Selfsufficientish.com

Hi all,

I'm a few days in to fermentation of my first home brew.. A Woodfordes Wherry.
I'm not a Real Ale drinker normally, but it came with the kit so thought I'd give it a try :)

Once this has done, I'm keen to crack on with some more brewing and so thought I'd ask if there are any 'must try' brews?
I spotted a nettle beer recipe on here earlier, which I'll try out, but any others that are fairly easy and give good results?

Look forward to any suggestions :)

We were new too and tried a grape wine first - it is really really nice. It's really simple too. The recipe is on here somewhere, not on the forum but somewhere on the website, I can never find it when I want it!

It says a couple of months to ferment - much much more than this is needed.

Although we love it, buying the grapes was about as expensive as buying bottles of wine! Grapes aren't something you can forage for like, for example elderberries

I tried Woodford's Wherry a while back and found that it definitely improved with age (i.e. two months old vs. ten days old - beer doesn't get very old round here!)

I would recommend elderflower 'champagne', which is what I started with (delicious but not really very alcoholic), but you'll have to wait a month or so for the flowers. I'll be starting an oak leaf wine soon as the leaves are just coming out. I'm not sure I'd call it a must try recipe, but it's in season and I quite liked the results last year. I suggest googling recipes - mine tend to be a bit vague (gather a load of leaves, boil like hell, strain, add sugar, check it's cool, add yeast, leave).

If you want to use kits - try Muntons Gold - some of the best kits ever

Elderberry port is about the best hedgerow wine I make - I do a dozen bottles a year and have people waiting to barter for it which is always nice :)

Happy to post the recipe - any four thumbed idiot like me can make it!

A batch of turbo cider has to be tried at least once.. not to everyone's taste, but it goes down a treat round here. Endless possible variations.

I'd certainly agree wholeheartedly with the last two posts. Turbo cider gives you (almost) immediate results and, as far as I can see, a really good elderberry defines DIY winemaking (but needs a good, long maturation).

You also have to try Andy's 5-plum brew (or something of that ilk). Zoob juice doesn't do it justice. And then there's marigold wine - oh, it goes on ...

Mike

The Honey Wine from 'Wild Fermentation' has just two ingredients, fun and easy to make. Can be drunk young or aged- good confidence booster.
http://vancouverfood.net/2009/02/ethiop ... d_tej.html

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
I've kegged the Wherry this evening. Had a quick taste in the process so I can see how it changes (improves) throughout the process.
I've also bottled a little bit too to see if there's any difference there - done one bottle with sugar and one without. I'm all about experimenting at the moment so doing this allows me to taste if there are any differences in using different methods.

Going forward, elderberry wine is certainly on the list. As is Gorse flower, although I think I'll probably do a cordial with that first.

Anymore suggestions always welcome.

i at the moment am only brewing from kits,

i have found the tom claxton range are very good.

let them ferment slowly at around 20 degrees, takes 8-9 days for ale, and 10 for lager, but it is very drinkable. the stout ferments like rocket fuel, and clears just as fast and is also very good

i hjave tried a Canadian blond lager which was frankly piss in taste just nasty. took me months to fight through it when i had already drunk enough to not care.

i have just got and am putting on in afe days a different stout and then the week after a check pilsner which i got from my local homebrew shop and it just called out to me. that one is a much longer ferment, taking 2 weeks to ferment according to the packet

british red, any chance of a recipe for the elderberry port? cause it sounds oh so very good. i do have a cunning and probably batshit mental plan for a sloe and blackberry champagne later in the year. look i never said i was sane.

Just posted it up in its own thread Paul

many thanks

dandelion wine (though you've missed the time now, but for next year!). Virtually free, and tasty. Plus, you get to have yellow hands for a day.

Once you make the leap to hedgerow wine making, you will never go back to kits!! So far this year I have made 2 gallons cherry wine, 1 gallon rhubarb wine, 1 gallon strawberry wine, and am slowly collecting ingredients for as many gallons of blackberry, rosehip, damson and elderberry wines as I can get my hands on. All are better than the kit wines I have made previously.

Free ingredients, the excitement of waiting for them to come into season, the exercise and fresh air you get collecting them and the satisfaction getting sh*tfaced on nature's bounty all add up to a no brainer to me!

narmour wrote: ... and the satisfaction getting sh*tfaced on nature's bounty all add up to a no brainer to me!

Succinct and poetic. Well said

Mike

MKG wrote:

narmour wrote: ... and the satisfaction getting sh*tfaced on nature's bounty all add up to a no brainer to me!

Succinct and poetic. Well said

Mike

Why thank you. I have been told I have a way with words.