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By way of an update, that first gallon was racked a while ago and has finished clearing to a beautiful deep rose colour. I'll be bottling it as soon as I can find some appropriate bottles. pictures will be forthcoming at that time. Fast forward to today, I pulled 5x 3lbs bags of redcurrants out...

I'll keep an eye on them and try and judge when they'll be ripe enough. That gives me time to think about what to do with them and look up recipes. I started a couple of gallons of pear wine a couple of months ago but they were a small dessert variety (Petit Poire) which ripen on the tree, so it...

I've just been given about a 5 gallon bucket full of small, hard pears. I don't know the variety but they have a sort of army-green colour, are hard and crunchy, like apples and are quite bland but not unpleasant in flavour. I'm thinking pear wine or maybe perry/pear cider, but not sure which...

I have a gallon of redcurrant that I started end of July that's been racked and is waiting patiently in a demijohn, wrapped in brown paper and hidden under the stairs to exclude the light. I'll be bottling that one soon and I've promised the family we can try a bottle or two at Xmas. From the...

Thanks John, you've confirmed my suppositions and I can press ahead. I'm not expecting a top-notch "keeper", just something fit for purpose. I'll go for 17.5 litres and reduce the sugar from 4 kilos to 3.5. The ABV will be marginally higher at that but not enough to affect the extra body. Time...

With the festive season looming, and having no reds in stock, I'm about to kick off a cheapo Rioja style red wine kit. It is the Chateau Vadeau one from Amazon. I'm finding it hard to believe that a tiny 1.3kg container of grape concentrate could make 21 litres (30 bottles) of red wine with...

I've seen a Youtube video of a DIY scratter constructed from a small stainless sink and a waste disposal unit. I also believe someone on the forum has one. It looks a fairly compact, effective and economical solution, which seems to do a more thorough job than the hand-turned Vigo Classic I...

I'm just about to start a cheapo 21 litre red wine kit, mainly to have something, other than beer, drinkable by Christmas. I'm still in the process of collecting empties for my wine bottle collection, so I'd be hard-pressed to have enough, even if I brew short, which I'm planning to do, to...

I spent a fair slice of today chopping, scratting and pressing a load more cookers I had been given. Following the example of An Ankou, above, I ran the pomace back through the scratter and re-pressed, which resulted in a reasonable amount of extra juice. In total, I got just over 3.5 gallons...

It is a bugger not being able to easily or cheaply visit the other islands and I particularly miss trips to France. Hopefully, that may change to some degree next year in the Hedgehog boat is a success and the expand their services as they are hoping. At the moment, weather permitting, they are...

Sounds like an outstanding plan to me!

How have I missed this thread so far? Great to hear that your brewing is going well matey, apart from your lid accident, that is. All sounds very technical and time-consuming to an old goo-in-a-tin kit brewer like me but I'll have to pop round on one of your brewdays and see your setup in action.

I've taken an OG of 1.049, which will give an ABV of 6.43% if it hits a FG of 1.000. That's plenty strong enough for me. I've added 1 teaspoon per gallon of nutrient and pitched the yeast. It's the same cider yeast I've used for Turbo cider, so I'm expecting it to be a vigorous fermentation...

Having thought about it overnight, I think I'll Ferment the 4 gallons I've got of "Real juice". I can always make a couple of gallons of Turbo cider from carton juice to blend later if it needs it. Not a bad idea to give it a quick rinse after where it has been! :D I hope the apple residue...

I got started on my cider this evening. Due to this being a bit of a pants year for apples, I had mostly cookers (chiefly bramleys) a few James grieve eaters and a few kilos of small crab apples. I had borrowed a friend's 12 litre Vigo press and scratter to try and maximise the juice yield. It...

You are absolutely right, and I would usually take an OG. However, I was tired and in a hurry, which is never a good state to be brewing in, but I've not had chance to get a brew on for a few weeks due to general domestic upheaval of my daghter moving back in and the house being in disorder...

I put a Coopers Mexican Cerveza kit on to brew last night. Instead of the brew enhancer, I used 500 grams of light spray malt and 500 grams of table sugar. I didn't take an OG because I figured that I'd added about the same amount as the recommended fermentables. It should turn out all right...

Thankfully, we very rarely get cold callers or junk mail here, but where we lived previously junk mail was an almost daily plague. My favourite trick was to stuff as much random junk mail as possible into the postage-paid envelopes that some use and fire it off to them in the post. I don't think...

Red Rebellion would do me nicely, please.

Many years ago, I made mint wine and parsley wine. I can't remember the recipes but I do remember them needing a lot of the respective herbs. They both turned out as high alcohol dessert wines, somewhere between a Sauternes and a sweet sherry in flavour. You'd never have guessed that they were...