Next step from Beer!

Something odd is happening with my picture posts.......

Anyone else see missing pictures? :x

Had the day off today so got busy with final rack and bottling.

Number 3 from page one of this thread which was:

-2L Red Grape Juice
-1L Orange & Raspberry juice



Nice, not too sweet Rose(FG of 1.000 so a medium). A little harsh now but should ease off a little with a month or so.

:party:

Number 4 from page one of this thread which was:

-2L Red Grape Juice
-1L Pomegranate, Grape & Apple



Really quite a deep coloured Rose this time with FG of 0.994 so just under a medium dry. Again needs little time but very drinkable now. I must resist!

:party:

Finally, number 5 from page one of this thread which was:

-1L Red Grape
-1L Orange Juice
-1L Ruby Breakfast Juice



An odd one this as my little diary definately says Red Grape Juice and yet I have a white wine. Maybe I just wrote it down wrong....

This is the best of the batch and I had to be restrained from drinking a bottle today, safe in the knowledge that it will only get better with time!

:party:

There is still one to go that I have re-racked & Pectolased but it is still too cloudy to move on with. I may just park it somewhere quiet and see if it sorts itself out.

Overall I am a happy little bunny.

I must stop using my phone to take pictures as they do the end result no credit at all. I have just noticed that they look a little cloudy but this is just my obvious lack of photography skills! :thumb:

Labels done, partly so that I don't forget what is what and partly so that they look that little bit better!



Now to transfere to the cellar to mature (hide in the garage so that I forget about them for a few weeks).

And a little red (Magnum from a kit) to keep me ticking over.



:drink:

Wow these are looking amazing! did you use shrink caps on them? where did you get the labels from? homemade? :)

Shrink caps on them from ebay I think. I have an old but very good heat gun with power settings. The lowest is just above a hairdryer and does the job very well without setting light to anything.

Labels were homespun thanks to powerpoint. Two per page and printed as handouts with two again (i.e. four labels on one side of A4).

I found a link a while back suggesting using milk as an adhesive and, bugger me it works really well on glass. Put the label on a side plate and baste generously with a paint brush. Just stick it to the bottle, blot with tissue paper and leave to dry.

They fix well, don't smell and come off with a half decent peel saving having to scrub the bottles again.

Well, very nice design! my colour printer is currently broken (boo hoo).. but i can print of the labels at college. i'm sure they wouldn't mind it haha.

Cheers for the idea! something i had used for my cider (although never came out that well) was http://www.beerlabelizer.com/ only problem was is that it has like, set designs.

Cheers

I stumbled across the labelizer site a couple of months ago and use it for my beers. Their templates are very good but not ideal for wine.

Besides I am kind of enjoying making my own from scratch.

Whoa you have been busy. If you pop down to your suppy section they will probably let you have a fewcmore of them water bottle containers your using as a carboy. Might cost you a bottle or two but it's worth it in the long run :)

Well it's back to work on Monday and back to reality.... Bummer but at least I have a good head start on the world and I wanted to share the fruits of my various labour over the last couple of weeks.

This is my drinking /conditioning stash:


Top shelf barrel is empty (for now) and wines are the ones from earlier in the thread conditioning away.
Next shelf first 9 Ltrs are Barley wine (from Kit) and others are Coopers Bitter.
Next is Weisen Beer
Next is more of the earlier wine and conditioning Magnum medium dry red (same in stack to right)
Bottom Shelf is Coopers Stout.

On the hanging shelf is some good to go plastic DJ's and the last of my first attempt which is clearing slowly.

Current Drinking stack:

Harvest Bitter but just about gone now. I tend to barrel my own stuff and save bottles for guests.

My Fermenting lot:

The Water Cooler is WOW but with Apple juice as it was on offer.
Behind that is summer fruits Hi-Juice Cordial wine.
Next is an attempt at Ribena wine and stashed on the floor at the back is today’s effort of locally picked cherries and cranberry juice. The big fermenter in front of that is my first stab at Fiery Ginger Beer. Hope it works!

Last stop is the kitchen to test is a slower fermentation at a lower ambient temp results in a better wine.

Left is 'by the book' WOW. Middle is WOW with Blueberry instead of Orange (WBW?).
Right is my first stab at Fruit Tea wine with Twinnings Cranberry, Raspberry and Elderflower.

All in all, I have enjoyed my first foray into brewing from scratch and time will tell if it was worth the graft! I am just trying to make sure that Christmas goes with a bang!

:wha:

WOW! (no pun intended ).

I think that the ammount of Brews you have there puts me to shame. and i thought i had a lot!. i want a bit plastic water-carboy thingy ! badly! i want to make a huge batch of WOW. are these in your garage or somewhere? i think i'm gonna need to start upping my ammount of alcohol i'm making. when i find an amazing recipe i'm gonna mass produce it and make sure that my christmas is amazing!

CHEERS! :

Being too tight to buy a filter I got one for a fiver with a load of other stuff. I tried it out today on the last of the batch (no 1 at the start of the thread) and it is amazing.



Needless to say, I will never bottle without filtering again!

What filters do you use? just normal lil' coffee filters? or like.. the proper expensive real deal ones ?

I got a vinebrite mark 3 that is about 15 years old and a stack of about 30 filters. It looks like the one on this thread but without the vent. I works really well dispite the age.

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10179

Worth keeping an eye out on ebay!

Your other half stock piling her Wine Bottles Bakernet or you got an agreement with a pub or something ?

Thats one of the few things im struggeling to get, Bottles!

Marrsy

I have an agreement with a restaurant that I pass on the way to work that they don't mind me raiding thier recycling bin. I was working on the theory that a restaurant probably produces a more regular stream of wine bottles than a pub.

Seems to be working so far and I am getting 20+ a week or so.