December 2011
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September 2011
2 posts
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Cemecherry 2010
Just cracked open a bottle of my Cemecherry 2010. Wow! it tastes great. It has smoothed out and has a mellow kirsh after taste. It is no longer dry and is a more medium.
It is my most successful brew so far. Very pleased.
Once again I wish I made more bottles and did not give so many away at Christmas :) Marcus
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Johnson's Red
Matt Johnson has many grapes growing over his house and decided to put them to good use and asked me to make some red wine for him.
He picked one carrier bag full of black grapes about 2.6kg. They had been sitting around for a few days in his fridge so some of them had started to turn bad. I decided to wash them in a solution of water with one crushed campden tablet to kill off any bacteria.
...
August 2011
2 posts
Super Cider
2 November 2010 - I had two gallons of freshly pressed pure apple juice for making a batch of cider after an apple pressing evening with a friend. For the past few years, I help him process a huge crop of apples into juice with a great old fashioned grinder and press that he’s had for decades, and I take home a portion of the juice. This year I took home four gallons, and we drank two as...
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Raspberry Wine - 2010
July 2010 - I started a gallon of raspberry wine since we had a huge crop of berries in the garden. We save our surplus berries in the freezer and when a sufficient amount had been accumulated, I weighed 3 lbs of frozen raspberries into a large straining bag, tied it closed, and placed it in a large pot on the stove with half a gallon of water. The pot was heated until about 80 deg C to sterilise...
June 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Elderflower Champagne 2011
Decanted the Elderflower into 1 litre and 0.5litre bottles. I had to remove the elderflowers off of the top first. I used a ladle and poured the liquid through a sieve and a sheet of kitchen towel to remove as much sediment as possible. It is still a little cloudy but tastes fantastic! Not too sweet, not too sharp, tastes like lime soda to start then finishes with elderflower. Very pleased....
May 2011
2 posts
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April 2011
1 post
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January 2011
1 post
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Mini-kegging some Nog
Just put 8.5 pints of Woodfordes Nog (fizzy from the pressure barrel) into a mini-keg with 24g of glucose.
Dylski
November 2010
1 post
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October 2010
1 post
September 2010
3 posts
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Mini-kegs A Go-Go
Finally got to test fruits of my mini-keg re-use investigations; having previously prepared, tested and filled a mini-keg that I had previously bought full of Adnam’s Explorer.
I can happily say that it all worked fine!
Initially I used the bottom tap without releasing to pressure valve at the top. It comes out under pressure and if you let it out really slowly the result is still rather...
5 tags
Cherry Adventures #5
Wild Cherry Wine
Bottled it. A fair bit less bitter and less sour than when last racked. Bodes well for drinking next year.
Cemecherry Wine
Racked it. Less sour now and slightly sweet. A sort of vanilla aroma. Promising.
Cherry Beer
Bottled it. It’s still very cherry and fairly strong. Might call it Very Cherry Merry Beer.
Dylski
August 2010
5 posts
Elderberry Wine 2010
Strained and squeezed into two demijohns and added 1/4 lbs sugar in each.
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Isn't the web wonderful?
I quite literally stumbled across this:-
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=110283288865222744836.000474c7ac367669eacbb
Could be quite useful for brewing purposes!
/Mikey
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Cherry Adventures #4
Racked the Wild Cherry Wine. Still tastes pretty bitter and sour. Not sure how it’ll turn out. Might need sweetening before bottling.
Racked the Cemecherry Wine. No bitter flavour and a little sour. Again, might sweeten before bottling.
Strained and filtered the Cherry Beer into a demijohn. Tasted promising although the cherry is quite dominating.
Dylski
July 2010
11 posts
2 tags
Cherry Adventures #3
Bottled the 2 litres of cherry beer. Tasted promising.
Added 2 litres of homebrew beer to the very cherry beer as it was very cherry. And pretty tart. Also added 125g glucose too for an extra fermentation. Now sitting with all the cherries still in. Still very cherry. Still tart.
Dylski
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Rhubarb champagne on its way
Little half moons of deliciousness!
Started the brew Sunday evening, will bottle tonight (3days).
/Mikey
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Wild Cherry Wine
Strained it all through a butter muslin with a bit of squeezing to get most of the liquid out. Filled one demijohn with half a litre to spare so my initial water measurement was probably a little out. Tasted sour and cherry-like.
