Introduce Yourselves here

[Jesse]

A Hydrometer I will need, what temps does the thermometer need to read as I have one already that I use for soapmaking the temp range is from -somethingC to over 120C.

Do you think it's worthwhile buying a book on winemaking and if so could you recommend one?

[lockwood1956]

Terry gareys the joy of home winemaking
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...196154-0221442

or CJJ Berry first steps in winemaking
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...196154-0221442


Terry Gareys book is much more light hearted than Cyril Berry's but I started with the Berry one and was glad of it.


There are some good home wine making manuals in the downloads section (and they are free!)

http://www.lockwoodrecording.net/hom...kingmanual.pdf

http://www.lockwoodrecording.net/win...inyourhome.pdf

http://www.lockwoodrecording.net/the...makingbook.pdf

they cover all the basics.


hope this helps
regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

A thermometer from a home brew store has no mercury in it (it's alcohol I believe) so if it breaks the wine isnt ruined.

regards
Bob

[Jesse]

That's fantastic, thank you

[brewnut]

Newbie from England - Surrey!

Hi Board,

I'm a 35 year old bloke from the north-east of England originally now living in Surrey. The total absence of really decent ales (at least close by to me) down here has finally turned me to brewing my own beer!

I started about two weeks ago with a 'Geordie Bitter' kit and racked that from its fermenting bin a couple of days ago directly into a pressure barrel: all A-OK at the moment with that brew - it even tastes like beer already! <g>

I also started a 'Prohibition Vodka' kit which is bubbling away like a volcano! LOL No problems there as of yet.

Lastly I started a 'CWE Country Wine - Plum' four days ago; this is giving me a little bit of a headache however and I would be most grateful for some input from any of the regulars/experienced brewers on the board with what to do with it. It started off all OK. But yesterday stopped fermenting altogether (at least visibly/no air coming through the airlock at all). Today I (according to the instructions) made up the volume in the gallon demijohn from 4 L to 4.7 L and also tested the specific gravity which came in at 1.007 [8.35%]. FYI the end specific gravity is supposed to be between 1.004 and 1.002.

Instead of just adding water, as instructed, I today added 245 gram/8.64 ounces of 'Grape Juice Concentrate' [red] & water to make up the volume to the instructed 4.7 L ..... Basically because I forgot to add this at the start. Note, this is not in the instructions to the kit at all; it's my own endeavour!

What should I do if fermentation hasn't started again by tonight/tomorrow?

FYI it might be worth adding that the temperature the wine is supposed to ferment at is 25 degrees celsius. I am slightly concerned that this temperature may have been exceeded overnight by a few degrees the other night. This, anyway, is the only cause for the stopping of the fermentation that I can come up with.

What should I do if fermenting doesn't re-start? Add some new yeast??????

Any help/comments or encouragement greatly appreciated!

Don't forget I'm a complete newbie to brewing so please if you do reply treat me like an idiot/don't use jargon etc! LOL

TIA,

Brewnut

[P cuthbert]

Brewnut;

Welcome to the forum.

If your SG indicated at 1.007 is after the wine stopped, and you added the juice, then the SG may be indicative of the added juice in the must.

The concentrate you added: Does it contain any preservatives? If so, this may hinder the fermentation. If not, then a good stir may well get this fermentation back on track.

Adding yeast to this will accomplish nothing but killing the yeast. The yeast must be conditioned to the alcohol. This is a bit of an involved process, and may not be worth the effort if your SG is only a few points off the desired end point.

Let us know a bit more about how you would like to proceed, and I ma sure we can try to help.

Pat

[brewnut]

It's up &amp; running again!

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the speedy reply & your welcome to this board. Friendly, like!

In answer to your question; no, the grape concentrate didn't have anything else in it.

The good news is that fermentation is back up and running with a vengence as after a couple of hours after my first post. Obviously this must mean I hadn't killed all the yeast through too high a temperature first time around. Anyhow, per your instructions, a damn good stir seems to have got the yeast back from the bottom of the demijohn and working fine! What a relief!

Thanks again for the reply Pat. Much appreciated. ... Great board!

Brewnut

[lockwood1956]

Hello and welcome

great news that its on its way again, welcome to our cozy little home, I hope you enjoy your stay here.

I too am a North East boy living in Yorkshire, origionally from Newcastle though.

Have a look in the downloads section, there is some good reading material in there that you can download.

are you a shift worker? just i noticed that your last post was at ridiculous O'clock
lol
You can get answers at that time of night though because our friends across the pond are online at that time.

regards
Bob

[brewnut]

Thanks for the Warm Welcome + more basic questions!

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the welcome to this 'cozy home'; certainly a welcoming one!

May I first just say how nice it is to talk to someone that understands Yorkshire is in the *south* of England! LOL.

I spent four wonderful years in Newcastle, though I'm actually originally from Teesside, three partying when I should have been studying (at Newcastle Uni) and another working there for a year after I graduated, mainly because I simply couldn't drag myself away!

No I'm not a shift worker .... Just a night owl! Always have been!

A couple of questions that arise from where I've got so far with this Plum wine kit/brew if anyone can help out with them. I appreciate they must be a bit stupid to you old-timers, but I'm completely new to this so forgive me!

1) What is (exactly) 'must' .... Is it the name given in wine-making to what in beer making is called (I understand) 'wort'; the basic mix of sugar & 'stuff' etc that you first start out with, or does it have a different or not too specific a meaning?

