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

gayleygoo

Elderberry wine can taste pretty awful for the first year or even two! It's best left for a couple of years and matures very well if you can bear to wait that long!

Sunset gold, I've not tried the Wilkos kits but I've heard they're okay, you do get what you pay for with wine kits. With some aging it should certainly be a drinkable wine. I've always considered "wine" sugar to be unnecessary unless you're making beer - beer is more affected by different sugars, white sugar can give off "fruity" notes which can be unwanted in beer but perfectly fine for wine and cider, so I normally use cheap granulated sugar for those.

Have you ever tried a fruit juice wine using 2 cartons of fruit juice and a bag of sugar? Let me know and I'll post the recipe, it's very easy, tasty and comes out at less than 50p per bottle.

sunset_gold

gayleygoo wrote: »

Elderberry wine can taste pretty awful for the first year or even two! It's best left for a couple of years and matures very well if you can bear to wait that long!

Sunset gold, I've not tried the Wilkos kits but I've heard they're okay, you do get what you pay for with wine kits. With some aging it should certainly be a drinkable wine. I've always considered "wine" sugar to be unnecessary unless you're making beer - beer is more affected by different sugars, white sugar can give off "fruity" notes which can be unwanted in beer but perfectly fine for wine and cider, so I normally use cheap granulated sugar for those.

Have you ever tried a fruit juice wine using 2 cartons of fruit juice and a bag of sugar? Let me know and I'll post the recipe, it's very easy, tasty and comes out at less than 50p per bottle.

Hi Gayleygoo, thanks for your reply and the tip about wine sugar, will defo use cheap granulated from now on (don't intend to go down the beer road).

Yes please would you share your recipe/technique for fruit juice wine, which juice would you recommend for a dry wine drinker?
Thanks again SG

[Deleted User]

I am on the last pre-bottling stages of my 2 x 1 gal beaverdale kits. The wines are really lovely. I just heard about the world grape failure so have ordered several 5 gal kits to put by. They are ken ridge this time, up a notch from beaverdale. Fantastic value per bottle

I cannot always be bothered to make my own from scratch even though I have a freezer full of suitable fruit

S0litaire

Holy necro thread batman!

Just getting that it of the way as I resurrect this thread...

Anyone else doing home brew?

I just picked up a wilcos home brew wine kit and looking forward to having a nice cheep bottle or 6 of Chardonnay for the summer BBQ's

Dizzy_Ditzy

I'm gonna get some gooseberry sparking stuff on the go in the next week or so :beer:

[Deleted User]

I have just ordered some champagne yeast to make a batch of elderflower champagne. May have to get more sachets as it's very popular and I know friends will want a bottle or two . Also got a kit to make a strawberry wine and a peach wine. I have also read that you can make wine from tinned fruit!

S0litaire

drinkupretty wrote: »

I have just ordered some champagne yeast to make a batch of elderflower champagne. May have to get more sachets as it's very popular and I know friends will want a bottle or two . Also got a kit to make a strawberry wine and a peach wine. I have also read that you can make wine from tinned fruit!

Careful with tinned fruit, some may contain preservatives which can kill of the yeast before they get to making the alcohol

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Just a quick question, I have bought a couple of kits when they were on offer, one of which is a Chardoney - I,m not keen on oaky whites - is there any way I can not add the 'oak' pack or use only a bit of it.

Not a problem if not as have many winey friends who would love some for Christmas

S0litaire

Islandmaid wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a quick question, I have bought a couple of kits when they were on offer, one of which is a Chardoney - I,m not keen on oaky whites - is there any way I can not add the 'oak' pack or use only a bit of it.

Not a problem if not as have many winey friends who would love some for Christmas

Depends on the kit, I think the 7 day kits use the oak chips to give the wine flavour, as it's is not got time to develop naturally.

The 30 day Chardonnay kit I've got didn't have the oak chips.

What was the make it the kit?

Islandmaid

S0litaire wrote: »

Depends on the kit, I think the 7 day kits use the oak chips to give the wine flavour, as it's is not got time to develop naturally.

The 30 day Chardonnay kit I've got didn't have the oak chips.

What was the make it the kit?

It's a Winebuddy 7 day kit, bought it at tesco for £8 in sale, so not a huge loss if it doesn't,t work

Thanks for getting back to me