[Nun]

have you tried buying root ginger and adding/using that as your base flavouring instead Nun? 

 

 

... it seems like adding more ginger pulp makes it go a bit sulphuric, eggy almost.
...
What's so frustrating is the initial brew smells so good with ginger root pulp.
...

 

Yes I have

 

 

The best thing I've ever brewed yet - Elderflower "champagne", earlier this year.

Delicious, as good as a £30 bottle of Veuve Cliquot, and drinkable after just 1 month.

One bottle left now.

will try & try & try to make another batch as good as that first one…..every year from now on.

 

Got plans for elderberry, cherry …..

[Up2nogood]

lol Barley wine is pretty strong,not my cup of tea though..I may make some elderberry wine,must get some champagne yeast for it though

[Bobmonk388]

I've been wanting to try this for a while right what kit do I need I want to make it using things out of my garden like raspberry and other fruit

[Nun]

Minimum kit I reckon

1x 5 gallon beer brew 'bucket' with lid
2 x 1 gallon glass demijohn with bubbler air lock stopper (charity shops are a good source)
1x bottle brush
1x brewers funnel
1x brewers siphon
Campden tablets
Yeast
Yeast nutrients
Pectolase enzyme
Sugar
Muslin cloth

Edit : grape juice - most wines need a bit of grape - tins of concentrate are fine

Trust me if you have all these to start with, you can avoid some messy horrors.

Edited by Nun, 21 July 2014 - 12:55 PM.

[Up2nogood]

As above lol

[Bobmonk388]

Thanks nun fleebay here I come

[Nun]

BTW a brewer's funnel - has a groove on the outside of the stem (so air escapes the bottleneck avoiding bubble back inside the funnel)

                                       also it has a clip in filter just in case you slip with the muslin.

 

I got one as an impulse buy and it's proven its worth about 50x over.

 

[Nun]

Quick guide to re-racking :

 

 

1) Re-racking is when you siphon a brew from one container (demijohn) to another, leaving the sediment/yeast behind

 

2) You might do this several times for wine, but usually just once or twice. The idea is help the wine purify & "clear" when the fermentation is finishing.

 

3) At the same time, you'd normally de-gas it. It might have stopped bubbling but it's still fizzy, and it won't clear easily.

 

 

Start by siphoning into another clean DJ when the air lock has almost stopped bubbling :

 

^^care taken to avoid disturbing the sediment…. when I first started, I just used aquarium air line pipe, and always ended up making a mess.

 

Here's what was left behind :

 

^^ Now it's time to wash that out, rinsing several times.  

 

Ok now we could just put the airlock in the new DJ, and label it, but as I said the wine is fizzy and needs de-gassing to clear.

So, siphon half of it back into the cleaned first DJ.

Shake the half gallon with your (clean) hand over the top.

It will really fizz up A LOT the first couple of times, let the gas out as you go along. I shake it about 10 times, let it settle, repeat.

Repeat this de-gassing for the other half gallon.

You will never get ALL the fizz out, don't worry, just get most of it.

 

Siphon the second half back into your first DJ, with the first shaken half. Replace the airlock. Done.

 

 

That's it. Clean the other DJ - always rinse them out ASAP after anything's been in them. Saves trouble later.

 

This wine can now stay in the DJ until whenever, really. I like to bottle mine as soon as it's clear, but if you've got a lot of DJs 

and you're going to drink the whole gallon at once, you never need bottle it.

[Up2nogood]

Good stuff nun, I don't leave my jar in direct sunlight though but somewhere where there is shade and I always use warm soapy water
To clean the jars then I use Milton sterilising tablets which doesn't need rinsing out which us ideal.
I also pour boiling water through the syphon tubing to clean out any bacteria before racking

[Nun]

Yep, it's stored away from the window - was just using the backlight to show the colour & cloudiness of the young wine.

 

It's blend of purple and green "cherry plums", hence the rose colour.

They're wilder, smaller, rounder, with tougher skin than dessert plums.

Following the recipe, I left them sitting in some water with campden tablets for 48 hours before adding the yeast for the first fermentation in the bucket,

because apparently they tend to make vinegar otherwise.

 

Took about 2 hours to go through them cutting the stones out, but if it's good wine I don't mind.

There's a huge supply of these nearby for next year. They're not bad to eat, just not as good as 'proper' ones.

 

I tried rosehip wine before, and that was a pain in the arse….. for a disappointing, watery result. Should've added grape juice.

This year I made dandelion flower wine and that was a worse pain in the arse, haven't tried it yet, though.

There might be a simple maxim in the making here :

 "if you wouldn't eat something, don't bother making wine with it either."    

 

….I'm sure this will annoy someone, I'm only having a laugh at myself. Dandelion flower, FFS.