Easy starter wine?

Davewhit · Jan 11, 2019

Go.

Can anyone suggest and easy and simple starter wine. Not particularly wanting a Wilkos type kit fancy doing a strawberry or raspberry one if anybody has any suggestions.

Dave

stephen1546 · Jan 11, 2019

Hi

Im no pro, but i have made a few decent Solomon Grundy kits 30 bottle kits (although you only get around 28 bottles). They cost around 32 quid. Not sure if they come in Raspberry or Strawberry, i dont think so. These Solomon kits are really straight forward to do.

Cheers

Stevie

Davewhit · Jan 11, 2019

Cheers for that. Wanted to start small 4.5 litre demi join /5 bottles then if it's no good it's easier to get rid of ha.
Wanting to do a mash type though with fruit in a bucket for a week then into demi john with other required items.
Dave

MmmBeer · Jan 11, 2019

Hi Dave,

I have made a few country wines from the fruit in my garden and its not too difficult. The closest to strawberry or raspberry that I have done is loganberry, which was based on a blackberry wine recipe, It should work equally well with raspberries, although half a teaspoon of grape tannin might be beneficial for raspberries.

1.5 kg raspberries
1.2 kg sugar
1 tsp pectolase
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 sachet red wine yeast

Gently crush berries in a fermenting bucket, add sugar, pour 4.5 l boiling water over (will kill any bugs, wild yeasts etc).
Loosely cover and leave to cool, adding pectolase when luke warm.
Once cool measure OG and adjust to approx 1.095, adding sugar or water as needed.
Leave for 12-24 hours, stir in yeast nutrient and aerate before adding yeast.
Leave covered for 1 week, stirring daily for first 6 days.
After 1 week, syphon into demijohn and fit air lock.
When fermentation appears to have completed, rack into second demijohn and leave until completely clear before bottling.

On the downside, it needs to mature for a year before drinking.