Is homemade wine that bad for you?

[JimmerG]

Hi all,

I brew a bit of homemade hedgerow type wine every now and again, I also brew beer and wine using kits.

Now then, whenever I mention this to people - I get the old "Ha ha you'll go blind if you drink that" followed by stories of someone's uncle who brewed his own wine and suffered hideous liver damage.

SO, is home brewed wine/beer any worse for you than commercial shop bought stuff,or is it just an old wives tale. Surely there are fewer chemicals involved, and alcohol is just alcohol - isn't it!? Maybe badly brewed wine is REALLY bad for you - I dunno

Could home brewers just drink more because there always gallons of the stuff lying around.

What do you think?

J

[tiachica]

I think this is derelict from when lead pipes were used and in terms of brewing high percentage home made whisky/vodka, etc....

[SarzWix]

Home distilled alcohol is horribly dangerous aand is one of the reasons it's against the law (apart from customs & excise getting a bit upset) to distill your own. Drinking Poteen was a bit like russian roulette because if it went wrong, yes it could make you blind and all sorts!
Brewing your own wine or beer using normal brewing yeast can't get you ridiculously high % because the yeast dies off above about 13% for wine and 7-8% for beer yeasts. I think the main danger comes from having a large quantity of 'cheap' alcohol to hand, so you might over-do it a bit.
Drinking too much is a danger whether it's home-brewed or bought

[Hilary B]

Home distilled alcohol is horribly dangerous aand is one of the reasons it's against the law (apart from customs & excise getting a bit upset) to distill your own. Drinking Poteen was a bit like russian roulette because if it went wrong, yes it could make you blind and all sorts!
Brewing your own wine or beer using normal brewing yeast can't get you ridiculously high % because the yeast dies off above about 13% for wine and 7-8% for beer yeasts. I think the main danger comes from having a large quantity of 'cheap' alcohol to hand, so you might over-do it a bit.
Drinking too much is a danger whether it's home-brewed or bought

Absolutely! It is still illegal, but a bit less risky to health (and less likely to be detected), to 'distill' by freezing out the water. The time we tried (purely to see whether it would actually work of course, and well over 20 years ago) the whole thing froze solid and we just got frozen cider, which we defrosted and then drank it unchanged from the 'fresh made' stuff.
while freeze-distilling isn't QUITE as hazardous to health as a DIY version of the commercial approach, there are still traces of the really nasty substances in there.
Quite apart from the legal aspects (which do matter), the recommendation has to be DON'T!

[mrdinkle]

Drinking Poteen was a bit like russian roulette because if it went wrong, yes it could make you blind and all sorts!

Yes, apparently if you set light to some a green flame is bad news. I am still here. ;p

[Glutton4...]

Just do it! Say ****
Everything in moderation - said my Nan

One Life, Live it - said Land Rover

Go for it.








If you live to tell the tale, you have an obligation to publish the recipes on here. OK?

[lyndap]

Cant beat a bit of home made wine...in moderation of cause.My stepdad makes the wine n we all put in requests!He made bottles of wine for favors for my sons wedding,and people were saying how good it was!!!better than shop bought stuff.

[kallista2]

Has anyone a good recipe for dandelion wine. They seem so prolific this year that hubby thought that he would have a go?
We usually do apple wine and apple and blackberry. These have been very sucessful.

[Ste `n` Mags]

Have a butchers at this:

winemaking: dandelion wines

[Hilary B]

Have a butchers at this:

winemaking: dandelion wines

The second one on there is similar to the one I used to use from CJ Berry. That was reliable!