Thou shalt not start off a gallon of summer fruit wine while wearing thy favourite desert camo shorts...

[Notgrumpyjustquiet]

Any home brewers out there want to brag share tips and tricks? Such as... Wear dark coloured clothes while mashing red fruit you silly sod. My kitchen looks like THAT scene out of Carrie...

Anybody..?

Apologies ~ I've only just seen your post (and you've probably given up on it by now so I'm probably talking to myself!)
I have been a 'home brewer' for about 4 years now and have also experienced the blood bath the messy problem that comes about when moving red wine from one fermenting vessel to another. My solution now is to do it on a nice day and outside on the patio!

Favourite wine so far has been blackcurrant (made using a huge tin of blackcurrants that was bought from Macro) and as it's coming up to that time of year, Blackberry or Blackberry and Apple, both have always turned out well.

I've not given up on the wine but the shorts are pretty much buggered! Got a peach melba bubbling away atm and looking forward to picking brambles, that always turns out well.

My absolute top tip is to put a (sterilised, obviously) pop sock over the end of a funnel, positioned over your bucket, then push the mashed fruit down the funnel into the pop sock and tie a knot in it. Add sugar, yeast etc then proceed as normal. Makes life so much easier when it comes to transferring to demijohn, in fact I don't know how I never thought of it myself!

Ah shame about the shorts ~ perhaps save them for winemaking use only?! That's a good tip about using the pop sock ~ that can be another messy job

I'm liking the sound of your peach melba wine. Is that from a kit or fresh fruit? I've got 4 demijohns rather a lot of blackberry wine going at the moment but using last years blackberries. I only started it off to make room in the freezer for this years crop!
Another one I tend to make on a regular basis is apple wine. I've got an allotment and my plot is right next to a 'community bit' so anyone can grab the apples. Looking at the amount of blossom a few months ago, think it could be another good year for those.

Come the fruit season (soon now) I wander the footpaths and fields and fill an ice cream container with whatever is going. Blackberries, sloes, haws etc and make wine with that. Some brews are better than others, but the results are always interesting. This year looks really good for sloes.

Evening all, I really want to get into wine making, I have lovely fond memories of GPs doing this when I was little.
Last yr DM bought me the kit and we made a fruits of the forest kit, frankly I wouldn't give it to my worst enemy. I would like to keep away from kits if possible, does anyone have a cheap, very easy and fool proof recipes please.

Ta

redbinneo my Mum made something similar about 30 years ago and called it 'Autumn Harvest'. She said it was one of the best she'd ever made. She tried to repeat it several times but it was never as good!

blessedenough there are loads of recipes here that look fairly easy.

Gloria no kits here! (I haven't found one that didn't taste like ice pops) I used 2x punnets of peaches which were on super saver at Aldi plus 1x tub of frozen rasps also from Aldi, 900g sugar, 300g sultanas. It's in a demijohn now bubbling away happily so I'll keep you posted :D

blessed steer clear of kits, they're all rubbish imho. All you need is approx 1.5kg any fruit, 300g Raisins or sultanas, approx 1kg sugar. Put all in food safe bucket, add yeast and nutrient (or tiny amount of Marmite), about 6 pints of water, cover with a tea towel held in place with a rubber band or piece of string. Sir at least twice daily with a clean spoon for a week then strain into a demijohn. Top Up to neck with water, fit airlock, keep somewhere warm until it stops bubbling (sunny windowsill is perfect). When it stops, taste it to make sure it doesn't still taste sweet (i.e. All the sugar has been converted into alcohol). Leave it until it's clear them siphon into bottles. Or drink it.

Elderflower champagne anyone?

This is my bible

www.amazon.co.uk/Wine-Making-Natural-Way-Ball/dp/0716020998

Not quite on topic but I also brew beer and cider. Kits mainly but I am eyeing up our peartree for cider this year!

Suits thanks love but I can't abide the perfumey flavour of elderflowers so all the more for you! ElderBERRIES on the other hand, pass it round! (I'm totally chuffed because I've moved in to a house with a massive elder in next door's garden and I've already been granted permission by the neighbours to help myself - happy days).

Suits not off topic for me, my OH wants me to branch out into beer production, is it easy? Where should I start?

Notgrumpy. excellent, as im running low on the champagne so will keep it myself

I use beer kits from wilkos or Tescos. you need a bucket, hydrometer, mixing spoon, syphon, bottles, caps and capper. its fairly easy to do, ive never done wine tho so cant compare. You could also get a barrel instead of bottles but its harder to keep cooler if thats your drinking preference. If hes an ale drinker I can recommend starting with a Woodford Wherry kit from wilko.

Check out a forum called Jims Beer Kit. a very helpful and friendly site.

Suits seems simple enough then, we have an excellent brew shop near us so I'll ask them to recommend something. Also been looking at pressure barrels on the eBay, keeping it cool shouldn't be a problem if I leave it in the garage unless we get a massive late heatwave.

I keep mine in my garage but prefer it cooler. I wrap it in a wet towel and keep wetting it. As the water evaporates it cools the beer.

Just one other thing about recipes on websites - make sure it's a British website not US because UK gallons are different to UK gallons so the quantities required will be different.

Here's some recipes courtesy of my local brew shop

www.thebrewshop.com/contents/en-uk/d14.html

*US gallons are different to UK gallons

Good link. thanks very much.

I've done a couple of kits and been happy enough with the results. I did some elderflower champagne last year that my MIL didn't particularly like but is great in a cake.

I'm going to put down some rice and tea wine next week. there will also be a big red and white kit put down for Christmas so that I can cheaply self medicate myself oh happy season.

not grumpy that sounds like a nice recipe ~ I'll be interested in how that turns out. I should have connected Aldi's supersavers and winemaking, and I've got an Aldi within walking distance of home as well!

I didn't know Tesco did beer kits ~ just looked up and they do wine ones as well. A bit more expensive, but I discovered a few years ago that Lakeland have a wine making section too.

Besmonetha Merry Christmas lol!