2) Is there any reliable way (or not so reliable way!) to work out the alcohol content of my plum wine, now I've messed up and added the concentrated grape juice after fermentation has started? I do have a hydrometer but understand I should have taken a reading on this before fermentation started, with all ingredients that contain any sugar already in the 'must'?

Moving on more into beer, lager & cider territory:

3) I neighbour told me the other day when I popped over to measure out the sugar to add to my Geordie Bitter that you can play around with the alcohol content of any of the above simply by adding (or keeping adding) more sugar.

Is this true? Are there any guidelines on this; how much is too much etc? What I'd like to do is make a killer brew in time for a summer/late spring BBQ - say 8 - 12% - a scrumpy type cider ...

4) What is the relationship between alcohol by volume (hereafter "ABV") and percent 'proof'?

The vodka kit I've got says it makes up to 21% ABV but also suggests this is 37 [I need a small 'o' in superscript just after the 37 but don't know how to get one there on a standard keyboard!]? This plainly confuses me! ABV seems plainly self-explanatory, but % proof I thought I understood too: obviously I don't .... any help here appreciated.

Thanks too for the tip of looking in the downloads section ... handn't thought of that - if any admin/mods are reading this perhaps a sticky note in the newbie section would get us newbies into the downloads section quicker .... I hope none of the above questions are answered there .... If so, apologies in advance for appearing so lazy as to ask them rather than look them up!!

TIA,

Brewnut

[lockwood1956]

A couple of questions that arise from where I've got so far with this Plum wine kit/brew if anyone can help out with them. I appreciate they must be a bit stupid to you old-timers, but I'm completely new to this so forgive me!

1) What is (exactly) 'must' .... Is it the name given in wine-making to what in beer making is called (I understand) 'wort'; the basic mix of sugar & 'stuff' etc that you first start out with, or does it have a different or not too specific a meaning?

you got it right

2) Is there any reliable way (or not so reliable way!) to work out the alcohol content of my plum wine, now I've messed up and added the concentrated grape juice after fermentation has started? I do have a hydrometer but understand I should have taken a reading on this before fermentation started, with all ingredients that contain any sugar already in the 'must'?

Difficult if you dont have the origional readings but you can buy an alcometer that allegedly determines the alcohol content....one of our resident experts will no doubt know a better way

3) I neighbour told me the other day when I popped over to measure out the sugar to add to my Geordie Bitter that you can play around with the alcohol content of any of the above simply by adding (or keeping adding) more sugar.

Is this true? Are there any guidelines on this; how much is too much etc? What I'd like to do is make a killer brew in time for a summer/late spring BBQ - say 8 - 12% - a scrumpy type cider ...

yes you can add extra sugar to take the alcohol level higher but be careful you dont overdo it

4) What is the relationship between alcohol by volume (hereafter "ABV") and percent 'proof'?

The vodka kit I've got says it makes up to 21% ABV but also suggests this is 37 [I need a small 'o' in superscript just after the 37 but don't know how to get one there on a standard keyboard!]? This plainly confuses me! ABV seems plainly self-explanatory, but % proof I thought I understood too: obviously I don't .... any help here appreciated.

conversion tables here to convert from proof to degrees alcohold
http://mysite.verizon.net/mshapiro_42/convert.html

Thanks too for the tip of looking in the downloads section ... handn't thought of that - if any admin/mods are reading this perhaps a sticky note in the newbie section would get us newbies into the downloads section quicker .... I hope none of the above questions are answered there .... If so, apologies in advance for appearing so lazy as to ask them rather than look them up!!

TIA,

Brewnut

Don't mention it we are always happy to help


good idea on the pushing the downloads bit into the newbie area....will get on it

regards
Bob

[eggonline]

Moving on more into beer, lager & cider territory:

3What I'd like to do is make a killer brew in time for a summer/late spring BBQ - say 8 - 12% - a scrumpy type cider ...

maybe you should give Turbo Cider a try
http://www.winesathome.net/forum/sho...=turbo+cider:D

[cooter]

hi

Hi all im Andy im from Bolton Lancashire..
Have been making from kits for a few years.. now im starting experimenting
with proper Beer & Wine...

[lockwood1956]

Welcome aboard Andy

hope you enjoy your time here

regards
Bob

[brewnut]

Thanks For The Help &amp; Recommendation + yeast question

Hi All,

Thanks for the detailed reply Bob - at least I know what must is now eh?! ... Moving slowly out of the complete newbie catagory. <g>

Brilliant suggestion on the cider front Eggonline; will get to it within the next few days as it looks like just about the most idiot proof cider brew I could possibly make (any other newbies reading this follow the link to 'Turbo Cider', below).

One question about that turbo cider brew though.

I only have one packet of beer yeast but I also have a Youngs wine yeast mini pot too .... Which one is likely to produce the better/stronger brew?

I appreciate this is the perfect brew to experiment with per the comment on the page linked to below, but any hint would be appreciated .... Logic tells me the wine yeast must have a stronger tolerance to alcohol, but hey, basically, I don't know. ... Logic also tells me beer yeast is likely better for a cider than wine yeast!

Thanks for all the help to date. Great board!

Brewnut

[lockwood1956]

Link to Turbo Cider
http://www.winesathome.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30