothing nicer than warm mulled homemade cider on a frosty afternoon/evening...morning.

Nitha

Hi all, wanted to revive this thread. I posted about making some wine a while back and then got pregnant - lol second time I've got pregnant whilst home-brewing! So anyway can't stand the smell of brew when pregnant so it was all chucked.

Anyway a year later decided to start again. Got two demis of juice wine and a prohibition peach schnapps kit. Also ordered a 7 day merlot so I've got some drinking matter in the meantime. I've promised myself I won't have any more babies so this time I WON'T get pregnant. Anyone got a good tea wine recipe? I've got loads of smartprice tea that I could use too.

Austin_Allegro

Nitha wrote: »

Hi all, wanted to revive this thread. I posted about making some wine a while back and then got pregnant - lol second time I've got pregnant whilst home-brewing! So anyway can't stand the smell of brew when pregnant so it was all chucked.

Anyway a year later decided to start again. Got two demis of juice wine and a prohibition peach schnapps kit. Also ordered a 7 day merlot so I've got some drinking matter in the meantime. I've promised myself I won't have any more babies so this time I WON'T get pregnant. Anyone got a good tea wine recipe? I've got loads of smartprice tea that I could use too.

I made tea wine from the recipe in CCJ Berry's book (available in all good charity shops...) but it tasted distinctly odd. It was like a very, very dry sherry. Even Mr Berry says tea wine is mainly used for blending, so it's probably best used to add a touch of dryness to another wine.

Austin_Allegro

missychrissy wrote: »

I'm looking forward to getting some elderberry wine started. I use the C J J Berry recipe but I find it is much better for keeping in the bottle for 2 - 3 years so I have to plan ahead. I did 16 galls last year but I have used approx 4 galls of that already especially for cooking and mulled wine.

I used the CCJ Berry recipe for elderberry wine (he calls it something else though, cant' remember the name, Cristingle? or is that some sort of children's church service?) It turned out very nice and was drinkable after 3 weeks.

C_Mababejive

Havent read all the postings as there are so many but great to see others are seeing the MSE value of home brew !

I'm not a big drinker but when i do have a drink,its usually wine so bearing in mind the rising cost of a decent bottle of plonk in the supermarket i decided to investigate further..!

Luckily for me there is a brewshop not far from me that has been open for decades.

I cheated a little to get the best results but so far I have been making 1 gallon Beaverdale wine kits.

These kits can be had in different volumes and types of wine and the box contained a bag of sterile grape juice and all the necessary sachets of yeast,stabiliser finings and some instructions.

The boxed 1 gallon kit will cost about £12 and produce 6 bottle of wine.

The quality is very good and i should say that it is very comparable to say a £ or £7 bottle from the supermarket.

If i blind taste tested it with some volunteers,i'll bet they wouldnt be able to pick the kit wine !

So then,at the supermarket buy 1 gallon of spring water for about £1

The plastic bottle acts as your fermenter and if you want a proper job,you drill the cap and fit a bung/airlock which are cheap.

Follow the instructions,patience is the key..it will take about a month for the first gallon to be ready so start a few off in steps to maintain a supply !

A word of warning..just be careful as with such a plentiful supply,its too convenient to drink.

The one in the pic is a white Pinot Grigo. It has been up and running for about 10 days and fermentation has ended so it is now moving on to the degassing stage.


I already have a gallon of Red Rioja in a similar vessel which has been processed and is aging a little in a cool place before tasting.

thedeckking

welshcamper wrote: »

Hello all

always wanted to try a bit of home brewing but could never justify the outlay...but in a car boot in the summer i had a bargain:j

please ignore my ignorance dont know what half these things are:o

1 brewing white tub
1 brewing white tub with a heating element at bottom
1 barrel with a tap on
biggest wooden spoon i have ever seen
bottle caps and thing to put them on
various corks
hydrometer
3 thermometers
6 airlock
loads of wine equipment (baffles me)
3 nets (for straining something:o)
and a few more items? all for £5..wow

Looks like some of the kit you've got there is for brewing beer from scratch. This is called all grain brewing. If you're interested google jims beer kit. It's got a really good forum with loads of info. A much simpler way of brewing beer is using kits, available online or at your local homebrew store. For around £15-20 you'll get 40pints of really good beer. Once again have a look at jimsbeerkit for info. However there's no reason why you can't use some of this stuff for brewing other drinks and if there's bits you don't need get them on ebay!

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I cheated a little to get the best results but so far I have been making 1 gallon Beaverdale wine kits.

These kits can be had in different volumes and types of wine and the box contained a bag of sterile grape juice and all the necessary sachets of yeast,stabiliser finings and some instructions.

The boxed 1 gallon kit will cost about £12 and produce 6 bottle of wine.

The quality is very good and i should say that it is very comparable to say a £ or £7 bottle from the supermarket.

If i blind taste tested it with some volunteers,i'll bet they wouldnt be able to pick the kit wine !

I can highly recommend the beaverdale wine kits. They're also available in 30 bottle kits for around £40, which works out better value for money. It's alot less hassle as it's about the same amount of work to brew 30 bottles as it is 6. You'll need to invest in a 5 gallon brewing bucket but these are relatively cheap and available from some wilkos, online or at your local homebrew store (LHBS). Don't just use any old bucket though, you need something that's made from foodsafe plastic.

