Introduce Yourselves here

[Gerry069]

Brian dumped the lemon and added an orange and yeast this afternoon and all seems well now, should I just top it up to the neck, dump it in a press and forget about it for a month now? Used Tesco yeast.

[Gerry069]

still worth a taste......
Read up on how sherry is made and you'll likely see what I mean.

Some of the chaps from your neck of the woods complain (on other forums) about getting supplies locally. If you check out the sig line in duffbeer's (Karl) posts he runs HBS (maybe a bit of discount? as I seem to recall that being mentioned).

Either way......Welcome to the WaH....

Thanks for the welcome Mr Fat Chap and your right its almost impossible to get any supplies in my neck of the woods so I will most defiantly check out Karl's HBS and as to the "sherry" a bit of reading is in order alright. It was a wine I made which was slow to start. I remember shaking the bejasus out of it and adding a little yeast but don't think I ever looked at it again (left the area for a few years)until I came across it a few weeks ago and it sparked my interest again.
Gerry.

[Gerry069]

IMAG0579.jpg
On another point I found some yeast from the last century and it still seems to have some life in it. Not going to use it but thought someone would find it informative.
Gerry.

[Cellar_Rat]

cripes formula 67 takes me back !!

Perhaps you could start yeast museum

[flash337]

Hi, just registered

Hi, I have just registered on here, I have been making country wines on and off for about 10 years now, off more than on to be honest with you.

I have just made 2 x Blackberry and one Manderine orange from tins about 5 days ago.

This is the first batch for about 4 years.

I am just interested to see what other flavours I can make.

Thanks

Kris

[NorthernWiner]

Welcome Kris! Good to have you here.

[lockwood1956]

Welcome aboard Kris

(I merged this thread with the "introduce yourselves" thread)

[Ambren]

Hi, I'm new here too.

I've made wine and beer from kits before and over the last couple of years also made wines from blackberries and gooseberries.
The wife insisted that I make 'proper' wine, by which I assume she meant using grapes so last year I planted 25 each of Rondo and Solaris.
In the first season I removed all the flowers as advised but couldn't bring myself to do it again this year as growth was vigorous ans there was plenty of fruit.

So my first question is: when do I pick the grapes? Over the last week the Rondo have been turning purple at an astonishing rate. Some bunches appear to have ripened fully while others still have quite a few green grapes. The solaris obviously are still green but some are quite soft to the touch.
The birds don't yet appear to be interested (I haven't protected them) but the wasps are starting to show an interest in the very ripe ones.

I don't have any clever gadgets to measure sugar content until they are crushed and I can measure the SG.

Do I pick the lot now, pick them in stages or wait until all have ripened and lose a few that have over-ripened?

Thanks,

Geoff

[Technotrucker]

Hi Geoff from another newbie I'm in the same situation, I don't have my own vines yet but a friend as said that I can have all the fruit off his vine. I think the guys on here will put us both right.

[goldseal]

A good indicator is when the seeds start to go brown.

It may be worth investing in a refractometer (e.g. from eBay) - you can check ripeness using a couple of drops of juice from a single grape.

I don't think there is anything wrong with picking the grapes in stages, destemming and crushing them, and freezing the must. That's what Brian (cellar rat) does, and one of my best reds to date is a Temranillo whose must sat in the freezer for a week.

[goldseal]

Oh, and welcome aboard both

[godfrey]

greetings fellow vintners

I am a new wine maker, making mostly flower and fruit based country wines

I do have a small vine although I have no idea of the variety
I found the vine behind the garden shed when I moved it last summer
it was just a stick in the ground, and now 18 months later I got my first harvest



about 700g which I intend to use in plum port style wine

just ordered a refractometer and acid test kit
to take my produce to the next level

thank you for letting me join your forum

[lockwood1956]

Hi and welcome aboard

I think you might have harvested a tad early, although you are a long way south so might be ok

What colour are the seeds?

[godfrey]

my refractometer just arrived in the post

I will measure the BRIX tonight :-)

my acid test kit will be here Monday so I will keep a 5ml sample for acid

as there is not so much harvest, I really wanted to use them for Color and body in my plum port
will post update with the BRIX and seed pic tonight after work

EDIT:
I have deionised water for calibration of the refractometer

[Biggles]

Biggles is back

For those of you not at winefest 13 this weekend just wanted to let you all know i am here again, currently stood in my kitchen making some No1 wine.

Can someone remind me where i can get a sheet to record all the good info that i am taking at the moment, type of juice, SG, ammount of sugar etc, Am sure there used to be a form you could print and keep all the info, yes i know, i never did it either but wanting to make better wines this time,

Hope to chat soon,

Andy

(Big Les)