Dylski
Rhubarb Champagne
Everyone loves Rhubarb yeah? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420127/
Seriously, it’s got to be one of the best films ever. The only word that people say is “rhubarb” for the entire duration of the movie. Yes, yes… I was about 6 the last time I saw it :)
Anyway..
This weekend I’ll be attempting rhubarb champagne. Seems to be a simple variant of the elderflower...
June 2010
19 posts
2 tags
Wild Cherry Wine
Picked many varieties of cherries from seven different trees. Mostly the small ‘bird cherries’ that are too sour or bitter to eat. Took a couple of hours and much neck and arm straining to gather 3lbs of cherries. Should be just enough to make a gallon of wine.
Crushed and soaked over night. Removed many stones and added pectin destroying enzyme, citric acid and a Campden tablet...
Is That a Cat I Smell?
Due to the warm weather we’re having I decided to let some gas out of the two batches… Batch 2 imparted the room with the luscious smell of a crisp new summers day.
Batch 1 i’m afraid to say emitted the scent of pure evil. If the RSPCA had been in the neighbourhood they would have assumed I was a cat abuser.
I assume the smell is perhaps generated from one of the wild yeasts that live on the...
1 tag
Elderflower Champagne
Scooped out the flowers and peel from the bucket last night. Brew still bubbling. Cloudy and a little syrupy to taste. The liquor was bubbling again this morning. Will look up when to bottle soon.
UPDATE:
Bottled last night. Pressure building in the plastic bottles this morning… SG 1.026
Dylski
Even more elderflower champagne
Here lying in the leaves of the Elder is a lovely bevvy of edlerflower brews.
At first glance they appear to be the same, however the tasty number on the left is an example of the Elderflower Champagne I started 2 weeks ago.
General recipe was:-
10 Ltr water
10 heads ederflower
3 lemons
1Kg sugar
3 Tbs white wine vinegar
Left to ferment with natural yeast for 4 days.
The cheeky number...
Elderflower Champagne 2010
Tested the 1st Batch and it is very fizzy. I released the pressure on all the bottles. It still has a tart taste to it, but is mellowing out nicely.
At this stage the SG is 1014 original was 1030
difference being 16 / 7.36 = 2.17% alcohol Marcus
Elderflower Champagne 2010 Batch 2
Bottled the 2nd Batch of Elderflower Champagne. This tastes more like last years. However, it is still very sweet. I now have 22 litres of Champagne!
At this stage the SG is 1020 original was 1030
difference being 10 / 7.36 = 1.36% alcohol Marcus
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Elderflower Champagne 2010 Batch 2
Started another batch similar to Jason’s recipe last year.
270g of flowers (approx 40 medium size heads or half a carrier bag) 1kg of sugar 4 Lemons grated zest and Juice. 2 Limes grated zest and juice 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar 2 gallons of hot water 0.5 gallons of cold. sprinkling of yeast.
trimmed the flowers and weighed them. added yeast at the start this time just to make sure it...
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White Wine Le Paddocks Bottled
I bottled the White Wine and unfortunately it is still very sharp. It is not very palatable. I was it two minds whether or not to throw it away! However, this was the demijohn that had the sediment in it. So hopefully the 2nd Demijohn that had no sediment in, will be better.
I will test the alcohol content later.
If anyone has any clues on how I could improve this wine. Please let me know.
...
Elderflower Champagne 2010
Bottled the Elderflower Champagne.
Unfortunately, it looks as though it has stopped fermenting and is looking a bit cloudy. It tastes similar to Dylan’s Elderflower champagne last year, still sweet, slightly sour and tiny bit bitter. I think this is due to the lemon zest sitting in the brew for too long.
I have added two teaspoons of sugar to each 2 litre bottle, to try and kick start the...
7 tags
Elderflower Champagne 2010
A strange mucus has appeared on top. But no bubbles have appeared. I think it is due to the lack of hot weather. The Yeast has not kick started. So I have decided to give it a kick start (Thanks Dylan for giving me some yeast)
1 hour on. The lid is starting to bulge. Yippee! Brew safely on the way!
Marcus
Elderflower Champagne 2010
Removed flowers from the top as mould was starting to appear. The lid was bulged so fermenting has started! Marcus
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V Vessel One-Step →
Interesting system that collects the sediment so no racking required. As they say:
The ultimate one-stage fermenter! The fastest and easiest way to make a batch of wine or beer!
However, it’s not cheap. Available in the UK from Hop and Grape it’s ~£130. I’m trying to figure out how to make one for less!