Wine recipes

[burnie]

There seems to be quite a lot of requests for wine recipes , so I thought I'd put forward "First steps in wine making" by CJJ Berry as my idea of a bible for wine makers.Sure it's been recommended before but I think it's a book you cannot be without ,both for guidance but also for inspiration.

[shirlthegirl43]

Agreed, just watch out for the sugar quantities. It is a good general guide to have a starting SG of around 1.08 and a finish of around 0.9 Some of the Berry recipes result in quite a sweet finish - experiment to find what suits you - easier to sweeten to taste after ferment has finished than to get a drier finish with too much starting sugar.

[Sanjo]

Used to do a lot of wine making and still had a copy of C.J. Berry's book and all the equipment so have been inspired by the rest of you to have another go. I was interested in his "Ribena" wine so bought a carton of what I thought was Ribena but it turned out that was just the brand name and it consists of mainly grape, pear, blackcurrant and acerola cherry. Ah well, have given it a go. Followed the instructions as per the book but was worried by the amount of sugar (3lbs) as I really do not like sweet wine. Decided in the end that if it wasn't sweet enough I could always add some sweetness later so reduced it to 2 1/2ibs. It is now bubbling away merrily in its demijohn. Got my 7 year old grandaughter to help. Goodness knows what her teachers must think of it when she mentions it at school, last week she helped me make grandad's 40 pints of bitter!! The week before it was marmalade and flapjacks.

[nick the grief]

Boots used to do a beer and wine book that is superb and my favourite is the Mixed Fruit Jam Rose