Here I go!

[Jelliebabe]

Just "won" a Wine making kit on Ebay

I got it quite cheaply and it contains most of what I need to get started! Large white bucket and spoon some pectalose - fruit acid? - campden tablets x2 plastic demijohns, hydrometer, airlocks corks and the icing on the cake 2 CCJ Berry books! I've probably missed a coupla things of the list but not to shabby for £20 + postage!

Can't wait to get stuck in!!! Woohooo ... hic!

[Hilary B]

Pectolase is the stuff you use to remove the pectin from the fruit. Pectin is good in jam (makes it set) but bad in wine (can cause hazes etc), and pectolase 'digests' it. (bit of science anything with 'ase' at the end is an enzyme that breaks down some compliated stuff into simpler stuff)

[Jelliebabe]

Thanks Hazel - Certainly dont want a haze in the wine - only after it!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Just some yeast & nutrient and you're on your way, JB.

What are you going to do first?

[Jelliebabe]

Well I have just been reading a certain parsnip wine thread...

I guess it may be a rhubarb wine however! YUM

YEP yeast and nutrient also in the kit!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Well I have just been reading a certain parsnip wine thread...

Teehee! Well done if you ploughed through the whole thread! Remember to use amalayse not pectolayse if you are doing parsnip wine (CJJ says to use pectolayse at one point, and amalayse at another...)

Rhubarb is easier than parsnip, I reckon - if there isn't a step by step rhubarb wine thread on here (can't remember now), there is on my blog.

[Headfry]

Teehee! Well done if you ploughed through the whole thread! Remember to use amalayse not pectolayse if you are doing parsnip wine (CJJ says to use pectolayse at one point, and amalayse at another...)

Rhubarb is easier than parsnip, I reckon - if there isn't a step by step rhubarb wine thread on here (can't remember now), there is on my blog.

Yikes.....went out last weekend to localish 'brew' shop to get Amalayse after reading the parsnip wine post and the wine making shop person said it did not matter if you used pectolayse or amalayse ????? I have pectolayse.....fingers crossed for my first tempt at parsnip wine - I am worried now.
Also going to try Rhubarb wine - bought some 'precipitated chalk' - goodness only knows what I am to do with that. To take away the acidity of the rhubarb I was told though he was vague about quantities to use??? its all ?????'s with this wine making lark, its like bee keeping thats all ????'s
Not a fan of CJJ would love a new writer to come along and re work some of the recipes to something more modern with step by step guides!!

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'm not a chemist, but I wouldn't have though that the two were the same - one combats a starch haze (breaks down starch) and the other breaks down pectin.

In for a penny, in for a pound, can't see that it would do any harm to bung in a spoon of both!

No idea about precipitated chalk - my rhubarb wine doesn't call for it.

[Hilary B]

Pectolase is certainly not the same as amylase, does a totally different job (as Hazel said). Suspect person in brew-shop doesn't know as much as they think they do!

[Headfry]

oh dear...... have read all Hazels parsnip wine posts.....hmmmm I could be brewing parsnip sink cleaner by the look of it - lol

I will have another go later this year as I have just planted another 32 parsnips!!! Why oh why? There are but two of us! ....we can not eat that many parsnips!!!! and I still have two rows left in the ground

I did look at an old recipe for parsnip wine- it said this.....

'don't throw away the water when your boil parsnips (guess no salt added) freeze the water until you have enough - use this to make your parsnip wine' ????
The parsnips would have been peeled by most (inclding me) so does it really make a difference if peeled or scraped? scraping must damage the cells as much a peeling ????
Goodness I really dont know very much about all this - gulp, plenty of time to learn

[Hazel at the Hill]

I did look at an old recipe for parsnip wine- it said this.....

'don't throw away the water when your boil parsnips (guess no salt added) freeze the water until you have enough - use this to make your parsnip wine' ????
The parsnips would have been peeled by most (inclding me) so does it really make a difference if peeled or scraped? scraping must damage the cells as much a peeling ????
Goodness I really dont know very much about all this - gulp, plenty of time to learn

I don't fancy a freezer full of a gallon of parsnip water!

I scrub my parsnips rather than scrape or peel - seems to do the job. I've got this year's parsnip wine on the go as we speak - I reread the CJJ recipe before I started and realised that I've been using 3lb of parsnip per batch before, and it's actually 7lb that I should be using!

So I scrubbed and chopped the parsnips and boiled up in a gallon of water in the maslin pan for about half an hour. Strained the water onto the sugar with the citric acid THEN you boil it all up again for another 3/4 hr, then leave overnight to cool and add amalayse/yeast nutrient/yeast.

Leave it in a bucket for a few days, stir every day, then transfer to a demijohn & put in an airlock in a warm room. When it has stopped (obviously) fizzing, I'll take it up into the cool attic room until it's cleared in a couple of months.

[Headfry]

Hazel, any idea why you have to boil it for 3/4 of an hour please?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hazel, any idea why you have to boil it for 3/4 of an hour please?

No idea - I thought that it seemed like a waste of time too!

But it's in the book, so I did it!

[Headfry]

I really dont know how this parsnip wine will turn out, I seem to have a bucket of dull mustard- yellow water, that smells sort of parsnip like, and that 'fizzes' when I stir it 'from the bottom' ????
Wont give up on it - goodness knows what the end result will be......fun guessing though!

[Hazel at the Hill]

I really dont know how this parsnip wine will turn out, I seem to have a bucket of dull mustard- yellow water, that smells sort of parsnip like, and that 'fizzes' when I stir it 'from the bottom' ????
Wont give up on it - goodness knows what the end result will be......fun guessing though!

That's exactly what mine's like at the moment!