I came to wine making from `country wine' which has nothing to do with faking the stuff you'd buy in the shops. Nobody bought wine from shops when i was a kid - that's a kind of modern thing. Old recipes had tons of sugar in them but I always preferred using about 2 1/2 pounds per gallon so you ended up with a dry wine. People used to make wine out of all sorts of unlikely stuff - turnips, peapods, beetroot, tea!
i gave all that up years ago but still occasionally make a fruit wine - sloe, blackberry, elderberry. all good stuff but nothing like commercial grape wines. Think of it as a different drink entirely and not some kind of fake `wine'. It's only wine because it's a similar strength and made from fruit.
i also came from country wines and a very old fashions wine circle, they only did country wines a fast wine they used to teach as a quicky to stock up the old wine celler was teabag, we can do a tea wine in 6 weeks but its not designed to last long, after 12 weeks it becomes drain cleaner, lol
grapes were considered a foo-pah and were not discussed in around 1995 onwards they started to do a grape weekend, where several people would drive to france and bring back a couple of van loads, after a while they used to just buy from London instead and after that Birmingham whole markets.
the grape day was an acceptance that times have changed
it also came from the fact we used to do set fruit days through out the year.
so spring is flowers. mead in april, and so forth, the day was a Sunday after church at the one members homes, all the members came, brought all the kit and tools and ingredients required, as a newbie you were just expected to turn up and walk away with a demi john at the end of it, food and so forth was supplied by all there and the day was had in great company.
alass the wine circle folded not long after i left as a new set of people moved in and started to make dramatic changes to the way it was run, stopped the monthly parties and so forth, so everyone left as it had past its time and was gone, to never to return, shame i loved those weekends, all the family was invited, not just the husband or wife, but kids and pets too, little fingers joined in as well if they wanted too.
i did try to start a wine circle in west brom where i lived but no one came so i never bothered. its a anti drink drive culture and so forth and everyone is internet based rather than face based,, people dont also want to collect fruit.
when i first moved to west brom we used to trim and cut and prune and work the elderberry trees as they then give better fruit but no one understands that, we also used to work other hedgerow plants and so forth that no one else sees as well
the police came and spoke to me the once on the canal side as they wanted to know what we were up to, there was me the wife and son, 20 five gallon buckets one large garden cart plus harvesting tools and so forth and we had a rough 200kg of elderberry on stalks and they had never seen that or could understand that my house red and cough medicine was elderberry based:rofl::rofl::rofl:
i have over the years been asked by the rare odd one to walk hedgerows and canal sides with them to explain what i see and what i do with this crops
but how many people do you know carry a cotton bag and marigold gloves with them when the walk the dog in april and may time, i am not waiting for the nettles to start growing i am waiting for the nettles to be tall enough to be out of dog urine height. hahahahah
i know the difference between a bad and a good bramble leaf and know whats good or bad with a beech tree leaf and when to pick for wine and all of it is now replaced with a kit in a tin that convenient to most, times change so do tastes and so do methods
as for the beer i have tried AG but for me as a small beer drinker its not worth the hassle, my son drinks most of it when he wants it, so a tin works great for me,
i used to pop round to my local big brewery and gather a few gallons of wort on brew day, i would then take it home add a few extras and ferment it at home, that better suited my style when i wanted it
as my old chairman used to jokingly say,
"grapes are ok but they never make really good wine":rofl::rofl::rofl:
apart from the unholy trinity, i can and have made wines from every thing thats safe to and a few thats not
still to this day the wifes favorite is logun,strawberry and raspberry tea wine stopped at 1004 and served cool but not cold. for me its an elderberry port we do the first run is a massive wine that takes years to sit and work the second and third runs are a lot quicker
also kit has changed a lot too
i own the following and each year all a re used alot
stainless steel steam extractor, brought new in 1987
stainless steel pot made from and old water barrel of about 45litres
gas ring to go with it, roars like a turbo jet in full flow
garden shredder for apples as a home made gas bottle press and 25t car jack
we can process and bottle juice from about 1500kg of apples in a day my self and wife if we wanted to but no longer do as no one wants to join us to gather the fruits
and every christmas is toasted with rhubarb champagne made with brandy