Introduce Yourselves here

[Uncleboobot]

Hi - I'm Stuart - I have been making wine at home since January. My Dad bought me a Beaverdale kit last Xmas and let's just say I got bitten by the bug. All my sucessful wines so far have been kit wines and sadly each of my first three attempts at juice wine ( WOW and wine No1 ) have all been largely unsuccessful

I have currently got 1g of RGJ juice wine on the go which is stuck (is that a contradiction - on the go and stuck???), 1g of wine no1 which I've just added finings to tonight and a 15 litre batch of Juice wine fermenting nicely (measured tonight at 1.000)

I'm hoping to get some sound advice here as I'm nervous about another failed attempt!! Please be patient

[Cellar_Rat]

Welcome aboard Stuart. This can be quite a virulent bug when it bites There is bucket loads of satisfaction to had making a lovely wines - the guys here are full of sound advice that will help for the tricky bits.

[lockwood1956]

Welcome aboard Stuart

regards
Bob

[madmatt]

Hi all, we'll, yesterday I took the plunge and bought all the gear for winemaking from the fantastic Happy Brewer shop in Bedford, including a 30 bottle kit(Beaverdale Merlot) and today I have got it all up and running!
I like medium/full bodied wines and just hope this turns out to be drinkable by Xmas. Need to source 30 bottles now, and my only question is to do with the airlock.i have half filled it(it half fills both chambers?!) and replaced the cap loosely. Is this correct or does this cap need to be clicked onto the airlock?
Many thanks for any replies in advance.
Regards
Matt
P.s. don't ya just love forums! I reckon it's what the Internet was invented for!

[goldseal]

Welcome aboard Matt.

If your airlock looks like this:

http://www.winemakingsuperstore.com/equipment/images/airlock2.jpg

- just fill it so the lower bubble is full each side, or maybe a bit less.

If it looks like this:

http://www.chicompany.net/images/AirLock%20-%20Dble%20Bubble.jpg

- it should have a 'max' line marked on it.

The cap can rest loosely on the top. It is a non-airtight dust-cap, to stop nasties and insects taking a bath

[madmatt]

Yep, mines the first one, many thanks, will go and tip some out(had filled it 50/50) it's already 2/1 sections filled! The yeast is doing its stuff!

Many thanks

Matt

[madmatt]

Well, 24hrs in and it's bubbling away nicely!
Went to the NBC good food show today in london, lots of wine tasting was done, but no homebrew stands at all.
Very disappointed!
Bought myself a lOvely 'kin' knife though!
Matt

[Leo]

Hi There

Not quite new to the site but I keep on losing my password when I want to log in and post! I have now written it down!

Some great advice on the forum, many thanks.

Where would be the best place to ask about 'dosage'? I have a bit of a mission on at the moment for sparkling wines, I've done a few kits and have just given a 'wine #1' the sparkle challenge too. Would really like to try for some well aged 'sur lies' style but want to find a nice (super dry) base to that is worth the wait.

Leo

[c.u.jimmy]

Hi folks - my name is Hugh and I can accurately be described as a silver surfer. I stated making wine about 40 years ago and fell out of love with the hobby after 20 years when Boots stopped stocking the required items. I started again about 4 years ago and I am thoroughly enjoying it. having read the recipes for Strawberry wine and Fruit cocktail wine made from tinned fruit I have a gallon of each bubbling away although only started 3 hours ago. I look forward to a happy association with the Forum.

Hugh

[fatbloke]

Hi There

Not quite new to the site but I keep on losing my password when I want to log in and post! I have now written it down!

Some great advice on the forum, many thanks.

Where would be the best place to ask about 'dosage'? I have a bit of a mission on at the moment for sparkling wines, I've done a few kits and have just given a 'wine #1' the sparkle challenge too. Would really like to try for some well aged 'sur lies' style but want to find a nice (super dry) base to that is worth the wait.

Leo

Welcome (back) Leo. Dosage of what would be the next Q ? Yeast ? Priming sugar of some sort ? Yeast for sur lie/batonage may need better input than I can offer, though EC-1118 and K1-V1116 both come to mind (my preference would be K1-V1116, as it retains better flavour and aroma than EC-1118 IMO). The only thing I do know, is that getting champagne/sparkling wine bottles can be a bit of a pain and you often need to get them used, then wash, sanitise/de-label etc. Plastic stoppers and wire cages/foils seem less of a problem........