As an even cheaper alternative I've been brewing wine from fruit juice. This has been working out at around £10-15 for 30 bottles and tastes really good. You'll need a few items that are only really available at home brew shops, but you can find these online quite easily if you haven't got a shop near you.

Here's the recipe but feel free to PM me if you give it a go and need some help:

You will need:
A 5 gallon/25litre fermenting bucket (FV) ideally with a tap or a syphon tube if not.
A big spoon
7l white grape juice
1l orange juice
1l apple juice
2-3kg sugar
Tannin
Citric acid
Yeast nutrient
Wine yeast
Stabiliser
Finings

Get your FV and pour in the white grape juice, orange juice and apple juice (they must be 'juice' and not 'juice drinks').
Add water to make it up to approx 20l in total and then mix in approx 2-3kg of sugar. Ideally you need a hydrometer and just add sugar until you get it upto an OG of 1080, but there's no reason why you can't just guess, it just means the final alcohol content could be a bit higher or lower.
Add 2 heaped teaspoons of tannin, 2 teaspoons of citric acid and yeast nutrient as per instructions on packet.
Give it all a really good mix and then sprinkle the yeast on top. The FV needs to be kept at around 20oC for fermentation to take place.
Within 24 hours the brew should be 'fizzing' away and will continue to do so for around a week, althought I usually leave it for 2-3 just to be sure.
If you've got a hydrometer you can take a reading to see if it's finished fermenting.
At this point the wine will probably be very cloudy, but don't worry!
Add the stabiliser and then the finings as per the instructions on the labels. The stabiliser will stop the wine fermenting any further and the finings will help the wine clear.
Within another week or 2 you should have a FV of something that looks like wine with a layer of sludge on the bottom.
You now need to put the wine into whatever you want to store it in. You can either use a syphon or if you've got a proper FV then get one with a tap on the front as it's so much easier. Be careful not to disturb the sludge on the bottom, but if you do then don't panic, you just have to leave it a couple of days to settle down again.
This recipe will produce a dry wine. If you want something sweeter then the simplist way is to mix in artificial sweetner (don't you sugar as it will just start to ferment again!) until you get the taste you want.
Your wine is now ready to drink, although it will taste better after a few weeks in the bottle.
:beer:

lilbert

Ive been lurking here (the forum not the thread;) ) for about 6 months and have just joined, this is my first post so please forgive me if im a bit stupid

Ive been reading this thread a lot and have got together a brewing kit. I currently have 25 litres of merlot brewing upstairs, but its a pretty idiot proof kit. Im making some cider next with tesco value apple juice as per the first post on this thread. I have 4 litres of juice, plenty of sugar, demi johns and bungs/airlocks. Also have some yeast and nutrient coming, aswell as campden tablets. Im a little confused about the purpose/use of the campden tablets i was wondering if someone could help. I know they can be used to kill off natural yeast but since im using juice i dont need this (as far as i know) and can be used to kill the fermentation process? Is that right? Also read somewhere on the net they could be used to carbonate the cider but im not too sure about this, it doesnt seem to make sense :question: When should i add the campden tablets and for what? And also do i need to get some finings?
Thanks

nopot2pin

lilbert wrote: »

Ive been lurking here (the forum not the thread;) ) for about 6 months and have just joined, this is my first post so please forgive me if im a bit stupid

Ive been reading this thread a lot and have got together a brewing kit. I currently have 25 litres of merlot brewing upstairs, but its a pretty idiot proof kit. Im making some cider next with tesco value apple juice as per the first post on this thread. I have 4 litres of juice, plenty of sugar, demi johns and bungs/airlocks. Also have some yeast and nutrient coming, aswell as campden tablets. Im a little confused about the purpose/use of the campden tablets i was wondering if someone could help. I know they can be used to kill off natural yeast but since im using juice i dont need this (as far as i know) and can be used to kill the fermentation process? Is that right? Also read somewhere on the net they could be used to carbonate the cider but im not too sure about this, it doesnt seem to make sense :question: When should i add the campden tablets and for what? And also do i need to get some finings?
Thanks

Campden doesn't actually kill off the yeast, but stuns it.
Campden added to fresh fruit, will stun the natural yeast. Then 24 hours later, add your own yeast.

You can use campden to stablise your wine/cider AFTER fermentation is complete. You will need to add one crushed campden tablet per gallon.

If you need to sweeten your wine/cider, you will have to use SORBATE, to stop the yeast refermenting the additional sugar. Most sorbates/wine stoppers state to add a campden tablet first.

Campden WILL NOT carbonate in any way !!

Sodium Metabisulphite is the powder form of campden. Made up to a 10% solution, you can use 5ml per gallon.
This can also be used to sanitise equipment.

Your kit will include finings.
And if you wish your cider/wine/beer to clear quickly, then Kwik Clear is a good choice.

There are a good couple of websites that may help you further ...
www.winesathome.co.uk
www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk

Hope this helps

lilbert

Hiya, thanks for your response. My wine kit does have the finings. I was wondering if i needed to get some for the cider?

So campden tablets after complete fermentation of cider to stabilize. Thankyou!