Winemaking 2013

The first of this years garden wine - Rhubarb, about the only thing thats growing with any vigour in my veg patch.

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Looking good! Rhubarb is about all that's growing in my veg patch as well! Although some seeds are peeking through...

 

I've still got some of this stuff to ferment that will keep me going until the blackberry harvest arrives.

 

I'd love to start making my own wine. Are the set-up costs high?

 

Not hugely expensive - the 5 litre water bottles from the supermarket make good demijohns, couple of airlocks, bit of pipe to syphon things, empty wine bottles from the pub - you can reuse the screwtops (with the proper cleaning) or cork them. Yeast, Sugar, water & the odd tea bag.

but

Fruit wine takes a good 2 years in the bottle to get to the point where its pleasant to drink. Theres a huge amount of cleaning & ultimately its difficult to produce anything thats better than you can get in the shops - when I make cider its costs more in sugar & yeast than it does to buy the rough stuff in the supermarket, so its not a short term hobby, nor is it going to save you money. But from time to time theres a really good batch - elderberry can be almost like port.

 

Do you have to have an airing cupboard for part of the process?

 

Not really with modern central heating - it needs to be about 20-25'c to get the fermentation going, sometimes in winter I use a fish tank heater to keep the temperature up overnight.

 

Haven't had the chance to start any this year. I tend to drink wine when we say over with the in laws during winter. I might just get a few batches of Worzels orange on the go.

Last year I made spiced Meade, Dandelion, pineapple and Ribena.

For those interested in trying, go for it! You can get all you need from Tescos and Wilkinsons and the equipment is fairly cheap. The most difficult think you will have to provide is patience. Some recipes need to be matured for a year to taste their best!

 

Ribena wine?! Sounds really nice, I take it you substitute the usual fruit with the undiluted juice, or carton juice?

 

You use a bottle of Ribena and then boil it slowly for around 20 mins to drive off any preservatives. I used strawberry Ribena and there are lots if recipes on the web. It took a year o mature but the end result was actually quite pleasant!

 

Elderflowers are about here. I'm going out gathering this week. Elder flower wine. Lovely stuff.

 

That sounds delicious! I love fruit wines. I like to buy ones from Lyme Bay Winery, a shop in Ashbourne sell them, my favourite is the cherry one. Not homemade as such, but not your average vino plonko from the local beer-off!

 

Turbo Cider is another good one if you are interested in (mis)using supermarket stuff - 3-4L of cheap apple juice, 1L of grape juice, a couple of tea bags + champagne yeast can turn out quite drinkable inside a month - my last batch is about 10-15' & dry enough to take the lining off your throat..

 

Can I ask, why tea bags are used? I've seen them mentioned a couple of times in this thread

 

They are used to add tannin. What this actually does to th wine I'm not sure but for the sake of a couple of tea bags I always added it anyway!