wine makers - who are we?

[Smod]

I do keep with there original bottle.

Haven't done much over the past few years so this was easy. :thumb:

 

[NickW]

Hmmmm.. Last time I tried to cork a screwcap bottle, the cork was too big to fit into the bottle. It must be the ASDA smart price merlot I've been buying :grin:

 

[percival]

i find that when i drink the bottles somehow know and won't keep still, sometimes they even morph, check it again in the morning :rofl:

 

[Jonnyv]

The Langborough Winery was in full swing this afternoon. I've just filtered, bottled, labelled and shrinked 18 bottles of Shiraz and put another 10 or so litres into a polypin. Seems I spend a lot longer bottling and presenting wine than I do with beer!

All good fun though - especially when you're "quality assuring" at each stage... hic!

 

[percival]

3 cheers for the langborough winery :

is that beaverdale shiraz a kit that you need to add sugar to? i'm going to make a kit wine sometime soonish, been inspired by some of the comments i've seen here. I'm looking out for a no-added sugar one. connoseurs choice is a possibility but it would be nice to have options incase one or other isn't in stock.

 

[Jonnyv]

You don't need to add sugar to the Beaverdale kits. In the box you get the concentrated grape juice, yeast, oak chippings, stabaliser (aka crushed campden tablets), chitosan and kieselsol for finings.

I like the Shiraz, but I have limited experience with wine kits (and wine in general) so I'll await the more expert opinion of my parents when it's properly ready in a few months.

For my next wine kit I might make an attempt at creating a couple of bottles of fizzy red. I've a few champagne bottles lying about but no corks/cages. Should be just a case of priming the bottles like beer with sugar, to a quite high degree.

I visited a vineyard in the summer in Cornwall where they make fizzy red wine - they explained the technique which is basically bottle conditioning using priming sugars, storing the bottle upside down so the yeast sediment settles near the cork and then in one swift action opening the bottle upside down and letting the sediment fall out - without losing too much wine - then recorking.

I've read other techniques of freezing the bottle neck so just the sediment freezes into a lump, opening the bottle and letting the lump fall out, then recorking.

All sounds like fun to me

 

[percival]

sounds like fun indeed and also pretty exciting! not sure i would be brave enough to try either method myself. the first would worry me about losing too much wine, tho in a garden in the summer, if its gonna be drunk there and then i would give it a go! The second i would be worried about too much ice breaking the bottle, tho if the cork wasn't wired i guess that could be where the pressure is relieved, tho it would depend on where the ice was. i'd love to see either method in action tho.

 

[Aleman]

Stabiliser is most probably potassium sorbate and not sodium metabisulphite . . . They want the yeast to stop working completely not knock them out with the possibility of it restarting

 

[Jonnyv]

Ah you might be right Aleman - although it says in the instructions to only use it once fermentation has finished as the stabiliser won't stop an active fermentation, it would only 'stop a further fermentation' - I figured that was the characteristic of sodium met?

 

[percival]

if you're gonna be drinking your wine shortly after adding campden then chances are it won't start fermenting again. but if you have plans to leave it for some time then it probably isn't the way to go if there is plenty of available sugar for the yeast. I think the turbo cider folks have been using campden to stop fermentation without problems as they have been drinking the stuff pronto!

drinking v soon after adding campden might result in a taste (sulphurous), some pouring from one vessel to another (just a few times) allowing splashing, will go a long way to getting rid of the taste or even do it altogether.

i have no idea what time spans are critical, other factors like temperature probably also play their part. I've only had one occasion of a wine starting to ferment again presented me with any problems, i hadn't used campden on that occasion and my bedroom smelled wonderfully of orange wine for a few weeks afterwards. i tend to let my wines ferment all the way, tho i'm not averse to trying to stop it when i have something that would better suit my tastes if i did so.

 

[KevP]

I have just got back into making wine after a very long break, beer brewing has been my staple for the last few months.

But back onto wine also now, bottled a kit Chardonnay for SWMBO, and have a from scratch Blueberry Blush, and bubbling away nicely now is a from scratch Summer Berry (Italian red grape juice, and some chopped Strawbs, Blueberry, Cranberry and Cherry) no idea what it'll turn out like but very cheap to do and might just be a cracker!

