Wild Wine Partc 6(c) - Final!! Picture Heavy

[Jim_aramis]

I made turbo cider last year and have been forbidden to make it again by Mrs_Aramis. There's more than enough sugar in the apple juice to make a strong brew but I added more...I also followed another tip and added cinnamon to the demijohn.

The result was a very strong, very sweet brew. To prime it I added a campden tablet to the brew and bottled, apparently it kills the yeast but the enzymes in the yeast last a bit longer to give the fizz.

I have some kit spare so I might give it another go but aim for a drier turbo cider this time.

 

[spamel]

Being the impatient so and so that I am, I didn't read any of these posts until I knew it was the end of all of them, I've just read through the lot and for some unknown reason I really want to give this a try!! My parents tried wine making when I was a child, they didn't seem to take to it for some reason, no idea why, but they must have got rid of all of their kit.

Carboot sales are good for picking up demijohns though, I always see them there so I may get to a carboot when I am back in UK for good and sort myself out with a basic kit.

Brilliant series of winemaking Red, thanks very much it was an entertaining and informative read!! :You_Rock_

 

[gregorach]

It's worth doing - I basically never buy beer from the shops anymore, and I'm now working on being self-sufficient in wine too! Must've saved a small fortune by now - not to mention that it's really reduced my recycling needs.

 

[spamel]

How much stuff do you brew!! What sort of brews do you make then? I'd be interested in trying to make some mead, just so I can say "Want a glass of mead?" to visitors!! Give them a horn to drink it out of aswell and throw axes at a womans braided hair, awesome!!

 

[Matt Weir]

I made turbo cider last year and have been forbidden to make it again by Mrs_Aramis.

Jim, did you go 'on safari' in the middle of the night trying to find the loo but found a wardrobe perhaps? We've all been there mate It's quite likely that I will be posting a similar sentence about Mrs W banning me from brewing some such potion in years to come.



Matt.

 

[gregorach]

Well, I do beers from the Muntons Gold range of kits - mainly IPA, Highland Heavy and Docklands Porter. I have three 5-gallon pressure barrels, and I can usually manage to have at least one on at any given time. As soon as I get down to the last gallon in a barrel, I start brewing another batch.

Of course, every now and then I stuff it up by making a batch so tasty that it gets drunk out of sequence, and I end up finishing two barrels around the same time. I could really use a fourth barrel to give me a bit of slack, but I'm running out of space...

As for wine, I've got about 8 bottles each of elderflower and elderberry wine sitting in the "cellar" and I've recently started making grape wine from the Beaverdale kits. No point having the gear sitting there doing nothing until this years elderflowers blossom... I reckon if I can turn out just half-a dozen bottles (one gallon) a month then I'll be in clover - at least until I run out of storage space.

As for prices, the Muntons Gold beer kits cost me £17 each (5 gallons), which works out at about 45p a pint (once you add in additional hops, yeast nutrients, steriliser, priming sugar, etc, etc) and produce beer that I really wouldn't be unhappy to pay full pub prices for. The Beaverdale wine kits cost me £10 for a 1 gallon kit, or about £1.70 a bottle. The wine kits are also available in 5 gallon versions which are better value, but I'm having real space issues...

 

[British Red]

I do all sorts really. I do wine and mead in 5 gallon batches and have had up to 15 gallons (90 bottles) on the go at a time. I maxed out at 300 bottles of beer and 2 pressure barrels of 40 pints each. I tend to rip through a load at a time and then not do any for a long time. As Gregorach says - theres a season to these things. I don't use heater belts etc. so it works better in warm weather.

Mead is a doddle and very cheap if you are happy to use Lidl or Aldi as a source (or better yet if you have a bee keeping friend as I do). It can take a very long time to ferment out but so what?

I tend to do wild wines in 1 and 2 gallon batches due to availability of ingredients (try finding 15lbs of eldeberries at one go - then try de-stalking them)! Grape wines or using "bought" ingredients are in larger batches.

As Gregorach says, the modern kits are very good indeed - a lot of the grape wines are better than shop bought and the beers can very very good (and a lot less hassle than malting and sparging)

Even if buying all the kit, you will usually break even on the first batch and when you are just sourcing materials its very cheap - my mead comes in sub 20p a bottle A few guys on here have partaken (Greywolf, Bushwacker Bob, Mod User etc.) so they can attest to the finished product.

