What i'm brewing at the moment

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Waiting for about 9 litres of blackberry "pineau" to mature. Pineau is meant to be a blend of white wine or verjus plus eau-de-vie and sugar. It is drunk as an aperitif, contains around 16 or 17% alcohol, but commercial production contains a great deal of sugar and I find it cloyingly sweet. My blackberry version is made from 8 litres of muscadet wine, 1 litre of spirit, 1 kg blackberries and a mere 250g sugar. Alcohol content should come out at around 15% and the final product should be ready in about 3 weeks after 8 weeks steeping.

After tasting, the "pink infuriator" turns out to be ready. Really packs a punch, so I shall be imbibing with caution. Nine litres bottled ready for the festive tide.

[oldfella]

5lts Done, and a another 5lts arriving in payment for the Vendage.

[merlin]

300 ish lts of Merlot & about 30 lts of Pamid.

130 ish lts of plum ready for distilling into Rakia, hic

[irigg]

just trying my blackberry alcopop and i'm very pleasantly surprised with the result
good flavour of blackberry coming through
i think i might add 1ltr of apple juice to next batch

recipe
4.5lb blackberries
250g of sugar
1 cup of strong tea
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1tsp yeast

clean fruit in usual manner
put in a bucket and give them a good mashing
add 3 pints of boiling water and 1 crushed campden tab
cover and leave for 24hrs
add pectic enzyme,sugar and yeast and ferment on pulp for 4 days
strain and place liquid into a demijohn and top up to 1gall
ferment out in demijohn
when almost clear bottle and prime with half tsp of sugar per pint bottle
place in a warm area for 3-4 days then move to cooler area
once clear drink at your pleasure

[wabbit955]

just put on a
blackberry and sloe wine
wind fall well thats what i going to call it quince apple and pear all picked from hedge rows
quince wine
and another green gage
and anothe haw just hope it good hehe

[merlin]

We have so many sloes here, is there anything I can do with them on their own?

[irigg]

sloe wine

[Maykal]

About 230 litres of white wine - actually a neighbour is doing this, I don't have enough equipment at the moment although I hope to be all set up for next year's havest. We'll split the wine when it's done.

I had about 200kg of plums which I gifted to a neighbour who helped pick them all (I say 'helped', he actually did it all, I was too busy with other marginally more important jobs...like installing electrics). I kept about 30kg for jam and the rest is going to be made into rakiu (plum brandy).

I've also got 10 litres of ginger wine in a dj (trial batch, not sure it'll turn out any good) and some mead (turned out rubbish, also my first shot at it) which I haven't long bottled.

One of my favourite tipples is cider, but sadly I've only got one small half-dead apple tree. I'm sure I can get some somewhere for next year when I hope to get myself a press. I found a scratter in the barn which can hopefully be cleaned up and made useable.

@merlin - as a rough guide, how many kg of plums going into make a litre of rakiu/rakia?

[WILDBREW]

started a Better brew Export lager kit 1.8kg makes 40 pints.

[WILDBREW]

I got 12kg of Bananas of the market for only £3.00 yesterday
so i peeled and frozen half and made two gallons of banana wine with the rest
ingredients for 2 gallons.
6kg-Ripe bananas.
2kg-white sugar.
2-cups of strong black tea(no leaves or milk)
2tsp-youngs super wine yeast compound(1tsp per DJ)
water.

[prison break fan]

WILDBREW, have you made banana wine before? It looks really easy. pbf.

[trinder]

I have recently completed the clever "morphing" exercise as advised on here (probably by MKG) ( hail Mike)) a litre of elderflower cordial into 7 litres of champagne.

[WILDBREW]

Yes very easy to make Banana wine
Method: skin the bananas put half in a pan of water and bring to a boil then simmer for 15 min,and mash to a pulp then strain and press all the hot liquid into a pan and stir in half of the sugar until dissolved and leave to cool,make two cups of black tea and leave to cool,when all the liquids are cool divide into the DJs add the pectic enzyme and super wine yeast compound,fit the airlocks and ferment for a week,the make a sugar syrup with the other half of sugar,when cool divide into the DJs and top up with cold tap water
fit the airlocks and fully ferment out.
when fermenting as stopped rack add finings rack when clear and mature for at least 6 to 12 months
ready to

[prison break fan]

Cheers for that! pbf.

[wabbit955]

put a pumpkin wine on the go this morning
could not see all that carved pumpkin go to waste