Recent content by bigboots

Last week I bottled 26 bottles (ex-champagne /prosecco) of rhubarb for sparkling, and 7 used wine bottles for "normal" wine. I had added several litres of red grape juice to the must as the rhubarb I made last year was very insipid in colour. This year's batch, however, has turned out a...

Is degassing essential or can the wine just be left for longer until it has cleared?

I forgot - 6 gallons elderflower 1 gallon sparkling rhubarb (outstanding):cheers: New total 121 gallons.

25 gallons cider 20 gallons blackberry wine 6 gallons bullace wine 2 gallons damson wine 6 gallons banana wine 4 gallons rhubarb wine 1 gallon ginger wine 40 gallons various beers and stouts(ssshhhhhh) :drunk: New total 114 gallons! (not counting the beers)

Leave it alone until it has cleared naturally. I always do. (this goes against the tide of popular opinion).DO NOT bottle if you can see ANY tiny bubbles.

I did 3 batches of blackberry this year(99 bottles). 1st batch smelled awful from the word go..........................I had added sultanas for more body and depth of taste. Left fruit in full length of fermentation (for more colour). Now bottled a few weeks and tastes great...

Several years ago I did one of these, with a few additions (spraymalt, syrup etc.). The ABV ended up over 9% :drunk: so I re-labelled it as "Old Floordenter":D I like getting value for money so I had stretched this to 48 pints (hence the spraymalt, syrup etc.). Any Woodfordes kit I have tried...

Why not extract the rhubarb juice as per wine but make to cider strength (5-10%?) and then carbonate as per cider? So rhubarb wine without the addition of tannin, acid etc?

Are you ABSOLUTELY certain that you taste vinegar or is your TC simply VERY DRY. Vinegar for your chips but simply add sugar syrup to your poured glass of cider. The amount you add is up to you. HTH

Ciders tend to ferment like most WOWs i.e. they fizz rather than froth. After 48 hours if you can't see anything on the surface get down really close to the fermenter and LISTEN. You should hear it fizzing. Timewise, leave for 2/3 weeks. With regard to bottling, use a full average teaspoon of...

T&L syrup (big tin)=907g. Per the label...sugar (carbohydrate) 80.5g per 100g therefore 730g (approx.) in a full tin. The whole tin added to your 25l would up the ABV by approx. 2.25%! If that is the way you want to go then chuck in the syrup when starting your brew. With regard to making the...

A word of caution re. the wine yeast........this will strip even more sugar/s from the wort. A typical beer FG is 1010(ish)............a typical wine FG is 0.990. This would give roughly 2.5% more ABV but the beer will be as dry as a ***'* ****! :nono: :cheers:

Lots of head :party: .........................................Where's the problem???????????

Just put the empty bag inside a saucepan, then fill. The saucepan will support the bag when it is full. Just make sure the saucepan is a reasonably snug fit round the bag. :thumb: :cheers:

Now you have a hydrometer it is IMPERATIVE to let the fermentation FINISH COMPLETELY. (3 identical readings over 3-5days). To get the amount of fizz you want, simply add 1 heaped teaspoon of sugar per 500ml when bottling. This is more than would be added when bottling beer but....you don't want...