Hi folks - my name is Hugh and I can accurately be described as a silver surfer. I stated making wine about 40 years ago and fell out of love with the hobby after 20 years when Boots stopped stocking the required items. I started again about 4 years ago and I am thoroughly enjoying it. having read the recipes for Strawberry wine and Fruit cocktail wine made from tinned fruit I have a gallon of each bubbling away although only started 3 hours ago. I look forward to a happy association with the Forum.

Hugh

Welcome Hugh. There's a few out of print books worth looking out on Amazon markets that detail some decent tinned and dried fruit recipes, including the one that the legendary CJJ put together. Plus the plethora of kits that are available. Just because Boots stopped doing home brew kit might have been "cause for a pause" but with the advent of the internet, you can obtain pretty much all the kind of stuff they used to sell, and more. Of course, if you happen to have a half decent local HBS then all the better, but Karl (u/n Duffbeer) runs a home brew supply set up at http://www.hobbywinesupplies.co.uk/ (don't quote me, but I seem to recall the offer of a bit of discount for forum members - dunno if Karl still offers that). He keeps all the usual suspects so worth a look.

For both of you, there's a mountain of expertise hereabouts, so there's no question that isn't worth asking.....

[c.u.jimmy]

Yes the internet and the opening of a WILKO shop re-kindled my interest. Currently have 1g strawberry, 1g fruit cocktail, 1g apple/orange, 1g apple/rhubarb, and 5g Soloman Grundy Rose bubbling away at the moment. Will check Duffbeer's website. Thanks for info.

Hugh

[goldseal]

Where would be the best place to ask about 'dosage'? I have a bit of a mission on at the moment for sparkling wines, I've done a few kits and have just given a 'wine #1' the sparkle challenge too. Would really like to try for some well aged 'sur lies' style but want to find a nice (super dry) base to that is worth the wait.

Leo

The best place to ask specific questions is over in the General Winemaking sesction:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?17-General-Winemaking

- take a few minutes to see if anyone has asked the same question before and, if not, start a new thread.

There is a sparkling how-to in the Tutorial section. This isn't the champagne method, but it does work well, and is a good introduction to making sparkly.

I find making decent sparkly is quite difficult, so I think it is a good idea to follow the bare-bones method inthe tutorial, then move to the champagne method when you are comfortable (or, in my case, less uncomfortable) with the whole process.

[Gardener Tom]

Hi all
I've been lurking for a while but haven't got round to joining.
A bit about myself-
i started winemaking/homebrew a year ago when my dad and his partner set up shop selling winemaking etc...
since then i have made a couple of beers some turbo ciders and alot of wines and I now work in said shop.
I tend to get a bit obsessive when it comes to hobby's and love variety (I don't tend to make many things twice as there is so many new things to try). to give you an idea of what i mean. i grew 50 variety's of chilli last year, a couple of years ago i had 15 fish tanks running in my bedroom and i have more than one variety of any veg i grow (why have a row of the same type why not have 10 different types )
back to winemaking, i have - 5gals of hedgrow port, 1gal generic red, 1gal waitrose merlot red, 1gal of French market grape wine, 1gal of pear & quince, 1gal beaverdale barolo, 1gal beaverdale chateau du roi, 1gal beaverdale muscadet (trying sur lie), 3gal of no1 variant and 1 gal of beer from home-grown hops all on the go at the moment in various stages. oh and at the shop have got 1gal prickly pear and 1gal of cherry red. so as you can see quite a bit of bottling to do at some stage.

cheers, looking forward to posting more and reading loads
Tom

[Cellar_Rat]

Tom,

Welcome aboard. What a lovely spread - but have you tried making wine from grapes - I hear the frozen ones are real good?

[Gardener Tom]

Hi,
yes I was very tempted by the frozen grapes and will have a go but i cant justify it so close to Christmas. My birthday is in January so I definatly will be up for getting some then.
in the mean time I did experiment when the French market came to town. they had some large sweet pippy red grapes so I tried pressing (got a big apple press and a small fruit press) a load of them and have made a demijohn full of white wine using them which is currently clearing ready to bottle.