Looking forward to getting out this year into the hedgerows and up to my alottment to get some proper Country wines on the go, looking to build up a nice stockpile to prevent the temptation to try too young :nono: :whistle:

 

[percival]

Welcome back to wine KevP and thanks for dropping in.

there's not a lot of us making wine here but we are covering a lot of ground between us. Each new person posting seems to be significantly different from the others. Loads of potential for the forum to be our bee and do some cross pollination of our gardens!

Your fruity blended blush sounds great to me. i could imagine doing something like that myself one day ... but not for some time as my list of things to brew next is already quite long!

 

[llannige]

Not a wine drinker,so that's probably why I've not yet got into wine making.Though its something I intend to put right sometime this year.

Been brewing beer for just over a year now.
Started off with a couple of kits,then a couple of extracts and have now 5 A.G's under my belt.
The only other things I've tried is.

Ginger Beer -Success,very refreshing.

Atomic Lemon(posted elsewhere)Great success will do again repeatedly

Ancient Orange and Spice Mead .This was a relatively quick Mead compared to most.Brewed in August and it was ready to drink at Xmas.Have kept 2 bottles to see how well it will age until next Xmas
Not really my sort of drink,although it went down very well with my family.
This year.I will try another Mead,experiment with a few Country wines,and a Marrow Rum is another that I fancy trying amongst other things.
Off course my priority will be BEER.

The info and ideas I pick up on this website cannot be under estimated.

Will keep you all up to date.

 

[percival]

Hi llannige

thanks for posting and adding to the diversity of this little, but growing, group.

I think you'll find others here who don't drink wine (yet ) but want to brew some from time to time. Your mead brew sounds great, especially so cos it can be drunk quite young. I'm sure i'm not the only one who would love to see a recipe for it, tho i could wait til your next brewday if you want to share it with us then. Hopefully the bee population will make a comeback this year and we'll have an abundance of honey, tho sadly i'm not optimistic. You can buy packets of seeds from garden centres that produce flowers that bees like, every little helps.

 

[BrewStew]

llannige any chance you can post that Mead recipe?

i've been wanting to do a mead pretty much since i started brewing, but didn't fancy having to wait a year to drink it!

 

[BrewStew]

sorry.. forget i asked.. i've just noticed it in the recipes section :thumb:

 

[bevo]

Hello Gents,
I thought I would say hello.
I am quite new to making wine from fruits etc but I have done kits for about 12 months.
I like quite spicy / full bodied wines like a good shiraz.
I have enjoyed making wines from fruit last summer / autumn, but I have a lot to learn.
The forums have been good and I have already learnt a lot from the advice on them.
I have also made some wine from supermarket juice with a varied degree of success.
Tried from the Lidl red grape juice but the wine seemed very acidic (even though I didn't add any acid). I tried the same later in the year and used some blackberries I had already used to make a wine as a secondary mash with the Lidl grape. This was a much better wine.
I also made a wine from Aldi white grape juice which turned out quite well.
I love making wine from free ingredients i.e. from the hedgerow etc.
I enjoy the actual walking and picking as much as making the wine.
I will keep reading the forums and hope to pick up some good advice from the seasoned professionals!!!
The biggest problem for me is trying to sample it before it is really ready.
I need to get some good stocks done to avoid temptation!!!!
Thanks to the people who have already given me good advice and happy brewing!!!!
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[percival]

hey Bevo

thanks for introducing yourself and telling us about your wine making

You seem to enjoy doing all sorts so you'll probably have something in common with each of us!

 

[falafael]

hi, yes the group seems to be growing, have turned the top of my garden inot a 'left to nature' sanctuary, chucked some cottage garden seeds in, and it takes care of itself now, got hegehogs up there as well, my gardens definately not one for show!work in progress, with greenhouse, and veg patch etc!!
All for the sake of winemaking now!!

 

[percival]

sounds cool ..... cottage garden seeds ..... what plants are going to come from these?