First brews

[Glen Gilchrist]

Hi all

After lurking for a while, I've finally committed and currently have on the go:

Ginger beer, from a plant that I've fed for a week with x2 tsp Ginger and x1 sugar. Made up to 1 gallon, 1kg sugar, 1 tsp nutrient. Now bubbling away nicely. ( bread yeast)

Fruit tea wine (random selection of blackcurrant, elderflower and cranberry), made up with 1 ltr red grade juice, 1 tsp nutrient, wine yeast. All made up to 1 gallon. Also bubbling away nicely.


Only problem - waiting for them to ferment out.

How long after it stops bubbling has it "finished"?

So, what was your first brew??
Cheers
Glen Gilchrist

[hedgewizard]

When there's more than a minute between 'blops' it's time to think about the next step, as a rule. For the beer, that's transferring it to screwtop bottles (in my case). For the wine, that's first racking. Game on!

[red]

my wine can take years.... its in a cool room though.

think my first wine was apple.....

[MKG]

You said it yourself - it's "finished" when it stops bubbling. The problem is being sure when that is - those bubbles can be hours apart. Don't be in a hurry to bottle any wine - some have a habit of returning from the dead, which is a bit risky if the wine has been put into a sealed glass bottle. The best strategy is to rack the wine, return it to its (cleaned) demijohn, then wait for it to clear - it won't do that until CO2 production has stopped.

Of course, you can sample it at any time while you're waiting.

Mike

[Glen Gilchrist]

think my first wine was apple.....

So, what's the difference between apple wine and cider?

Is there one? Alcohol content? Carbonation? Process?

Cheers
Glen

[MKG]

Cider is fermented apple juice, pure and simple, nothing added, nothing taken away.

Apple wine is made from diluted apple juice, or apples which have been soaked in water to extract the juice, with added sugar. The dilution is the key. And, although you can get very strong ciders and very weak apple wines, the wine tends to be more alcoholic.

Cider screams apples at you (and very nicely). Apple wine is supposed to be a little more subtle.

Mike

[oldjerry]

Cider seems to sing to me...(bit like the Sirens,and with similar consequences!)

[Glen Gilchrist]

Cider screams apples at you (and very nicely). Apple wine is supposed to be a little more subtle.
Mike

As I'm subtle as a brick, good job its definatley cider that I'm 3 days into....

G

[Glen Gilchrist]

Update...

Ginger beer being drunk tonight to take the edge off Eurovision. Not quite enough bite for me, so to the next plant I've added 2sp flaked chili... Will update next week.

Fruit tea has just about finished bubbling, so have racked off into new demijohn with 1 campden added. It is just beginnig to clear ( degassing ?? )

Next brew I think will be a hooch style hard lemonade from lemon squash.....

Thanks for all the input / advice so far.

Glen

[sarahkeast]

OMG, lemonade hooch, brilliant.

I used to love a cold bottle of Mikes Hard Lemonade after a day out climbing or mountain biking when I lived in the states, esp as I dont like beer.

Please PLEASE share the recipe, I NEED to make some !

[Glen Gilchrist]

Hi

Going to try this one: http://skeeterpee.com/

Enjoy...

[MKG]

Good Grief - that's over-complicated. I'll come back in a couple of hours with my thoughts.

Mike

[Glen Gilchrist]

To be honest was going just get some organic lemon cordial and make up to 1gallon similar to the cordial brews on this forum.

However, I liked the idea of the skeeterPee....

G

[Glen Gilchrist]

Good Grief - that's over-complicated. I'll come back in a couple of hours with my thoughts.

Mike

Cool - amazing that skeeterPee can command a whole web site....

G

[MKG]

Sorry, Glen - I just couldn't quite believe what I was reading

Point A - DON'T use "yeast sludge". I've already posted on here about using such stuff as the basis of a new yeast culture (and I said it can be done - and, indeed, it can). But using such stuff directly is pointless and, as Dunc will readily tell you, a tad on the risky side.

Point B - this "sulphur dioxide risk" thing is a red herring. What I think the author is attempting to point out is that such things as preserved lemon juice may well contain sulphur dioxide - but it was put in there quite intentionally to act as a preservative. If it is in the juice, then yeast won't like it too much - although it's never usually around in such quantities as to prevent a deliberate introduction of yeast from doing its thing. But I think that's what's behind this "use yeast which has already been proved" kind of idea. The "bad egg" smell mentioned is more associated with hydrogen sulphide - sulphur dioxide was the culprit, in the past, of the smell of boiling old cabbage. In any case, hydrogen sulphide contamination would occur only in a too-low acid wine (hardly likely if you're making it from lemon juice).

OK - to get rid of sulphur dioxide, all you need to do is heat the offending liquid. To help any new yeast along, all you have to do is be kind to it. The first thing yeast does with sucrose - normal table sugar - is invert it (ie break it up) into fructose and glucose. You can do that easily by heating a sugar solution to which acid has been added. In this case, then, the simple solution is to dump all of your sugar into a big pan, pour in the nicely acidic lemon juice you're trying to convert to hooch (and probably add a bit of water), heat it up to boiling point and keep it there (at a slow boil) for 10 minutes or so and, hey presto, you'll have a panful of lemon-flavoured invert sugar with all of the sulphur dioxide driven off. Let that cool, make up the volume with water and then make your hooch by the more normal method of adding wine yeast in the usual way. The yeast will burst into life readily, as you've taken away a day or two's yeast labour by doing the inverting yourself.

Seems a little less hitty missy to me, and avoids a few obvious pitfalls.

Mike

PS -What the hell is reverse osmosis water???????? Never mind, just found out. It's a method of desalination of seawater. That's handy, then.