New to winemaking, would appreciate your expertise please

[LOUBLOU1]

Hello all

I have just aquired 15 DJ's, a fermenting bin, hydrometers, heat mats, bungs, airlocks etc. Just need some bottles I think?

Any tips greatfully received and also and tried and tested recipes would be wonderful. I have rhubarb in the allotment plus a variety of other fruit and veg.

So any help much appreciated to get me started.

Oh and DH thinks Ive gone mad

Thanks

Lou

[Two_Sheds]

Browse the Juicy forum, you'll find lots of recipes

Well done with all those DJs, I'm jealous. You don't need to bottle your wine, in fact some people reckon it keeps better in DJs.

When you want to drink some, you could decant into sterilised pop bottles

[Coastie]

try this easy one

Wurzel's Orange Wine


1 litre carton Del Monte 100% pure orange juice.
1 litre carton Tesco’s pure pressed white grape juice.
1½ lb sugar.
1 tsp nutrient
G.P. yeast
½ tsp tannin
1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp glycerine
Water to 1 gallon

Desolve sugar in a pint or so of boiling water.

Stir all the ingredients into 1½ pints cold water till well mixed and aerated.

Top up to 1 gallon, check initial S.G. which should be about 1.090 and adjust if necessary.

Ferment as usual under air lock. Rack at 1.000 (or ferment to dry and back sweeten) and add 1 crushed Campden tablet plus potassium sorbate.

Clear as per usual and bottle, the wine is ready for immediate consumption but will improve with time.

Serve this medium dry wine slightly chilled. It has a pleasant fruity nose, an attractive orange tint and good mouth feel thanks to the added glycerine.

coastie

[northepaul]

I am going to try winemaking this year for the first time too - following recommendations here, I bought "First Steps to Winemaking" and "A Step By Step Guide to Making Wine" for 1p each on Amazon. (Obviously you have postage on top) I am planning on making blackberry and then sloe wine.....excited!!

[baldrick]

1 gallon of cheap apple/cranberry/grape juice, one jar of cheap honey, 1 spoon wilco strong wine yeast 1 spoon sugar or yeast nutrient. mix honey with some of the juice in a jug, chuck it all in DJ with air lock leave for 3 weeks, siphon into clean DJ, intend to bottle, drink instead. lovely clear reliable quick beginners wine to try while you are waiting for the other stuff to bubble. Costs about a fiver a gallon, slightly more for grape.....Oh and Asda do malt vinegar 13p for 500ml. We use it for hot and spicy pickles and the bottles are great for bottling wine, you get 2 small or 1 large glass each which is more than enough for a school night!

[baldrick]

Browse the Juicy forum, you'll find lots of recipes

Well done with all those DJs, I'm jealous. You don't need to bottle your wine, in fact some people reckon it keeps better in DJs.

When you want to drink some, you could decant into sterilised pop bottles

Some of us have to bottle as we have no self control........

[Ananke]

I'm starting off a couple of Wurzle's Orange today....... I'm not a big fan of white wine but I love this stuff.

[ohbeary]

May I suggest this site, Wurzel lives there, with some other odd types(guilty as charged)

http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/forum/YaBB.pl

Loublou1, you will need a few chemicals as well, nutrient, pectolase, finings, odds and sods but you will get there, it's not difficult if an idiot like me can do it to the demanding requirements of SWMBO!

Sign up and ask lots of questions, the guys and gals are very friendly and response time can be seconds....well ok maybe a few minuets or half an hour, if you post around 18:00 they will have had their tea and begun sampling and thus being in convivial mode will happily answer anything....possibly libelous! but if you don't quote me all will be well

[Two_Sheds]

Nice link OB, I've bookmarked it, thanks

[Alison]

I made my first lot of wine in years last year and found it to be a quite passable broad bean number - a tiny bit cloudy but think that's a problem it often has. Beautifully dry and very alcoholic. This year so far have some raspberry on the go bubbling away nicely and will set off some marrow when I get round to buying the oranges the recipes requires. Am surprised how easy I'm finding it after the terrible attempts I had 15 off years ago when I last tried and ended up with something which tasted like cheap sherry.

[tynenrox]

Hi people I am making my own wine and need some help. I have mixed together 4 liters of grape juice, some wne yeast, 500grams of sugger and it is now frementing. What do I need to add and what do I do next? I know at some stage I have to add some finings which I have but what else do I need once its fermented.

PLEASE HELP

[scarey55]

Hello Tynenrox, there are a lot of good books on winemaking - I use CJ Berry's book but there are loads of other inexpensive books out there. Also, I suggest that you put "how to make home made wine" into a search engine (Google or something like that) There is lots of information on there too.
Have fun!