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I don't know what kind of toasting levels the French oak chips from Youngs I use are, but if I put more than 3g per gallon (~6g per litre) then the oak flavour is too strong for my liking - even in red berry wines. I would exercise caution - tasting - because once it's in you can't take it...

I'm on the third year of brewing rhubarb wine and the most recent recipe involved 8lbs of red rhubarb stalks. I put layers of sugar and chopped unpeeled rhubarb into my bucket and waited a couple of days before straining the fluid off and pouring hot water on to get more juice out. I measured...

Probably way too late but in case it ever happens again. If you like mulled wine you can add the spices and orange juice - cinammon, ginger, nutmeg, clove and cracked black pepper - tho I cannot remember in what quantities. I did this with some elderberry that finished up at 1.020 last year. I...

I wonder, can anyone give details of the quantities of oak chips they've used (per gallon) and for how many days they were in there for to help us newbies?

I had an elderberry last year that had stopped at 1.020 but noticed, upon measuring with a hydrometer, how close the gravity of a bottle of gluwien (german mulled wine) was and so I added orange juice and spices (clove, cinnamon, ginger, cracked black pepper and nutmeg) and we were reasonably...

I am doing an experiment using Youngs oak chips at the moment. Having purchased a 30g pack I divided it up into 1 teaspoon packets - which gave 25 packets. The idea is that I add a 1 teaspoon packet to a gallon of elderberry wine (14% abv) and rack off after a week then taste. I did that once...

I know it's a different wine but I took issue with Ritchies (who market SGrundy) because of their advice on back-sweetening. Silly of me I know but I made the bilberry wine sweeter than I like. Their instructions advise adding 430g of sugar to the wine when finished. I tested the gravity...

Thanks Ohbeary. If the fruit's loose tho don't you have to 'push the cap down' every day? On the other point you made, this isn't the first mixed berry brew I've done using ribena and they've all worked out rather good.I take it there's no need to boil the ribena at all then? Grateful for advice.

Thanks for your post but never had the cotton flavour come through yet! It's only been on since Sunday and fizzing away nicely so long way to go before fermentation complete. I did partially remove this layer though and it's helped I'm sure. Even if it were all fruit, which it's not, it would...

Seemed a less messy way to me and perhaps less chance of infection through handling the cloth and contents during the fermentation process. Thanks for the advice.

Hi. I'm fermenting a bucket of mixed berry wine, with ribena, blackberries and elderberries. The fruit is bagged up in muslin, and was squashed before adding to the bucket. The ribena was boiled a while with water in a pan to drive off stabilising chemicals. A kind of berry coloured scum has...

Thanks guys for your supportive answers and suggestions. I'm having to wait at the moment to see if this will actually get fermenting - my brews usually are bubbling within 5 hours, unlike this one. Perhaps I didn't boil off the stabilising chemicals from the ribena properly - time will tell...

Recipe 3 gallons mixed fruit 3 lbs elderberries 3 lbs blackberries 12 fl oz ribena (heated to drive off stabilisers) sugar, water, nutrient, pectolase etc Original gravity @ 17C 1.103 The level was at 3 gallons before I added a muslin bag of fruit pulp - skins etc and now it is at 15 litres...

Thanks for those answers to my post guys. If I were to decide to add the other 3lbs of elderberries to this week old must, should I add nutrient to that?

Hello. I've got a bucket of elderberry wine that's been brewing for a few days now and a few more pounds of berries in the freezer which I'd like to use for another batch after the present one has been racked for secondary fermentation. Question is - once this has been done, how do I use the...

I tasted something that looked like a sloe a week ago and it was sweetish but with dark green flesh. Is that a sloe I wonder? Does the flesh go a different colour when fully ripe?

If you have the temperature too high you can get nasty flavours, because of higher alcohols I understand, called fusils. I wouldn't have the temperature above 22C for most yeast. Some manufacturers, lalvin for example, give info on the optimum temperature range. One sure way with mead to slow...

I wonder - does it taste anything like rum? (we have a couple of huge courgettes and might try ourselves) Thanks for showing the picture.

Did you mean that you used the pulp from the first brew for another one?

She'd be waiting a long time for that brew! :D