Opened my (only) bottle of plumb wine... Plumb vinegar No idea how that happened, it was done in line with all the ciders, and all 25 odd litres were fine. Them's the breaks. Better luck next year - pruned the plumb tree for the first time in years so expect a poor harvest this time around...
That's a real shame. Have you ever made a wine using fruit juice (in cartons from the supermarket)? They're called WOW's (Wurzel's Orange Wine, after the guy who came up with the idea). Other recipes have evolved from the original orange one and they sound quite nice. All are very easy to make and are ready to drink in a couple of months. I want to have a go at making one but grape juice (a key ingredient for all WOW variants) has become very hard to get.
Doing exactly that with some (only slightly out of date) cranberry juice, it's about ready for first racking - and tomorrow's my weekend, perfect timing!
Ah, great stuff. Where are you getting your grape juice from? I used to see cartons of it everywhere but since I've actually wanted to buy some, I can't find it anywhere! (That's both red grape juice and white grape juice).
Not using any, just straight up cranberry... It might end up being just a little bit sharp, so I've got some lactose sugar to back-sweeten, just in case. If it's a success, then I may try a big batch of pineapple juice wine...
At long last, I've managed to find some WGJ (white grape juice)! (In Waitrose.) This evening I'll be having a go at making 5L of my first homemade wine, using the quick & easy WOW (Wurzel's orange wine) method. I'm making a white wine so will be using WGJ instead of RGJ, with pineapple juice instead of orange for flavour. Total sugar (fruit juice + added) is just over 1.15Kg so the wine will be around the 12-13% ABV mark. Ingredients: 1 litre 100% WGJ (not from concentrate but from concentrate works just as well). 1 litre 100% pineapple juice (from concentrate). 900g sugar. 1 strong cup of Earl Grey tea, made with 2 bags (for tannin, any tea will do). 1 teaspoon glycerine (optional - adds a thicker mouth-feel). 1 teaspoon Young's pectolase (breaks-down fruit matter to prevent cloudiness). 1 teaspoon Young's citric acid (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko yeast nutrient (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko express wine yeast compound. Water.
Waitrose. (Sorry, I meant to put that in the post above. ) I need to adjust the sugar quantity a bit too because I'm making 5 litres and not 1 gallon. I'll edit it now.
...and here it is - my "quick & dirty" summer white wine waiting to start fermenting in a 5 litre water bottle next to the radiator in the spare room. It'll be topped up with more water in a few weeks - I've deliberately left room so the foam head created by the yeast doesn't froth over and make a mess. The tub is in case I got that last bit wrong.
Krausen in the housen! Less than 24 hours since I pitched the yeast, they've formed a nice frothy head and the airlock's bubbling away nicely. So far, so good.
Flocculation for the nation, in the station - no degradation. Wurd. This went absolutely banzai last night. The krausen (foamy head) filled the empty space in the bottle and eventually filled the airlock too, lifting the cap off the top. I had to clean and sterilise the airlock again. The krausen's since died back though, thankfully, so I think the initial mad spell is over. Now it's just fermenting away like crazy - it's actually making a fizzing sound, there are bits moving up and down inside like a lava lamp and the airlock's bubbling like mad.
Just ordered a few bits and bobs ready to rack my Batch of mead next weekend. Also found a place that sells 71B yeast which seems to be the most recommended type for Mead.
I'm on the hunt for a nylon mesh sock/bag for my brew pot, to hold the boil hop additions, if anyone knows a good supplier (ideally it would be about 35cm x 20cm).
I use these when chucking in hops. Just tie the end up. My next brew was going to be a Belgian something with 5kg pils, carapils, Saaz and Magnum and maybe Citra hops, some coriander seeds and orange peel. But the order never turned up
They look handy for a single hop addition but since several are added throughout the boil, I'm after something I can easily access/open. Edit: Ideally so I can make something like this hop spider, or at least clip the open end of the bag over the side of the pot so I can easily add more hops when needed.
There is now 25L of hoppy American pale ale in my fermenter, made from Maris Otter grain, oats and chinook, cascade and Willamette hops and US05 yeast. Four hours brewing followed by 1.5hrs making curry. Beer required.
Almost 2 weeks on, I've just racked this into a second demijohn (OK, another plastic 5L water bottle ) to separate it from the surprising amount of trub/sediment that had accumulated on the bottom. I took a hydrometer reading while I was at it and it's already down to 0.995, which makes it a medium-dry, a little drier than I was hoping for but not the end of the world. To stop it fermenting out any more, I added half a teaspoon of potassium sorbate and a campden tablet. Fermentation phase complete, now onto the clearing stage...
I'm making two more 5L batches of wine (yes, I know - slippery slopery ) with different flavours this time: pomegranate which I'll stop quite sweet and an apple which I'll let go quite dry. The ingredients are exactly the same as the first recipe but with apple or pomegranate juice instead of pineapple juice and the amount of added sugar has been adjusted according to the juice's sugar content. Pomegranate WOW: 1 litre 100% WGJ (not from concentrate but from concentrate works just as well). 2x 1 litre 35% pomegranate juice drink (from concentrate). 850g sugar. 1 strong cup of Earl Grey tea, made with 2 bags (for tannin, any tea will do). 1 teaspoon glycerine (optional - adds a thicker mouth-feel). 1 teaspoon Young's pectolase (breaks-down fruit matter to prevent cloudiness). 1 teaspoon Young's citric acid (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko yeast nutrient (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko express wine yeast compound. Water. Apple WOW: 1 litre 100% WGJ (not from concentrate but from concentrate works just as well). 1 litre 100% apple juice (from concentrate). 900g sugar. 1 strong cup of Earl Grey tea, made with 2 bags (for tannin, any tea will do). 1 teaspoon glycerine (optional - adds a thicker mouth-feel). 1 teaspoon Young's pectolase (breaks-down fruit matter to prevent cloudiness). 1 teaspoon Young's citric acid (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko yeast nutrient (helps fermentation). 1 teaspoon Wilko express wine yeast compound. Water. The sugar has been dissolved in a couple of pans of water and simmered for a few minutes (to sterilize) and I've made two cups of very strong tea, all of which has been covered and is now cooling before I can get going with the rest of it. EDIT: All done. The two new ones are sitting in the tub (in case they go crazy and try to escape, like the last one did), while the pineapple one I started a few weeks ago has been moved out of the tub now that it's finished fermenting. Pomegranate on the left, apple on the right.
Just taking delivery for the next brews. I *may* have ordered too much Malt: 15kg pils malt, 5kg marris otter, 1kg crystal, 1kg flaked barley Hops: Magnum, Simcoe, Saaz, Styrian Goldings, Citra, Experimental 366/Equinox Misc: Candi sugar, coriander, sweet orange peel First beer will probably be an IPA using the Magnum and lots of Equinox (which smells amazing) The second is going to be a Tripel with all sorts of stuff in (aiming at something like tripel karmeliet)
