Wine.... Mmmm.....

[lisa4star]

I have never made wine before but considering I am a good customer of the wine industry I thought it's rather silly that I haven't made it before.

Does any1 know a fool proof method for making really nice tasting wine?

I would prefer not to have to buy lots of special equipment. Was thinking strawberry would be good or elderflower but I'm open to suggestions.

[lisa4star]

Sury someone knows an easy method of wine making?

[lisa4star]

'Surely' is what I meant to say!

[airconednightmare]

maybe buy a 'wine kit' and take things from there, you should get the tools and know how if it's like making beer or liqueurs

[GreenAge]

Hi Lisa

Here is a link to a stawberry wine recipe I found. Seems really easy so I am going to try too. Let me know how you get on!

Strawberry Wine Recipe - Homemade Strawberry Wine

[lisa4star]

Thanks very much. Will definately be having a go once I've been to pick your own - I won't have enough of my own strawberries.

[whorlicks]

I haven't tried strawberry but i can highly recomend elderberry wine.
serously nice also just the juice mixed with a bit of lemonade makes a nice child friendly drink.

[Shetty]

I ma just in the process of making some rhubarb wine, following arecipe a scribbled down in Canada, after consuming said beverage
So not sure how it turns out, but the recipe seemed pretty straight forward:

5kg rhubarb cleaned, roughly chopped and frozen overnight

mix with 3 kg of sugar and leave to soak for 24 hrs

add 2 ltr of boiled and cooled water and wine yeast

leave to ferment for 48 hrs in a covered bucket

sieve liquid through tea towel and fill into demi john

leave to ferment for 3 weeks (that's how far I got)

fill into clean container and leave for another 3 months.

As I said, it seems straight forward, but I still have to wait another 10 days before the 3 weeks are over. And who knows what it will be like then

[lisa4star]

That sounds fab - where do you buy wine yeast?

The thing that has put me off making wine in the past is because I have not heard of a few of the ingredients in the recipes before but this recipe only has the one.

You will have to let us know how it tastes - good luck, I'm sure it will be yum!

[Shetty]

Hi Lisa,
just used ordinary wine yeast from Wilkinson

[lisa4star]

Hi shetty,

No wilkinsons in the sticks, lol. Nearest one about 2 hours away. I'll get some off eBay or amazon I think.

Can't wait to make some.

[lisa4star]

Meant to ask - how much wine yeast do you put in?

And once it's fermented for 3 weeks and you say to put in containers, by that do you mean glass bottles?

Sorry for daft questions.

[Shetty]

Hi Lisa,
tell me about it, my nearest Wilkinson is 200 miles away across the water.
It's called Youngs Wine yeast and came in a sachet for 4.5 ltr (1 gallon). My mixture was about 5 ltrs, but I just used 1 sachet, sofar it seems to be bubbling away fine.
I am not sure if you can fill it into bottles after the 3 weeks or if it is still fermenting. So I am intending to empty the demi John, clean it and fill it back in, just in case. I think otherwise it could be highly explosive.

Oh, I think you ment to discard the sediment when you do this. Only 9 days to go

[Shetty]

Just rebottled said rhubarb wine and of course had a taster

Had to screw bottle tight, bolt the door and dump the key otherwise it would have been all gone by tonight

[lisa4star]

Hi shetty,

That's great it tastes fab. I've been really lazy and not made it yet but I'm on holiday next week so will get my bum into gear.

I looked for the wine yeast on eBay but there was so many kinds I couldn't make decision on what to buy.

Happy drinking.

[lisa4star]

After receiving eight demijohns from some kind person off 'freecycle' I need more wine recipes.

I'm planning on rhubarb wine and possibly strawberry if I can get them cheap enough somewhere.

Does anyone have any other good recipes for wine that isn't going to cost a fortune to make and that tastes nice and not like vinegar.

[lisa4star]

Here is a picture of my rhubarb wine! I really hope it's nice because it looks really good and its bubbling away nice!

[lisa4star]

I managed to get british strawberries in asda tonight pretty cheap so I'm following the recipe below to make strawberry wine but can anybody advise as to when they think it should be strained and bottled as the recipe doesn't say:

6lbs fresh strawberries
4lbs granulated sugar
4tsp citric acid
2 gallons water
Juice of 2 lemons
Wine yeast and nutrient

Boil 5 pints of water
Crush strawberries - using hands is fine (I used a masher)
Cover the strawbs with the boiling water
Add the sugar, nutrients, citric acid and lemn juice
Stir with wooden spoon to dissolve sugar, further crushing the strawbs in the process
Allow the mixture to sit overnight
Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and stir
Stir daily for five days
Transfer strawbs mixture to a secondary fermentation container
Add additional cold water to make 2 gallons of strawb wine and place airlock on container
Rack after 30 days
Bottle when clear

I'm not sure if I strain it when it says to bottle it?
Does rack mean to put in another bottle and get rid of the stuff in the bottom?

[lisa4star]

Can anyone help me with these question
I'm just learning and I need some advice. It will be most appreciated.

[amy]

I'd love to make my own wine aswell, but how difficult is it to brew stuff that actually tastes good?! When I've heard about people making their own wine, the results have never been too great....