Hi from Maidstone (and wine advice needed)

[shedhead]

hi, just joined and need some advice. was on ish site back end of summer looking for a wine recipe, and found jackie holts. so carried out the instructions, just checked the brew and it appears to be bubble free now and it smells like sherry. does any body have any ideas what the gravity would be roughly by there past experiences. and how long would this keep when bottled before i kill myself

[MuddyWitch]

Sadly I have never made wine so can't help you, but welcome to ISH & stick around, loads of ppl here are alcoholically minded

MW

[Millymollymandy]

Hello and welcome - I'm going to move this thread to the appropriate section as I don't think you'll get so much of a response here in the welcome section!

[red]

welcome

I never measure the SG - i just drink the stuff if its drinkable and judge how i feel! (homemade cider turned out to measure at 1 wineglass=legless!)
I would bottle it.. keep an eye on it (if you use screw top bottles you can open one after a while and if it hisses.. you were wrong about it having stopped working - so be aware that theres a risk of bottles bursting - an din that case - release the pressure every couple of days to keep them safer.. otherwise store somewhere dark and cool. ) It might improve on keeping - or it might not. so.. really if its lvoely now.. drink most of it now,.. if notwait and see

nb all just an opinion...

[benner]

I agree, if it tastes good now, drink it. In my experience home made wines don't keep too well. I managed to get enough birch sap last year to make a bottles worth... it tasted great when I bottled it but the recipe said to leave it for about 6 months, I tried it at xmas and it was no way near as good as when I bottled it. 2007's Blackberry on the other hand tasted pretty bad when I bottled it, but by the summer of last year it was quite palatable. Last years blackberry would appear to be heading the same way... hopefully!

[frozenthunderbolt]

I agree, if it tastes good now, drink it. In my experience home made wines don't keep too well. I managed to get enough birch sap last year to make a bottles worth... it tasted great when I bottled it but the recipe said to leave it for about 6 months, I tried it at xmas and it was no way near as good as when I bottled it. 2007's Blackberry on the other hand tasted pretty bad when I bottled it, but by the summer of last year it was quite palatable. Last years blackberry would appear to be heading the same way... hopefully!

Im inclined to leave it at least 6 moonths unless it realy is drinkable. I've had things like elderflower, grapefruit and blackberry that i have thought were complete failures at botteling that i kept as i was to sad to throw them out after the effort i went to, then in 6-12 month they have become quite drinkable and in some cases even quite exceptional wines.

Defnitly the case with blackberry wine. no idea why.

all the best