Let's start at the beginning...

[godfrey]

Sorry to hijack this thread: what's that about, then? All the reading I've done and pressing of elderberries and now I find 'steam extract"! How do I do that, please?

http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/ ... amer-99059

Perfect for extracting pure juice for drinks or jellies from: black, red & white currants; berried fruits like elderberries, loganberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries; rhubarb, hard fruits like crab apples & quinces and stoned fruits like damsons, sloes and plums. It is not suitable for citrus fruits.

from what i have read it is not advisable to do stone fruit or rhubarb, you will do better with freeze and thaw

but berries are awesome in steam extraction.

you will need a bigger dose of pectic enzyme as the heat will cause higher chance of pectin haze

but the steam will also kill bacteria :)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Would I need any other equipment with that kit? Apart from the sugar and bottles. I'm assuming all of the bits I'll need will be included, but I don't want to start and realise I'm missing something vital.

Have a read of the thread below it shows you everything you need to make wine and how to do it, if you don't fancy orange switch it for something else, you can make a Demjohn from a 5 litre plastic water bottle to keep costs down, no point spending money on a big bucket and all the equipment only to find home brewing is not for you, start small and see how it goes -

How to make your first WOW - viewtopic.php?t=10179

Have a look at the supermarket juice wine recipes in my signature below for some ideas if you don't want to make the orange version. :thumb:

 

[Goat Boy]

Wilkinsons do a 6 bottle cabernet sauvignon starter kit for around £20. Includes everything you need to make wine including a tin of the grape juice and brewing sugar.

:thumb: That's exactly how i started with wines and haven't looked back. If I had my time again though I'd store the cab Sauvignon juice that comes with the kit for a later date and get the hardware straight to work on something more worthy of your time. It's drinkable but really not that great.

Once I'd swilled the Wilko's wine, I put a Beaverdale 6 bottle Shiraz kit into it and was staggered at the difference in quality. Would definitely recommend one of those if you like Shiraz. Also wouldn't hesitate to buy any of the other kits from Beaverdale given how that one turned out. I believe the Californian Connoisseur kits are just as good too.

Have more recently done a few of Mr Wurzel's wines and those too are fantastic given the unremarkable staring ingredients.

Well worth the 20 notes investment in those wilkos starter kits to get you going. :

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

There you go Abigail, I think you've got yourself a plan!

Buy a Wilko (or equivalent alternative brand) starter kit and either use the juice concentrate provided or use the equipment to make your own brew up.

 

[Kiwigardener]

I started out about a month ago with a 30 bottle kit from Wilco's - it's really easy and definitely drinkable! I've just bottled my second 30 bottle kit (which only worked out 25 bottles as you lose a bit in syphoning) and I've even started a WOW type recipe from here using supermarket pomegranate juice (2ltrs) and red grape juice in a demijohn - I'm hooked! Go for a wine kit to start- all the instructions are in the box!

 

[Abigail]

Ok, so I bought a starter kit from Wilkos this evening. It doesn't have everything included (can't really complain, £20 for the demi-john, bung, syphon tube, wine mix, sugar and sterilise). I bought a hydrometer, test jar and another bag of sugar. I'll obviously need to buy a few more bits in the next week or so, but at least I can get started tomorrow evening :thumb: