Topic: New to wine making

[manuel]

Help, new wine maker!!  I have been inspired by my granddad who made wine when I was a child. Quite good wine too judging by the good humour of my family when I was a young boy visiting my grandparents!

I have just got some demijohns off of ebay (been hunting for some for ages), but I seem to have missed the season for making my own wine.  Are there any wines I can start now or would I be best using a kit??? If a kit is the best idea can anyone recommend a good one??

Any advice welcome
 ???

[Delilah]

Hello manuel

You may still be able to get some apples or beetroot or try

Grapefruit Wine

8 grapefruit
1 gallon water
3lb 8oz sugar
1oz yeast

Slice grapefruit - don't peel them, but remove pips and put in bucket.  Pour over a gallon of cold water, cover and leave for 5 days, stirring daily. Then strain and add sugar and yeast.  Cover again and leave for a couple of days.  Pour in the demijohn and leave until finished fermenting then bottle.  This is a quick maturing wine and will be ready to drink in 4 months.

Or try orange wine using 12 oranges, boiling water and 2lb of sugar following same instructions as for grapefruit wine.

Don't forget - don't bottle until fermentation is completely finished or you will have exploding corks and wine all over the place.  I have fond memories of this happening to my Gran regularly she was always to keen to start drinking, don't know why she bothered with bottles really could have just drunk straight from the demijohn.

I've also got recipe for tea wine somewhere I'll try find it for you. :D

[jennym]

I just have a bucket, piece of tube for syphoning, and demijohns with airlocks.
You could still use rhubarb if you have any, but what about sloes, bramble, or crab apple?

[Derekthefox]

Or pumpkin! ! !

Or even Carrot ! ! !

Good luck anyway

Derekthefox :D

[manuel]

Thanks for the replies, some interesting ideas out there.

Grapefruit wine sounds interesting idea, and tea wine combines 2 of my favourite drinks so must be a winner. It seems from viewing this site you can make wine from almost anything. My Other Half is an a4a allotmenteer, so hopefully I will have a source of the finest organic ingredients for years to come.

How can you predict if a wine will be any good or is it just rial and error? Does it retain much of the flavour of its source material?

[Delilah]

Found the tea wine recipe for you Manuel

4 tablespoons of dry tea leaves
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
2lb 8oz sugar
1 gallon water
1/2 oz yeast

in the past I have used both Earl Grey and Darjeeling but I suppose you could try any tea leaves

Pour a gallon of boiling water over tea leaves and sugar, stir and leave to cool.  Add juice and rind of a lemon and the yeast, cover and leave for 2 days, strain and pour into demijohn.  Ready to drink 6 months after bottling.

I know it seems that you have to wait a while before you can drink these wines but once you get started, provided to continue it doesn't take long to build up a nice supply of wine. :D

[daisymay]

My Other Half is an a4a allotmenteer, so hopefully I will have a source of the finest organic ingredients for years to come.

Thats me BTW if you were curious -  better watch what I say now  :)

[Derekthefox]

Whether a wine will be any good is always going to be a subjective topic. Whether you enjoy it is perhaps more important. The wine will certain retain many of the characteristics of the source material, eg orange wine will be distinctly orange like, but that is where the similarities end. If you like red wines, then the dark berry fruits are going to yield flavours that you will probably enjoy. If you like white wines, then grapefruit, apple and rhubarb should be rather successful. Start simply and build on your knowledge and experience. If I am doing an experiment, then I will only make one gallon, but if I am making something that I am likely to enjoy, then I will make larger quantities, depending on my usage. Currently I have three gallons of rhubarb that have finished fermenting ...  two gallons of pumpkin bubbling, and two gallons of carrot ...

Hope this is enough to get you excited ,,,

Good luck!

Derekthefox :D

[Travman]

For November and December you could also try
Apricot ..
celery..
clove and ginger..
cornmeal..
hop wine..
parsnip..
sultana sherry..
ginger wine..
mixed fruit wine..
wheat wine..

and of course the so simple ..
Turbo-cider (so simple a child could make it !!)  ;)

[Debs]

I'll ask before someone else does...

What is turbo cider??

Debs

[Travman]

Turbo cider........

4.5 litres of any supermarket apple juice
yeast
pectic enzyme (optional)
.....Thats it   !!....
method
1. Fill 3/4 of the demi-john with juice
2  Add enzyme if you wish( depends if you want it very clear or scrumpy looking)
3. Add yeast
3  Place under airlock
4. Wait for vigorous foaming to die down (around 2-3 days) then top up with rest of juice
5. Allow to ferment out
6. Rack( do not stabilize if you want a sparkling cider)
7. Prime and Bottle ( plastic for sparkling)
Can be drunk within 8 weeks.....

Information.
Some supermarket juice tastes better then others - if you like the drink from the carton you should like the cider

most supermarket value juice is around the S.g mark of 1.042 giving a 5.5% drink this can be raised by adding a little sugar or honey if desired.

This drink can be bottled and primed for a sparkling cider in plastic pep bottles by adding  a spoonful of sugar and leaving in  warm place for 48hours them placing somewhere cool  to mature.

If you want it flat --fine, you can stabilise,filter and bottle in your normal way. ;)

[manuel]

Thanks everybody, all sounds great. I will get brewing soon  ;D

[AikenDrum]

Hi manuel, one of the (many) places to start is here 

www.homewinemaking.co.uk   trying to remember that recipe I used a few years ago using potatoes, barley and raisins  ..... boy did it do the business !  *sighs*    {:¬)#

P.S. welcome to the madhouse !

[STEVEB]

Im sure dad has some demijons some where!with the price increases as they are i must have a go!!

[Biscombe]

Buy the C J Berry book or google for Jack Keller, I've had some fantastic recipes from both these sources!

Jack Keller has a great pumpkin recipe, I added ginger, It was scrummy!

I've never used kits, I prefer using ingredients I grow.

There's a quick and ever so easy spiced mead recipe out there (It's sooo good I have 3 demis bubblng away with this!) It clears early and is so, so , so easy, hang on.................... here it is

http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=6114&st=0

Have fun and beware, it's just as addictive as gardening!

[dazdread]

I too am just about to start wine making, Demijohns from Freecycle and I just need to buy some airlocks/bubblers.

My question is where to buy the yeast and pectin from, are all yeasts equal.

Darren

[Baccy Man]

Most pet shops sell homebrew equipment, yeasts, acids, pectinase etc...
In some areas there are dedicated homebrew shops such as this one in Birmingham where you can also buy online. http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk I buy a lot from them & from http://www.stonehelm.co.uk


No not all yeasts are equal but to begin with you can get a general purpose wine yeast and then move onto specific strains when you gain more experience/confidence with your winemaking.
A very good source of information & recipes is:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

[dazdread]

Many thanks, hope to have a first attempt with Rhubarb shortly  ;D

[GrannieAnnie]

Has anyone mentioned the need to sanitize all the equipment to prevent all your hard work turning to vinegar?