Best Home Made Wine Advice Tips?

[wellie]

Because there's SO much knowlege out there, and it would be loverly if the knowlege that shirlthegirl and the likes of Hazel, having made their own so often now, that they could pass their best wine-making tips on to the rest of us?
A proper thread, for a proper craft.
It should be more widely practiced, with the vast array of available fruits and berries and hips on our doorstep.

I'd LOVE to learn, and I could do on my own with a book, but that would be less fun?
Who knows about Home Wine-Making, and is up for the fun of teaching the rest of us (if anyone's interested in learning besides me?)

If it's just me - I'm completely 'all ears' and your very first pupil.

So.....

[shirlthegirl43]

Wellie my dear, I am absolutely convinced you would make the most delightful wine.

If you really want to get into it, I would recommend starting with a kit wine. Everything you need comes in the box (with the Wilkinson's ones anyway) and you will be guaranteed a drinkable wine in a short time. It gives you a good feel for the various stages, but quickly enough that you don't get bored, confused or lose track of it. £20 will get you a kit to make 6 bottles of white or red (range depends on your local Wilko). If you want something a bit more spesh, go for a Beaverdale or California Connoisseur kit - they are around £40 for 30 bottles (you don't need to add sugar to them but you will need to buy the equipment seperately - about another £15) and they take a bit longer at around a month.

Also get hold of a CJJ Berry 'First Steps in Winemaking', a reference book of a similar type to Dr Hessayon's Veggie book.

For something to do 'from scratch', Hazel has posted details of parsnip and other wines, and I have posted a recipe for making wine from raspberry, cranberry and elderflower teabags (makes a truly yummy light red / rose wine)

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'd suggest going for one of the Young's wine kits (from Wilko) too - it teaches you the basic procedures, gives you something drinkable in a short space of time, and leaves you with most of the equipment that you will need.

Mind you, the batch I made didn't taste as good as the bottle I had from Shirley, but there you have it.

Once you've done that and you're ready for making country wines, you'll need yeast, nutrient, steriliser and maybe a couple of other pots of bits and bobs, but Wilko sell all that lot too (most of these under £1). Oh and you'll need a demijohn, but phone around the charity shops rather than buying new, and wine bottles, of course, but I'm guessing that they are not difficult to come by.

If you want, I can post a step by step diary (like the parsnip and the celery)of the next one that I do so that you can 'play along' too?

[pdblake]

I just use the simple method (It's all in the Wine Cellar on the website in my sig)

Simply put your fruit/veg/herbs/whatever in a bucket with sugar, pour on a gallon of boiling water, once luke warm had a packet of yeast (dried bread yeast will do) and some nutrient if you have any (whisked egg white will do for this too). Leave it for a week.

Strain it through some muslin into a demijohn. Leave for four weeks.

Rack it (take it out of the demijohn and put it back in again basically, leaving behind the cack that's settled in the bottom. Leave for another week.

Bottle it.

Try it after six months, then again after a year.

If you want you can put finings or campden tablets in both demijohn stages.

The amount of ingredients/sugar will depend on what you're making.

I know it's not by the book, but it works and it's cheap and makes some nice wines.

[Hilary B]

I just use the simple method (It's all in the Wine Cellar on the website in my sig)

Simply put your fruit/veg/herbs/whatever in a bucket with sugar, pour on a gallon of boiling water, once luke warm had a packet of yeast (dried bread yeast will do) and some nutrient if you have any (whisked egg white will do for this too). Leave it for a week.

Strain it through some muslin into a demijohn. Leave for four weeks.

Rack it (take it out of the demijohn and put it back in again basically, leaving behind the cack that's settled in the bottom. Leave for another week.

Bottle it.

Try it after six months, then again after a year.

If you want you can put finings or campden tablets in both demijohn stages.

The amount of ingredients/sugar will depend on what you're making.

I know it's not by the book, but it works and it's cheap and makes some nice wines.

I make wine by 'rule of thimb' as well.
Fruit wine, place in bucket with sugar, leave until lots of syruppy juice (24-48 hours), add boiling water (a kettleful), stir until all sugar dissolved (add second kettleful of boiling water if necessary), add cold water to make total of 6 pints added.
When cooled to blood heat, add yeast and nutrient.
After another 2 days, strain and put into demijohn.
Watch for end of ferment (may be 2 weeks, may be 8, depends on dozens of things)
Rack when clearing (ferment finished or not)
rack again when definitely finished fermenting
leave 1 more week, then bottle.
Rhubarb, mostly the same, but don't use any hot water, and strain as soon as the yeast goes in.
Flower wines are a little more complicated getting to the demijohn stage.

I wouldn't recommend quite such unscientific approach to a novice. Make at least 10 batches 'following all the rules' before you start taking liberties!

