Introduce Yourselves here

[hawkeyetim]

Hi All And Merry Xmas
Am very new to wine making but have done a couple of Youngs and Berverdale kits in the last couple of months and looking forward to trying a few fruit/flower wines when available.
Just got an Xmas pud and a few cartons of juice to try in a few days and also looking at some pinot grigio kits but can not decide between Berverdale, Solomon and Cantina. Which do you guys/gals recommend.

Hello all and hope to pick your vast brains over the next few weeks, months and years.

Thanks

Tim

[Platypus]

Hi all,

I used to make wine from kits in the past but lost interest for a while when the kids were growing up and supermarket wine became so cheap.

I have recently become interested again, especially around autumn when the hedgerows become such a wonderful source of raw material.

Currently I have 1G of Bullace, 1G of Light Elderberry & Blackberry, 1G Innocent & Welch's Purple, and 1G of Ancient Spiced Orange. All going well but the ASO doesn't seem to be clearing so I'll probably post a query in the relevant thread soon.

PS Great site with lots of good info. Like it...

[goldseal]

Welcome aboard Rob.

Regarding your acidic wine: if you wish, start a new thread in this section:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=46

- include your starting and finishing SG, quantities of sugar added (if any), and any other additions, we'll try to suggest a way to turn it into something more palatable.

[robwrx]

Hello

What a fantastic forum, I can't believe the huge amount of information available to any wine maker who stumbles across it as I have.

I live in north Dorset and have just got into wine making. I've had two grape vines growing in my garden for the last 6 years and every year as I watch the birds eat the grapes, I think I really ought to have a go at making something with them. This October I picked enough grapes to make 4 gallons of wine but unfortunately this was before I'd found this forum or read enough on the subject to not make some major errors. I currently have 3 gallons (1 gallon spoiled) of very acidic wine that I'm not sure what to do with.

Having read the tutorials I've now also got 2 gallons of wine No.1 on the go, one made with orange juice and one with apple juice. I'm now completely hooked and can't wait to collect a few more demijohns to get something else brewing.

Rob

[jonesthephones]

Hello one and all

Hello all, I'm far from new to wine-making, but I am new to this forum site, which looks absolutely spot-on for swapping tips / queries / recipes etc.... Many thanks to those who set it up. I'll be looking through all sorts of posts for info.

I generally make wine in 4.5 to 5 gall lots, on basis that for making just one mess, I may as well get 25 or so bottles. I do have many DJ's but haven't used them for some time.

Bubbling away at present I have:

a) my second 4.5gall lot of 2010 elderberry, picked at their very ripest - high hopes for this brew.

b) Just started 4.5 gall APPLE & BLACKCURRANT using ROBINSONS fruit cordial (5 litres of the full sugar type not the deadly "No Added Sugar" variety - very cheap)

c) 4.5 galls of STRAWBERRY, made using 4 litres of good old Ribena, with usual chopped raisins, bananas, tea, etc.

In c) above, boiled up Ribena for 30 mins to remove preservatives, but it was still slow to start. I used Youngs Super Yeast Compound, making it up as a starter and adding it to the brew (in bucket incl fruit) when it was fizzing away nicely.....

Saw little evidence of ferment in next couple of days, so repeated with fresh yeast starter. Did same once more and was about to give up, when I read the Youngs label which recommended adding it directly to the must, without needing to start it. I did exactly this and hey presto, I have a thriving ferment... Do I perhaps need to boil the Ribena for longer than 30mins, or should I just add yeast directly every time???

[goldseal]

Welcome aboard

[general aidid]

Sure. As a matter of fact I won 3rd place (or lost 1st and 2nd, as my son says) in a huge contest in Lodz today with red grape wine.

[lockwood1956]

Welcome,

You can access fresh winemaking grapes in Poland I think?

pull up a chair, join in the fun

regards
Bob

[general aidid]

Hi. I'm new here, but am quite familiar with wine-making, beer-making and mead-making. I've been doing it for 8 years now, and have won an award or two (maybe eleven). Always on the lookout for new friends in the home business. B'th'way, I'm writing all the way from Poland.

[goldseal]

Welcome aboard

[Pejsan]

New to the Forum

First post to say hello, just started making wines and been looking at the various recipes.

Starting small at the minute with one gallon DJ's till I find some recipes I like then will up the quantities.

Just finished a batch of Wurzels orange wine from another site, and a red kit made up at the local Homebrew shop. Both drinkable which is good but no idea on alcohol content as didnt have a hydrometer at the time.

Anyways back to looking through the threads for me and to get some more ideas on what to try next.

[Mamgiowl]

You're very welcome Ineeda Gin, and we look forward to hearing how your wines turn out so don't forget to let us know.

[Ineeda Gin]

I think I'm going to find this site very very helpful indeed! My OH and I decided to have a go at making wine this autumn to save the fruit growing in our garden from going to waste. We scrounged some demijohns and equipment and with a little advice from a chap in a local home brew shop got started with pear, apple and plum wines.

I think we might be obsessed already... we are now also fermenting a couple of kits, as well as grapes from our neighbour's vine, strawberry wine and a couple of meads. No disasters so far (touch wood)!

I've found the instructions for your beginners dry table wine and I think we'll be trying that next.

[goldseal]

Welcome aboard

[Former Canuk]

Hi, recently joined to get all the advice & tips I can on making wine (don't want to learn anything the hard way anymore!). Currently making some nice beer from kits in a "dry country". We brew it up in a 30 litre Igloo and transfer to stainless steel fire extinguishers, each holds about 20 pints. Give her a week or two, squeeze the trigger, out comes liquid gold. Plan on some of the 7 to 14 day wine kits next hitch. We work 6 week rotation (6 on, 6 off) and time is always of the essence. Demand is such it's near impossible to age anything for long, can't keep our mitts off it.