Lets face it - wooden spoon of 30 bottles of mead - similar effort!

Red

 

[gregorach]

I tend to do wild wines in 1 and 2 gallon batches due to availability of ingredients (try finding 15lbs of eldeberries at one go - then try de-stalking them)!

Too true mate, too true! I can't imagine doing more than 2 gallons worth at a time...

 

[British Red]

Easy with grapes though - great fun to make a large wine press too (I'm using a small steel one now but have a vision involving a straight walled barrel and a scissor jack ).

I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by vineyards, but I bet if you hit a market place at closing time they would cost you very little!

Red

 

[gregorach]

Now that's an interesting idea...

 

[British Red]

Hey, its all good - made one once called "fruit salad" - peaches, fresh pineapple, plums, apples, grapes, stawberries and melon

Well chilled in a sugar frosted glass it was nearly (but not quite) as nice as the fresh raspberry wine that called for 4lbs of fresh raspberries per gallon. That was the nicest wine I ever made. If I had any left, I would not swap it for Krug

Red

 

[Matt Weir]

Red,

I forgot to get a gravity reading yesterday so took one just now. Looks to me like it's at 1050 at the moment.

One thing worrying me is that the 'must' isn't frothing at all and we are around 20 hours into the fermenting process. Is this a bad thing? I thought that there should be quite a bit of activity in the initial stages.

 

[British Red]

Is it warm matt? You should be aiming to keep the temperature at 65 to 70 F. Any bubles through the airlock? Was there (yeast killing) preservative in the apple juice?

Red

 

[Matt Weir]

It should be warm enough as the ambient temp reads 19C which converted is 66.2F.

No bubbles at all and the must is what you would call flat.

The ingredients listing on the juice carton read only as apple juice from concentrates (a couple of other brands on the shelf listed various preservatives etc which is why I chose this particular one.

 

[British Red]

Sounds like a stuck fermentation mate - although leave it another day to be sure

Do you have any more yeast?

Hows about any more of the apple juice (even a little)?

Red

 

[Matt Weir]

Right,

I decided to give the whole lot a good shake and discovered that the lid was not 100% secure so we may have had gas seeping there instead of the airlock so all may not be lost but I am still concerned about the general lack of activity?

I do have another 2 ltrs of juice that I intended to add once the inital rumble calmed down and I do have more yeast if needed (I think I used around 1/3 of the packet).

Do you think maybe the honey has upset things and caused a delay with the fermentation process?

How does the gravity of 1050 sound? Is that about right?

 

[British Red]

1050 is a lot mate but that shouldn't be the problem. Fermentation speed does vary - not everything froths violently so I'd wait a day or two. If you are concerned, get half a glass of orange juice . Let it get warm (say 75deg) and add your yeast to it (at least a teaspoonful) Within a few hours you should have a noticeable haed of froth - this shows the yeast is very active.

If your yeast was a sachet (and I reckon looking at the price it was maybe a 5g sachet), use it all for 5 litres. Wine yeast isn't perfect for cider but hey, who's counting?

Red

 

[Matt Weir]

Aiye, maybe I was a bit frugal with the yeast (can you add too much or is it better practice to over do it rather than under do it?)

I will stick the rest of the yeast in some warm OJ now and see what happens. Will it be OK to add this to the mix?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer all my queries and questions Red

EDIT: We have no OJ in so I will nip out ad grab some - any particular brand you think is bombproof Red then at least I know if the yeast is up to it?

:You_Rock_

 

[British Red]

matt,

I wouldn't try any of the long life stuff - gawd nows what they put in that. I wouldn't worry about "freshly squeezed" either. Your original yeast is probably working okay but needs to "breed up" as its a really small amount in that volume of must. It could take some time. I buy yeast in stonking big tubs - its a lot cheaper that way but I brew a lot. You could just squeeze a couple of oranges - then you know theres nowt in em!

Red

 

[Matt Weir]

Hi Red,

I got some Tropicana - 100% pure, not from concentrate and no preservatives etc.

I have got it up to temp and dumped the rest of the yeast in there. It has been in for around 10 mins and the OJ now has a good head on it. I'll leave it a while longer.