[wellie]

Wow, that's excellent advice peeps - thank you so much? I can't be the only one here thinking about other ways of preserving the gorgeous stuff we're growing. And I'm not sure how helpful a thread this would be to others, but like technology, Wellie's not 'Top Drawer' when it comes to Scientific Stuff, and needs all the help and advice she can get (!) and if anyone else reading this thread benefits from it in the same way..... well, that'd make double-bubble sense to me.

I was leaning towards the Country Wines myself? as a means to dealing with 'A Glut' of produce, and as a pleasurable hobby in the process. Trousers, being a bloke, hasn't got a clue where I'm going to find the time. And he may well be right - but that's never quite stopped me trying before now, thankfully.

So. If I thought I might want to turn any excess produce from my garden into something remotely 'drinkable' - what would Auntie Hazel or Auntie Shirley recommend that I wisely buy cheaply to set my new venture up. I have a Wilkinsons 2 miles from my door, and I'm going to need to do something with Gooseberries very very soon!

And I'm delighted that both of you have taken up the thrill of this so soon.
Your joint knowledge can teach so many of us. So if you're happy to participate, I'm dead keen to learn.

Thank You Both. XX

[shirlthegirl43]

Right, again I will advise a one week kit as it really does take you very quickly through the process of the wine brewing. You will see the ferment, stabilising, clearing all happen in a week instead of the time it will take for your country wine to do the same. You will understand the technical terms in the CJJ Berry book because you have seen them happen. I do country wines when I can but always do a Young's brew buddy kit to have something guaranteed to be enjoyable to hand if peeps come to visit.

You will need:

Brew bucket - available from Wilkinsons - around £8 for a 5 gallon one - one is sufficient but two might be easier. If you would rather make smaller quantities see below*

Long handled spoon

Hydrometer

Syphon hose

Yeast

Yeast nutrient

Campden tablets

empty bottles

Other stuff you will collect as you go along - pectolase (pectic enzyme) for some recipes, amylase for others, citric acid, tartaric acid and others that I haven't needed yet. Most is available from Wilkinsons or on ebay.

A bottle of Milton is great and easy for sterilising your equipment and bottles - it doesn't need rinsing with boiling water like some stuff (less burned fingers is good with me)

*The Youngs Brew Buddy wine kit (from Wilko) for 6 bottles in 7 days will give you two one-gallon fermenting buckets, a hydrometer and syphon tube. All those can be used again when making one gallon quantities of wine - there is no real need for demijohns (though these can be bought in Wilko too or obtained on Freecycle).

Are your goosegogs green or red Wellie? I will pop the recipe from CJJ Berry online if you let me know which.

[Gardenwitch]

This is great info thanks for sharing xx

[wellie]

Oh, and thank you pdblake and hilaryb too, it'll take me a while to get to where you two are an' all! but it's all good learning stuff.

The Goosegogs Piglet gave me cuttings of are green Shirley, and then I've got green and a red one, and the ones in my new Kitchen Garden are going to be a mystery, but probably green rather than red, me thinks, as they've been there for years....

Nice to have someone else interested too GardenWitch. Are you new to it like me, or done it before?

I shall pop into Wilko this week, and good advice on the kit front, thanks.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I was hoping to make gooseberry wine, too - but the 4 bushes at the Hill (which are desert red gooseberries - still sharp as a tack, tho'!) are all overwhelmed with mildew.

Which means that my pruning in the winter was extremely rubbish and all those scratches and swearing were in vain.

Can you wash off the mildew and still use the goosegogs for wine, or is that a really bad plan?

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'd go for the Young's kit, Wellie - it'll provide you with all the basic stuff, and you'll end up with a reasonable wine.

Of the country wines, I still think that rhubarb is the most straightforward one to start off with - assuming that you have a crown or two of rhubarb (d'you know, it was £1.75 for THREE STICKS OF RHUBARB in Sains. this week!!)

[wellie]

Gooseberry Mildew is a definite prob here too in the middle of the biggest of the bushes. And I read something by Bob Flowerdew only yesterday about wiping the mildew off, so I'll look it up for you now Angel.

Actually, I've NOT got crowns of rhubarb at the farm Haze, so I've purchased a 'perpetual' variety for use in the future (note to self: make friends with someone local who DOES have rhubarb at the moment, and swop with some Gooseberries!)

I'll try and get the Young's kit then, and see how I get on.
Pip Pip till later.
X

[wellie]

Okay, I'm more on the ball than I thought, and found the exact page with ease.

Evidently the mildew just disfigures the fruits; the whitish capping can be removed if you rub them with a soapy sponge.

Hope this helps!

[shirlthegirl43]

I now have mental images of soapy goosegogs (I hate goosegogs so it might just be an improvement)

[Hazel at the Hill]

Okay, I'm more on the ball than I thought, and found the exact page with ease.

Evidently the mildew just disfigures the fruits; the whitish capping can be removed if you rub them with a soapy sponge.

Hope this helps!

Brilliant! That is excellent news, and thank you for finding it out for me!