My first Wine

[2steps]

All bottled and sorted

[Shirley]

congratulations

[shiney]

It looks very good, what flavour?!

[2steps]

Elderberry and elderflower. Been told the elderflower is ok but the elderberry could do with storing a little longer. I don't drink alcohol at all, I made these for presents and cooking and syponing it I ended up getting several mouthfulls and spiling some cos I hadn't thought ahead about getting the tube between the bottles dogs were there like a shot to clean it up though

I am going to start some rowanberry and hopefully another lot of elderberry as that was really nice in a casserole I made and also a beef pot roast mmm

[red]

yay! satisfying isn't it!

[Andy Hamilton]

had a party at my house at the weekend and my wine was just ready for it, a good 10 bottles or so were drank and people liked it.

But what is it about when you start to get older everyone brings there own booze and some extra, we now have more alcohol in the house than ever before. In fact if we wanted to throw another party we could without having to buy any more alcohol.

The wine that went down the best was definelty elderflower champagne, not that alcoholic but everyone liked it. - The dandelion wine on the other hand stank like wee but tasted ok, it was liked until my mate spilt some down him self and had to walk home smelling of wee.

I did not use the syphoning method as I did not have a tube with my wine, instead I simply put the bottles into the mix and filled them up seemed to work out ok.

[Muddypause]

had a party at my house at the weekend and my wine was just ready for it

I just had another of those mis-reading moments - I thought that said "had a party at my house at the weekend and my wife was just ready for it"

I tell ya, this interweb thing is warping my mind.

Now, where's me glasses...?

[2steps]

Glad yours went down well andy. I am going to start some rowan when I have the demi john all cleaned etc. I was surprised at all the yuk left in the bottom I made some non alcoholic elderflower champange and my son loved it

[nogginthenog]

Elderberry and elderflower. Been told the elderflower is ok but the elderberry could do with storing a little longer. I don't drink alcohol at all, I made these for presents and cooking and syponing it I ended up getting several mouthfulls

LOL! You don't need to use your mouth when syponing :-) In fact you shouldn't cos of all the beasties that live in there.

Instead, just fill the siphon with clean water from the tap, put your finger over one end and poke the other into the beer/wine, careful to not let out too much water. Take your finger off the end and it should flow out. You might want to let a bit spill out as you don't want that nasty tap water in your wine!

I bottle my beer in the bath. Nice and easy to clean up.

[2steps]

I wish someone had told me that I did think it was a bit iffy doing it that way. well, know for next time now. putting the rowan on later :) like the idea of doing it in the bath too

[chadspad]

Ive always liked doing it in the bath but back to winemaking!

I have 9 gallons on different wines on the go and I have to say, I am soooo pleased with the way they are all turning out. Apart from the elderflower which I bottled some time ago and was revolting, these are all really yummy and taste of the flavours that I intended them to taste of, not just of alcohol! The plum wine is the most fantastic pinky colour.

And I have to disagree and say that the syphoning is the best bit

[hedgewizard]

Seconded! I usually curl my index finger and thumb round the end of the tube and suck on those, and then as the wine begins to "rush" I pop my thumb over the end before the liquid actually reaches it. I've got quite good at it sadly - haven't had a mouthful of wine that way in years!

I must get to it - there's 15 gallons of various stuff waiting to be racked out there, but digging the fruit beds ready for the raspberries and strawberries coming next week takes preference!

Strawberry wine... now there's a thought...

[chadspad]

Oooo yeh, strawberry wine sounds nice! Wonder if u could use the tinned strawberries - I love the flavour of those.

[2steps]

was in the homebrew shop earlier and they had a kit for strawberry wine, funnily enough.

Put the rowan I collected in the freezer last night so will get those out to defrost and start the wineover the weekend :)

[zombiecazz]

Oooo yeh, strawberry wine sounds nice! Wonder if u could use the tinned strawberries - I love the flavour of those.

You could try making wine out of Strawberry Jam.
I have a demijohn full of raspberry jam and apple juice wine.

Here's a recipe for Jam Wine

Jam Wine

2 1/2 lbs. of any fruit jam
1 lb sugar
100gm grape concentrate OR 1/2 lb raisins
1 tbs citric acid
1 tsp pectin enzyme(important wine won't clear without it)
1 tsp grape tannin
1 gallon water

pour boiling water over jam in a plastic bucket (stir) and let cool.add pectin enzyme and acid and leave for 24 hours.add (minced raisins or concentrate),sugar, tannin, yeast and yeast nutrient.
Stir well.
Cover and let ferment for 5 days, stirring it once a day. strain the must and put into fermenting jar. when it's finished fermenting. rack then rack again in 6 months,add 1 crushed campden tablet.bottle in about 3 months

This basically what I did but I used sultananas, replaced some of the water with apple juice and used lemon juice instead of citric acid and strong tea instead of tannin