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

lilbert

no recipes sorry!

My 25litres of Merlot is getting racked tonight ready for bottling when my corker arrives tommorow. Cant wait to try some! Cider and Mead are brewing upstairs merrily, starting another demi john full of cider tonight.

Tesco currently have a lot of juice on offer 3 for 2, including the value apple juice, ive bought 6 to make some more cider. makes it very affordable! (Also some red grape juice is in the offer if anyone feels brave and wants to make some wine from scratch!)

up_2_my_eyes_in_it

would you mind sharing your cider recipe, pls

Gigervamp

There's a cider recipe at the beginning of the thread.

lilbert

Gigervamp wrote: »

There's a cider recipe at the beginning of the thread.

Yeah, thats the one ive used. Its on the very first page. :beer:

thunderchild

Well I've jumped on the band-wagon! I have a DJ of cider and a ginger beer 'plant' on the go:



Not sure how well they will do as they are both cold and I thought yeast needed to be warm?????

We also bought brewers yeast from Holland and Barrett:
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=86&prodid=49&cid=269&sid=0

I have no idea if it will work? The lady in the shop said it would but then again she was after a sale! LOL. If there are no bubbles by tonight I will pop both in the boiler cupboard where its a bit warmer and if still no bubbles by tomorrow get proper brewing yeast from Wilkos.

*edit*

Well after checking on the tinternet that brewers yeast is dead yeast so I hotfootted it to Wikos and got some proper yeast. I took some of the apple juice mix out and warmed it up adding a teaspoon of yeast and added that back to the DJ. It now looks like things are happening. I completely re-did the ginger beer 'plant'.

lilbert

I put some ribena wine together but didn't have any bungs and airlocks, nor balloons for an airlock. So i just put a muslin cloth over it. For ages it didn't do anything, did a little digging on Internet and it looked like all the yeast had got stuck in a layer of syrup at the bottom, plus the lack of airlock didn't help. So i stuck some turbo yeast in, and put it in the air cupboard to try and forget about it. After 2 weeks its finally started bubbling! lol! With no airlock. So you never know It might look dead but keep it warm and give it long enough, things may start happening!

My merlot is lovely Got 22 litres of rose on the go now. First batch of cider is ready to chill in about a week. Mead is still fermenting like crazy! :eek: Its gonna be strong stuff!

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Hi all

As I am very partial to a bottle of wine (or 3 *hic*) I'm going to have a go at homebrewing. I'll prolly have loads of questions!! And here's my first: Is it OK to use screwtop wine bottles for the final decant?

Thanks

shandypants5

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Hi all

As I am very partial to a bottle of wine (or 3 *hic*) I'm going to have a go at homebrewing. I'll prolly have loads of questions!! And here's my first: Is it OK to use screwtop wine bottles for the final decant?

Thanks

Yes I do all the time.

Although you have to be SURE that the fermentation is over as a cork will usually pop out under pressure, a screwtop will not resulting in a busted bottle.:eek:

Bongedone

nopot2pin wrote: »

Wine/cider/beer will clear on its own... with time.
If you dont have time, then finings will help

You can get your cider to fizz by adding a bit of sugar (approx 1/2-1 tsp)... but you need to get the right bottles ect... so that you dont create a mini exploding bomb :eek:
I have never tried it, only read about it....so it maybe worth your while having a good look around at the other sites to see what they say.
Good Luck

You are correct. That amount of sugar will carbonate a 2l PET bottle.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

I haven't managed to read all the thread yet, but in the meantime has anyone got a good, foolsafe recipe for elderflower champagne, please?


ETA - found one, thanks