What have you got brewing at the moment

[scrap]

scrap I too am new to brewing and I am attempting two gallons (seperately) of rose hip wine. I have my fingers crossed that at least one of them will turn out good! And I am addicted too. I have blackberries thawing ready for processing tomorrow.

I am looking at doing something quick whilst these ferment and am open to ideas.

*Is greeted with a chorus of ''welcome,Welchmum''.
Well,there are plenty of idea's on this site.
The quick apple-juice hooch was just a small test to see if I had a basic grasp on the home-brew thingy.
On hindsight I could have added some tannin in the form of some tea,and a handful of raisins.
If you need any specific info the guy you'll need to contact is MKG apparently, he seems to be the local home-brew doctor.
His ''wine-making 1,2 &3'' was a true gem in my opinion.

The elderberry wine is still bubbling along happily in my shed.
I check up on it regularly,and tonight I added another pound of sugar.
It kinda looked like it was doing fine,so I decided to taste a spoonful.
Surprising how much it tastes like a very young Beaujolais instead of,well,elderberry pulp.
Methinks this one will turn out fine.
Although,should I smeg up tremendously on that project I'll let y'all all know as well.
Mistakes are an important part of a learning process after all...

Mead has gotten my attention lately,but apparently it's a pretty slow process.
Anyone out there with a bit of experience in that field?

[frozenthunderbolt]

It's a substance which breaks down pectin, and there's no substitute apart from not using it at all.

Mike

I'm going to be a pain here as say ACTUALY ....

If you have mountain paw paw (not papaya) which oozes white latex when you break the skin you are ok.
I've never used it for brewing but i am informed that it will destroy pectin - would be interesting to experiment

[frozenthunderbolt]

Mead - watch the acid - honey makes an excelletn PH buffer so you can add a lot of acid and have nothing happen . . .then suddenly it is undrinkably acid - use a recipie and measure carefully.

The better the honey the better the taste - quality counts. Also, the stronger the taste of the honey the longer it will need to mature to be acceptable. I first used clover (quite bland) and while drinkable it needed 2 years to be REALY good.

[prison break fan]

Has anyone made Quince wine? I have just been given a bucketful!. I totally agree with asking MKG for info, he has been such a help to me. His alcoholic water is fantastic. pbf.

[Rambling Rob]

On the subject of old fashioned fruit. I got given 7lbs of Medlars today. Not sure I have enough demi's spare after starting 5 gallon of Damson, 5 gallon of Sloe, 2 gallon of crab apple and 2 gallon of wild pear this week!

[frozenthunderbolt]

Has anyone made Quince wine? I have just been given a bucketful!. I totally agree with asking MKG for info, he has been such a help to me. His alcoholic water is fantastic. pbf.

Yes! it is gorgeous! I made mine with raisins for some body then a mix of quince, persimmon and tinned lychees and bought apple juice (one sans preservatives) - it came out like Gewurztraminer - beautifully arromatic. Get a few tins of lychees and throw then in on the lightly simmered quince slices and a bit of sugar and some nutrient + perhaps 1/2 tsp citric acid OR citric malic if you ommit the apple juice.
Fermented on the fruit 3-4 days i think then strained into a demijohn. Was worked out in 1-2 weeks and cleared beautifully - i used a bit of isinglass finings, but it probably wasn't actually necessary.

Go for it

[prison break fan]

Frozenthunderbolt, thankyou very much, sounds wonderful! pbf.

[welshmum]

thans for the welcome scrap!

I have alittle question for anyone that has the time. The two musts of rosheip that I have on the go have only 1 day left before being filtered into teh demijohn. Apart from following a recipe how do you know its actually ready?

[scrap]

You mean after you've decanted the wine into the demijohn?
Well, I guess it's about ready to be bottled when the fermentation has stopped and the wine has cleared up.
But I could be missing some vital info on the subject,I am just as ''noob'' at this as you are..

So far things are looking good brew-wise.
Tonight I've decanted the elderberry wine into a demijohn,and had a small glass out of curiosity.
Not unlike port,and not bad at all.
In fact,I had another glass

I noticed there are still some ripe elderberry's on some of the local shrubs.
Hopefully the weather will be favorable this weekend for a little foraging.
The 9 litres of elderberry wine I've got brewing at the moment won't last long,
especially because my mother-in-law found out about my new hobby...

[welshmum]

I have decanted the rosehip into the demijohns. I will be decanting the rosehip and blacberry tomorrrow. I was very good and resisted the rose hip wine but I may try a "small" glass of the rose hip and blackberry.

Out of curiosity I also started a version of tea bag wine from part 2 of the beginners wine making part from here.

[noodles]

Help needed here please. I have made my first ever elderberry wine
Using the ish bible recipe. What I have now is a bucket of brown liquid, that
Does smell sort of like wine. Is this how it is meant to look during the early stages? Just looks a bit frightening at the moment.

[MKG]

Well - look at all the activity while I've been busy!

@noodles - yes, elderberry does produce a pretty mucky-looking gloop. The gloop will fall out as the fermentation finishes and you'll end up with a beautifully clear wine.

When I say busy, I've actually been scouring the surrounding countryside looking for a foraging site for mountain paw-paw. No luck yet, though. I'll keep trying - maybe I'll find some next to the local kiwi fruit farm

Mike

[noodles]

Cheers mike, panic over.

[Jerseymum]

I have been entranced reading all the posts on this thread: getting loads of hints for future reference.
We recently got given 24 djs and it would be a shame to have them empty so I have introduced dh to home brewing.
We have an apple tree so have harvested, pulped and juiced 4 gallons of apple juice which he is truning into cider in a very scientific , 'what if I add yeast to one, but not the other' kind of way. Bless him, he's happy with it and the kids loved the mashing post he knocked up so that they could join in destroying apples!
Dh also has several kit wines that he started to give him an idea of the process. He's happier with a scientific formula.
Me, I'm more of a try-it-and-see brewer.
I have a gallon each of: tea and raisin; strawberry and blackcurrant; parsnip (they were given to me by a friend on the market who was just going to chuck them, bless); mead; strawberry and blackberry and have just started a gallon of pineapple (again, they were going to waste so why not!).
I've also got some cherry brandy and damson gin on the go to prove to dh that liqueurs are nicer when home made.
Am collecting rosehips whenever I can to make some sort of alcoholic beverage from.
My rule is if it tastes like crud, mull it. Always worked for my grandad!
I think it will be a very
Sarah

[pitwipe]

^ you were given 24 demi-johns? Wow... nice haul!