What have you got brewing at the moment

[Lardyvegan]

I picked up some brewing gear from a car booty (3 Demijohns with airlocks, half a dozen bottles, a hydrometer a filter and some random bits and bobs, all for a fiver, cher-ching!) in August, then set to work with a load of apples we got given, and a carrier bag full of brambles from the waste ground at the bottom of the street.

I used the recipe from First Steps in Winemaking, so hopefully, I'll be bottling this in the next few days ready to rack for next year.

Just ordered a strawberry wine kit for some plonk over Christmas too.

Looking forward to next season and trying a few different fruits and veg (I hear carrot wine is a bit like whisky, woo hoo!)

[spughy]

Not sure if this is the right place to talk about this - since it's not booze - but I just did a batch of apple-blackberry lactofermented soda pop. Worked beautifully, got a really robust ginger bug going in about a week and the stuff fermented in 2 days and carbonated nicely in the bottles in 24 hours. Gave some to my idiot neighbours who left the bottle unrefrigerated for a few days and made a shocking mess in his parents' house... will not give homemade soda as Christmas presents again, unless it's people I trust to follow instructions (ie, keep COLD!!!!) Heh. Anyway, it was really, really good! Nice to drink soda without nasty crap in it... and the lactofermentation even produces "probiotics" so one might get away with the claim that it's a health drink...

[suziq]

i'm having a go at this christmas cake malarky wine
just bunged it in a DJ with some apricots, sugar and yeast
it has a very unappetising look ;) but smells good, watch this space lol

[suziq]

and it's climbing out of the top of the DJ!!!

[MKG]

Put it in a covered bucket for a couple of days. THEN put it back into the DJ when it's calmed down a bit.

If it's anything like the one I tried, it turns out like a fairly decent sherry.

Mike

[thefriarandme]

Just added 5 tsp of campden tablets and 5 tsp of stabilising powder to 5 gallons of carrot wine. I have 5 gallons of parsnip that the yeast is really tearing into and 2 gallons of nettle (from tea bags) that is going great guns.

[thefriarandme]

and it's climbing out of the top of the DJ!!!

Before adding to the DJ, use a bucket (food quality grade only), or something similar, to allow the yeast to get stuck into the wine must. Stir twice a day and cover with a lid - but do not seal. Yeast reacts best in the early stages to aeration (hence the stirring; as well as stopping any of the pulp [the fruit/veg] from becoming dry and/or going rotten).

If you are using a hydrometer, always advised, wait until the must reaches approx 1.020, then skim and pour into a DJ, or secondary fermenter of your choice, and add an air lock. Some people siphon into the secondary fermenter but the only problem with this is that you may lose a lot of your yeast. Stir vigorously and pour and just try to leave the dead yeast behind in the bucket. If you lose a lot of your yeast, you will have to wait until your yeast colony grows again.

Don't forget to grab a ladle full of the actively fermenting must to add to your next wine; thus saving money on using fresh yeast. The amount of the first wine that you import into the second wine is unlikely to affect the taste of the second wine.

Keep some of the must back in a bottle and allow the wine to settle in the DJ and if all appears settled and bubbling just nicely, top up to just below the neck of the DJ.

Following this approach allows for a faster fermentation and sticky free DJs and worktops

[suziq]

i should have thought to put it in a bucket first!
it's calmed down a lot, i emptied a bit out
it's a bit like a lava lamp, with raisens rising and falling lol
i think there is a bit of fat deposit around the top, which i keep scraping out, but should be ok when i rack
any ideas when i should rack off? lol, that does sound rude lol

[phil55494]

Over the weekend I finally got round to 'Messing around in a bucket' and have a gallon of apple and blackcurrant on the go. I followed the instructions given by MKG on this site and used fruit teabags, sugar, water and yeast. So far starting to bubble nicely in the corner of the kitchen.

If this works then I'll be trying more as the year progresses - elderflower is a possibility as is rhubarb (the rhubarb in the back garden always produces more than we can eat).

[Sky]

I'm not brewing anything at the mo but just last weekend me and my hubby decided to have some of the instant coffee wine that I made from a recipe on here.
It's bloody lovely!

[geigercounter120]

currently making scrumpy to Andy's recipie (to the letter) so hopefully it'll be ready for festival season.
hopefully it will be an improvement on last year's batch which tasted not unlike acidic hell...

i also tried out the wine from the 'taking the fear out of winemaking' posts. certainly an acquired taste: not unlike cough medicine though with an estimated alcohol content upwards of 16%

hopefully, time will help

[thefriarandme]

currently making scrumpy to Andy's recipie (to the letter) so hopefully it'll be ready for festival season.
hopefully it will be an improvement on last year's batch which tasted not unlike acidic hell...

i also tried out the wine from the 'taking the fear out of winemaking' posts. certainly an acquired taste: not unlike cough medicine though with an estimated alcohol content upwards of 16%

hopefully, time will help

A medicinal flavour is caused by not having enough acid in the 'must'.

If the wine has a slight medicinal taste, try adding some citric acid to the finished wine. If it is too medicinal there may not be much you can do except trying to blend it with another wine.

[geigercounter120]

@thefriarandme - thanks for the tip from a fellow Liverpudlian!

will give that a bash...

i wonder if the inevitable acid of my scrumpy will suffice...?!

[MKG]

That medicinal flavour may also be caused by fiddling the amount of sugar in the recipe. At 16%, you must have added over 3 lbs of the stuff.

Dilute it with a little lemonade (or something similar) when you drink it.

Mike

[geigercounter120]

i was rather generous with my additions...
gut- and tooth-rot!