Search results

Just brewed up 5 x Winexpert Cabernet Merlot Reserve kits today each in a 30 litre brew bucket. These are supposed to achieve 13.5% abv from the kits. I brewed the kits to dead on 23l on the fermenters as per the instructions. I vigorously mixed all the fermenters with a spoon manually and...

Room temperature right now is probably really low and the constant fluctuations in temperature does absolutely nothing to help the carbonation process. As in, temp rises in the day, declines at night. That constant cycle can stall your fermentation and possibly even stall the yeast from...

Bakers yeast like it hot. I would aim for at least 30 degrees Celsius as your temperature for bottle carbonation with bakers yeast. I personally carb at 32 and this is completely carbonated in 72 hours. Bottle carbing at lower temperatures can take weeks. 4 to 6 weeks.

Honestly if you want any of the classic kits I'd buy now. They won't last long at £34. That price on classics is the lowest I've ever seen in many of years. As soon as they do one of the promotional emails for the classics I'd expect them gone in an hour. At least that was the case for the...

Boiling the juice will definitely work to remove the sodium metabisulfite but it will unfortunately not remove the potassium sorbate, which is the main problem here.

It's an insanely good deal. The Winexpert California Cabernet Merlot sold out 43 kits in 20 minutes! Luckily I managed to get 5 of them. Think they still have a bunch of the white wine reserve kits available. Definitely a great deal if you like whites!

I really don't agree with that Chippy. The problem here is not cordial or squash. The problem is specifically the preservative potassium sorbate. Plenty of cordials just contain sodium meta (not an issue) and a lot of the more expensive cordials don't contain any preservatives whatsoever. I...

Thanks Tom good to know! Cracking deal you got on them Vinclasse Montecinos too! It's definitely a relief that I don't have to brew up all the kits before the BBE. Because I literally bought 5 of the Winexpert California Cabernet Merlot kits and these things take like 6 weeks to brew each one...

Got an insanely good deal on the Winexpert reserve California Cabernet Merlot 30 bottle kits. £39.95 each instead of £77.95 each. Couldn't resist so I bought a good few of them. These was sold as a BBE October 2022 I've never really had experience of dealing with wine kits close to the BBE so...

Likely potassium sorbate. Sounds like the yeast is having trouble creating a big enough colony to ferment out the alcohol hence the slow ferment. Try adding a yeast bomb to kick start things. Just put a couple TSP of yeast and nutrient in a jug with a little water. Add 3-4 tbsp of sugar and...

You can indeed use fruit cordials which contain *some* preservatives but not others. Potassium sorbate is a huge NO and will not work. It will slow down fermentation to a point that won't even be worth doing. That's assuming it doesn't stop it out right. Now sodium metabisulfite, this one can...

I can't stress this enough, a combination of value range supermarket apple juice combined with some sultanas makes a delicious white wine which will blow most of the kits out of the water. Try substituting a lot of your grape concentrate for a combo of sultanas and apple juice. Using grape...

Oh and if you want to quickly bottle carbonate your elderflower champagne you can use this method. Get an under bed storage box. Fill with water. Put a fish tank Heater in the storage box and set the temperature to 32 degrees Celsius. As you can see in the image. These are all 500ml bottles...

Yeah honestly they're very inaccurate. Unless you want to fork out for a digital meter then it's not really worth testing. How it tastes is usually a good enough guide. Perfect! Yeah you can add anything to sweeten the wine providing it's not a fermentable sugar. Adding to much fermentable...

Yeah they're probably not good quality. Try getting some which have lots of reviews on Amazon. They tend to be the best. Even then it's hit or miss. Personally I dont test pH on any of my home brew. My mouth is a good enough pH metre. Really, you need a digital ph metre if you really want to...

Something wrong with that test strip paper. Impossible for 3 lemons to get you down to pH 2. Probably more like 20 lemons to achieve that if even then! The dry mouth feel is because you fermented down to 990 on the hydrometer. That's bare bones dry af without any sugar left. If you want a more...

I'm honestly having so much trouble trying to get a valve to work in the bung of these kegs it's getting mind blowing. Can someone please advise me on how to get Co2 into these mini kegs without a party star deluxe tap? I just want to be able to pour a pint, put a little Co2 inside then keep...

Well I fired some Co2 in from a 16g cartridge in a Co2 bike tyre inflator. The valve works! But the bung sadly does not work. Using the soap and water technique I could see that the leaks was coming from the edges of the red bung and the outer black rubber bung. This brings me to my main...

Got to say, I'm surprised that this little keg is rated at 60psi. I'm going to prime with sugar for when I'm using the actual kegs with beer and the co2 will just be for serving and preserving the beer after I take a pint from the kegs. I'd like to be able to take a pint out, put a bit of co2...

Added a Schrader valve to the top. Salvaged the valve from a bike inner tube and left some of the rubber on the base of the valve. This makes the fit snug and the more pressure in the barrel the more compression it creates holding the valve tightly in place. Not sure if it will work or hold...