Hello from jersey

[Ckfosse]

Hi guys,

Always wanted to have a go at home brewing and I have finally done it, in more of a wine making fan I guess than others mainly because I drink more wine than beer, although I wouldn't mind a go at ginger beer somewhere down the lines.

I brought a starter kit with a blush sample to give it a go and hopefully it's something I enjoy

Particularly interested in doing WOW type wines and rose(not a massive fan of red).... One main question to start is do they go straight into a dj or deme eying bucket first... And also all fermenting buckets that you use to start with do they have an air lock fitted or is it just a closed lid??

Hoping to have a go at blackberry and elderflower champagne too if I have enough time


All the best and hello from the Channel Islands

Craig
(Sorry for spelling, I'm on my phone)

 

[JamesMcS]

Hi! I've just started brewing myself, got a bit carried away though, just picked up my 7th kit in 3 months :-)

I think you can ferment in DJs, I've been using buckets with airlocks in (mixed opinions on that on here too). I picked up a hole cutter on the Web cheap, and cut two holes - one for the airlock, and one for another bung with a submersible fish tank heater going through it. From what I've read, a constant temperature is really important to get the best flavour out of the yeast.

 

[Ckfosse]

Cheers mate, shall look into it a lot more :)

 

[JamesMcS]

Here's the cutter I got:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=291045805985&alt=web

The smallest setting is just right for a bung... It was meant to be :-)

You'll probably find you'll want more than one vessel, when I do wine I use a plastic bucket for primary, a carboy for secondary and another one for clearing - then back into the first carboy for aging.

Beer wise, the general consensus seems to be to leave it in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks and then bottle/keg.