First non kit brew (inc pics :) )

[CheshireCBR]

so I have done a few country wines using kits with a bit of success infact there is 5 gallons just finishing off at the moment so as is my norm I thought I would start something different off because I was bored waiting and wanted something to do, so after reading quite a bit on here about cheap and easy ciders using apple juice from the supermarket I thought I would give it a go, then I saw the recipe for a raspberry cider that sounded really nice so that was the goal for the day

so over the weekend I had my daughter so I couldnt do much then but we went shopping on the sunday to get a few bits so I sneeked into wilkinsons and picked up a few bits, I do tend to use the local home brew shop Brew2Bottle but as they are not open on a sunday it had to be there, then got 5L of apple juice from asda and a few packs of raspberry's as they were on offer as they went out of "sell by" today, and a couple of 5L water bottles to use as demijohns

so I started off this lunchtime boiling 1 1/2 L of the apple juice with the raspberry's in

and while it was boiling away I drilled one of the lids of the water bottles to take a bung for the air trap

then my dad comes back and said that there was a demijohn in the loft thats been there for about 30 years (why he didnt tell me when I started brewing I dont know :lol: ) so off into the loft and I found this just where he said

so after a bit if cleaning and sterilizing the fruit had been boiling for about 30 min so I left it to cool for a bit then poored it into my newly acquired DJ through a sieve to get rid of the big bits

then topped it up with apple juice and took a Hydrometer reading which was 1.059 but it was at 26 degrees so that might be wrong :lol:

so then I added the yeast nutrient, a yeast sachet and then put the air lock in and within 15 min it was starting to bubble nicely

so now I still have two 5L water bottles, and a cap with a hole in, it just seems a waist not to fill at least one of them so off in to town to get 4L of apple juice and a quick stop at the home brew shop for some more yeast, back home and just a simple cider with a starting mesure of 1.045 this time at 20 degrees so that is now 2 gallons going

now I know this is the wine bit but I had a can of larger ready to go into the fermenter and as I had everything out it would be a shame not to start that off :lol: so that went in to the bucket with 1Kg of brewing sugar

so then we end up with 5 gallons of this with a starting gravity of 1.038

so now my little brewing space is a bit full, with that lot plus the 5 gallon that I already had on there is now 12 gallons brewing away

now its just a shame that I havnt got anything ready to drink :lol:

 

[pittsy]

looks like you'll have plenty when it's ready though , looking good .

 

[PD]

well done to you, what a good start.
Have a go at the tea bag wines they are very quick and easy to make and mature and therefore drink.

 

[CheshireCBR]

well done to you, what a good start.
Have a go at the tea bag wines they are very quick and easy to make and mature and therefore drink.

now there is an idea, mixing the only two things I drink, tea and alcohol :lol:

I have run out of space at the moment but I might have a go at that next

 

[PD]

er...don't use proper tea bags....

Use the fruit flavoured Twinnings tea bags.... Blackberry and nettle is superb.

 

[CheshireCBR]

er...don't use proper tea bags....

but I like tea :whistle:

 

[Brewtrog]

er...don't use proper tea bags....

but I like tea :whistle:

Proper tea works fine, I've got one clearing, and it's doing that quickly.

 

[Wendy1971]

well done :clap: looks good plenty to drink thats the way to do it :thumb:

 

[CheshireCBR]

well done :clap: looks good plenty to drink thats the way to do it :thumb:

Add to that the 5 gallons of wine that was sat next to them and the 5 gallons of larger that I made after them I should have enough for a couple of weeks