What i'm brewing at the moment

[wabbit955]

just put on the go
apple wine
wild yellow plum wine
raspberry wine
peach wine
apircot wine
all sitting in kitchen bubbling nicely
going to put on some more fruit beer today
got a big stock of fruit in freezer need to run down before summer

bottled up lemon verbena wine other day and tasting very good
ginger was good to great in a drop of whisky hehe

[WILDBREW]

Just started
ingredients makes 2 gallons
1lt-strawberry ribena.
1lt-5 alive tropical fruits blend.
1lt-ocean spray blueberry juice.
2lt-red grape juice.
2kg-sugar.
1tsp-ritchies wine yeast(per DJ)
1tsp-yeast nutrient(per DJ)
water.
Method: make a sugar syrup with half of the sugar then leave to cool,then divide all the fruit juices &
grape juice into the DJs and add the divided sugar, yeast & nutrient fit the airlocks and ferment for a week
then make a sugar syrup with the rest of the sugar when cool divide and add to the DJs and top up with cold
tap water to the neck of the DJs,fit airlocks and fully ferment out.
Note: when fermenting as fully stopped rack and mature for at least 6 months.

[prison break fan]

WILDBREW Do you invent these recipes? pbf.

[WILDBREW]

Hi pbh
this is one of the recipes i invented

[prison break fan]

I've made several of your recipes, nothing ready to sample yet, time will tell!!! pbf.

[WILDBREW]

I have been making wine for over 30yrs
and every one i make taste very nice, i do not have to tip any down the sink.

[Skippy]

The only thing I've ever had to tip away was a potatoe wine that smelt like pigswill and tasted awful too. Other than that I've been successful, fruits , flowers and root vegetables and even wild yeast have all come out drinkable.
Recently I racked of a couple of demijohns that have been sitting for a least a year and possibly more. I can't be certain as the labels have "disappeared" and I'm not 100% certain what they are , mixed friut I think.
Anyway as I said I racked them with the intention of bottling. However, they were really dry and as we prefer a sweeter wine I added sugar only to find a little later that they had started to ferment again.
Other than that I've got 3 gallons of apple and a gallon of plum on the go.


Pete

[WILDBREW]

Hi skippy
if your wine turns out dry,add 5 or 6 sweetex to the DJ after you rack
just dissolve them in a bit of boiled water,i do it all the time if the wine turns out dry.

[GeorgeSalt]

Even after sitting so long you've forgotten what they are, it's a good idea to stabilise before backsweetening. Unless your going the non-fermentable sweetener route.

[Skippy]

To be honest I've had wines that have taken yonks to ferment out and brews that have restarted but haven't had any problems in the long term. It may be that I should keep them warmer , two gallons that I have in the kitchen are fermenting more vigorously than the others in the utility, luckily though I can be patient.
Thanks for the tip although I'm not sure about adding sweetex as opposed to sugar. Sugar just seems more "natural" and after all it does convert to alcohol


pete

[MKG]

Adding sugar's fine if you're patient, but if you don't stabilise with metabisulphite and sorbate then the wine is very likely to start fermenting again, especially as the weather warms up. That sounds fine, but at "finished" alcohol levels, the new fermentation can take forever to finish (at which point it will be too dry again, so you add more sugar and, guess what, you get an even slower refermentation).

Why add it at all at that point? Free sugar in a wine doesn't do anything to aid maturation - it simply isn't needed. If you have an over-dry batch, leave it alone until you come to drinking time and then add some sugar syrup (a teaspoonful at a time).

Mike

[WILDBREW]

I started two gallons of orange & carrot juice,wine today

[Skippy]

Adding sugar's fine if you're patient, but if you don't stabilise with metabisulphite and sorbate then the wine is very likely to start fermenting again, especially as the weather warms up. That sounds fine, but at "finished" alcohol levels, the new fermentation can take forever to finish (at which point it will be too dry again, so you add more sugar and, guess what, you get an even slower refermentation).

Why add it at all at that point? Free sugar in a wine doesn't do anything to aid maturation - it simply isn't needed. If you have an over-dry batch, leave it alone until you come to drinking time and then add some sugar syrup (a teaspoonful at a time).

Mike

I'm patient when it comes to wine making , and I've been adjusting wine with nothing more than sugar and occasionaly a touch of citric acid for over twenty years now and all but that batch of potatoe has turned out very nice.
If there's one thing I dislike about wine it's all the pomp and mystery around it. Wine making isn't rocket science, chuck some grapes in a bucket stamp on them and you'll end up with wine (ok maybe a slight over simplyification but not very far away from the truth). When I first started I'd follow the instruction to the letter but nowadays I don't even bother weighing things out and my wine isn't any the worst for it.
Beer on the other hand I think is far more of a skill. I haven't done too much but have tried lots of homebrew beer and percentage wise there are far more failures. I've had beer that was nice ranging to what could best be decsribed as "orangey".
Anyhoo I'm of to pick out a bottle for dinner.


Pete

[wabbit955]

just put on 2 galons of carrot whisky
looking forward to trying this one hehe brup

[WILDBREW]

Just started 2 gallons of fruit juice wine.
ingredients
2lt-red grape juice.
1lt-cranberry & pomegranate juice.
1lt-raspberry & blackberry with cranberry juice.
2kg-white sugar.
1tsp-ritchies yeast(per DJ)
half a tsp-yeast nutrient(per DJ)
water.
Method: make some sugar syrup with half of the sugar and leave to cool,divide all the juices in to the DJ and
divide the sugar syrup then add to the DJ with the yeast & nutrient,fit the airlocks and ferment for a week,then do the same with the other half of sugar when cool divide and add to the DJ then top up with cold tap water to the neck of the DJs fit the airlocks and fully ferment out.
Note: when fermenting as stopped rack and add finings then rack when clear and mature for 6 to 12 months.