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Does anyone have or know of or can anyone provide a hyperlink to a conversion chart that gives, starting from a brix reading, the amount of sugar (grammes per litre) to be added to the must to achieve a specified abv? The chart I have - the only one I could find online - comes from the USA and...

Noz, the local 'remainders' shop in my part of France, tends to have an eclectic choice of beers for sale. Many of them are British, but whilst these were once reasonably priced they are now rather expensive (perhaps a sign of things to come post-brexit?). But that's not the case with the...

The following originally was posted on MattH1973's thread entitled '2017 apple harvest cider thread' but, on reflection, maybe it would have been better for me to initiate a discrete thread, rather than 'hijack' his. Hence this approach. I'm wondering whether what started as an annus horribilis...

Has anyone made fig wine? Our fig tree (Brown Turkey) produces far more fruit that we can eat, freeze, bottle or use to make jam and chutney. Thus wine occurs to me as a way to use the figs in large quantities. Has anyone else tried? If so, what recipes did they follow and what were the results?

For how long do others leave the black grape skins, pips and stalks in before straining the juice off? I feel that in previous years, I've taken the juice off the skins, pips and stalks too soon and thus have produced an acceptable wine but lacking in body because there's not enough tannin. My...

Has anyone ever tried making a cider equivalent of eiswein? This year, because of other commitments, December has arrived and I haven't yet started making my cider. Tuesday morning, after a cold, easterly wind and a hard frost, the apples that had fallen overnight were frozen solid. I know that...

The harvest from my vines was not particularly good this year but I produced 30 litres of white grape (Noah) juice and 6 litres of red grape (Oberlin) juice. Because the OG (brix) was 15.6 (Noah) and 17.8 (Oberlin), I had to chapitalise them, aiming for 12% (Noah) and 13% (Oberlin) ABV. The...

Frequently I have problems with malic acid in my cider. Maybe the variety of apple that I use to make it has a high malic acid content? I've tried, but failed, to master the art of malolactic fermentation. So I've attempted to think laterally. I've read that maturing cider in oak barrels helps...

Has anyone successfully made green ginger wine - by which I mean that it tasted like the commercial (i.e. Stone's Crabbie's, etc.) product? I've searched on this forum and whilst I can find posts about wanting to make it and having a go at making it, I've found nothing about a successful...

Originally I posted the following as an afterthought on another thread (Scrumpy making with Ollie) but it achieved limited feedback - which is hardly surprising as only those subscribing to or chancing to read that thread would have been aware of it! So I thought that I would transfer it to a...

To date, I've used SIHA Levactif 3 by E.Begerow Gmbh & Co. for my cider production. The packet describes it as "highly active dry yeast for safe fermentation of red and white wines and final fermentation of suspended wines". Using this, I've produced a dry to very dry cider which tends to be...

As I was walking round our fields this morning, I noticed that on the river banks the wild medlar trees are dripping with fruit. These are not the large fruit of the 'domesticated' medlar but their smaller brethren, each of which is about the size of a ping-pong ball (that's the fruit, not the...

I've had a real problem this year. More apples than I had vessels in which to ferment the pressed juice! Despite having eighteen 30 litre fermenting vessels and a 200 litre former shipping barrel, this morning I was on my last available container. But fortunately, this afternoon I was able to...

Because of the abundance of apples this year, I'm fast running out of my 30 litre fermenting vessels (the type one buys in Wilkinsons). I've filled thirteen already and I've still got, I suspect, over a tonne of apples yet to crush and press! I have a number of 250 litre plastic barrels and I'm...

Can someone suggest a source of malolactic culture - for inducing malolactic fermentation in the juice from high acid red grapes - that does not involve either buying in commercial quantities or paying an exhorbitant price!

For those of you old enough to remember - you know I'll beg, steal or borrow..................to get enough apples to make cider! A late frost in the valley, earlier this year, meant that the crop on my trees is significantly reduced. Thus I've been out and about sourcing additional apples...

I suppose that I am lucky enough to be able to make cider from entirely raw ingredients. However after a seven year gap - since I moved from the UK to France - it was only last year that I was able to recommence cider production thanks to, eventually, being able to buy a secondhand commercial...

I need some help - I think! Using our own grapes, last year we produced about 60 litres of red wine. Because the vines are not in full sun, the sugar content of the grapes is not very high. We tried to counter that by adding an appropriate amount of sugar after taking a brix reading from the...