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Hiya Last year I made some sparkly elderflower, I was pretty pleased with it. I essentially made the wine and let it finish but not clear and added priming sugar. It was good but this year I would like more fizz. I added dextrose at a rate of 17g/l which is what I believe they use for the...

Ok thanks I'll take a look

Thanks for the replies. I wonder if the discrepancy is due to whether the hydrometer has a reading which states 'alcohol' or 'potential alcohol' Potential alcohol implies that if every last bit of sugar was used then that's what the alcohol content would be. I think maybe the 'alcohol'...

I have been looking at a lot of home brew recipes recently and I was thinking that they all seemed to have too much sugar. I thought they will all either end up as rocket fuel, or depending on the yeast used will end up sweet. My hydrometer looks like the one I have seen in almost every online...

Hi All CJJB has 2 raisin wine recipes in First Steps In Winemaking 1 has 3.5kg and no sugar, the other has 1kg and 1kg sugar. First of all has anybody tried these recipes and are they any good? I'm interested to make something which tastes like a sherry/Madeira/dessert wine. It says the...

Will do 🙂

Thanks for your reply. I was considering adding the apple juice at the start to increase the volume slightly from 4.5 to 5l. Maybe I will just make it as it is stated in the instructions for this one as you say, I've actually got a 50cl wine bottle to hand so if it is a bit short then I can...

Hi I am considering getting a 6 bottle beaverdale sauvignon blanc kit and have read through the instructions online. It states to shake the demijohn to Degas, then add finings. Do people actually follow these instructions? It seems strange to shake it up and mix it with all the...

Ye generally the room doesn't get too cold stays at least 20 Deg in the day, drops a bit in the night but the house generally holds heat fairly well and my wife puts the heating on really high in the evening. I did actually put it next to the radiator and when it reached about 27 degrees (I...

Thanks for the input much appreciated. I'll go ahead and stabilise, clear and bottle it

I have a mead/melomel which also has died apricots and rose petals, it really fermented vigorously at first but now has stopped. I racked it off the sediment and the hydrometer reading was 1010. I added half a teaspoon of extra nutrients and some more D47 yeast but nothing. When adding the...

Ah right so a lot of the sediment still contains a lot of active yeast as well as dead yeast so by leaving this stuff behind then there are less yeast in the secondary fermenter, and they won't repopulate at the same rate without air

Interesting, so really the only reason for racking out of the bucket and into a demijohn with an airlock is to stop bugs getting in and stop it oxidising...? The only thing which I find confusing is that if I were to rack at 1020 for example, it would then take a further 2 weeks to finish in...

I've seen lots of recommendations for Lalvin ICV D47 yeast for mead, it's what I have used for the mead I having brewing at the mo. Has an alcohol tolerance of around 15%. Need to be sure to provide a good amount of extra nutrients.

Thanks

I started some mead off on Saturday. I just calculated the sugar content based off the side of the honey jar. Should have been potential alcohol around 13.5%. I kept checking it and it was really bubbling vigorously. I checked the gravity this evening and it was 1010 so hopefully it wasn't...

Hi I have had a few cases where my wine has been fermenting in the bucket vigorously then after 3 days since pitching the yeast it is completely finished before I have had a chance to transfer it. It usually happens with mead or elderflower where there aren't lots of fruit and it's all just...

Haha

Thanks for your reply chippy. I did the method just before bottling, I detected a slight fizz on the tongue. I degassed so I wasn't sure if this was SO2 or CO2. I think I'll try it the other way next time. How long do you typically store your wines for?

Hi When adding sulphites at bottling I have read 2 different things. 1 method is to dose with sulphites then wait 24hrs then bottles. I'm guessing with this method a lot of the SO2 will have evaporated off. The other method is to add right before bottling, the theory being to keep the SO2...