Search results

Edit- damn autocorrect! Title should read “ can you lose the yeast when racking to secondary” I recently started 25ltrs of mixed berry. I used rc212 yeast for the first time and was shooting for 15%, which is close to the tolerance, but I thought I’d give it a try anyway. I removed the fruit...

Finally bottled some of the oak leaf I started at the end of August ‘22. It’s good, like really good. It’s a real surprise because it tasted awful just 2 weeks ago. It definitely didn’t want to clear so I added some bentonite. After 12 or so days It looked crystal clear in the carboy but has...

Hi, I’m looking for suggestions. I like a really ‘heavy’ red wine but I haven’t found a country/fruit wine that really hits the spot yet. I’ve made bilberry, mixed red berry, red gooseberry, beech leaf, and I’ve just bottled 3 gallon of blueberry. All good wines and perfectly drinkable but I...

Bottled this tonight, 8 and 3/4 bottles in total. What an absolute winner! Small batch Beech Leaf. Very light, quite citrus with a hint of hazelnut yoghurt. Very pleasant. Around 12%. I’ll make this one again in a bigger batch for sure.

Apart from the 5 berry wine I “bottled” into 5ltr plastic Jerry cans for a camping trip, this is the first wine I have actually managed to bottle rather than drinking it straight out of the jug! 6 rhubarb and 6 pink gooseberry, 2 very different wines but both excellent. Not sure how long...

I made a batch of apple wine from 100% “pressed cloudy” apple juice. I added sugar syrup to SG 1.085 and added pectolaze, nutrient etc. We were in middle of a heat wave when I pitched the yeast but I was still surprised that the SG went from 1.085 to 0.996 in 4 days. I’ve had it in a glass...

Is there a beginners guide to yeast or maybe a table of yeast strains with all the characteristics listed? I’ve been using Youngs basic dried active yeast. It’s doing exactly what I need it to do but I’m intrigued by all the other strains and curious if they would really make a discernible...

I started making wine just a couple of months ago but I’m already looking to scale up. At the mo I have 20+ 4.5/5 ltr demijohns, 2x ltr buckets, a 10 ltr bucket and a 23 ltr plastic fermenter. The question is, what’s the pros and cons of scaling up to 5 gallon carboys?

I’ve been looking for a Spruce wine recipe but so far I’ve fallen short. There’s a few references but they all seem to be based on opinion rather than actual experience. Does anyone have any first hand experience of using spruce tips either as a main ingredient or just as an additional aromatic...

I see that skeeter pee uses the sediment from from the racking of another wine to start fermentation. It’s got me thinking about using some of the lees off my fruit wines. I’m curious if the lees impart flavour to the new wine. For example, would the lees off my gooseberry add any flavour to...

I’m assuming this is just sediment that has been carried up with the CO2 bubbles. It is the same colour as the sediment. Can someone confirm please. Many thanks.

I’ve found a recipe that uses dried bilberries which I plan to start next week. I’ve found a source of organic, no sugar, no oil fruit so that should avoid most of the problems I’ve read about, but is there any other issues to consider using dried over fresh/frozen fruit? The recipe suggests you...

I’m guessing this is a healthy ferment but it looks more like boiled offal to me.

Please bear with me on this one. I’ve read and read and read but I’m still non the wiser about when I should be racking my wine. I started a gooseberry a couple of weeks ago in a bucket with the fruit in a bag. The SG was 1.088. I removed the fruit bag after 7 days. I transferred (racked) the...

I am dead chuffed with this. First wine made from scratch with our own fruit. It tastes like wine and it tastes like gooseberry so definitely not a failure.

Do I need to stir during the primary fermentation if I use a syrup or tea base rather than fruit pulp? I’ve got my first 2 wines on the go. The first is a gooseberry where I had the fruit in a bag in the fermenting bucket for the first week. The second is a rhubarb where I extracted the syrup...

I’ve got some questions about how to go about bottling country wine early. Im about to start 5 gallonsof dragonblood-ish type wine and would hope to have some ready to drink for an event on the 1st July, which gives me about 9 weeks. Can I just bottle it once it has cleared in the secondary...

Curiosity got the best of me last week resulting in me starting my first country wine, a gooseberry with last years fruit out of the freezer. This week I’ve found myself constantly thumbing though recipes, diligently keeping the house at the right temperature, accidentally buying all the sugar...

I’m very new to all this so please excuse me if I’m on the wrong path here. I’ve got the chance of a load of new food safe 5ltr plastic jerry cans. Is any one using similar for storage (short or medium term). I’m building up my equipment but there’s a good chance I’ll be making wine quicker...

Hi, I’m new to the forum and have started my first ever country wine just last week. To start with I followed a recipe which made an (I imperial) gallon. Pretty much immediately after pitching the yeast I got thinking that it will probably be Christmas before I’m enjoying this wine. I then got...