Recent content by mgrds

Whether you rack off the lees before degassing depend on your prior method and the wine style you are making. With the cheaper kits it is generally advisable. However some of the more the more expensive high juice volume kits for big body reds recommend the procedure I follow. I start...

Its worth checking fermentation is really finished - ie hydrometer reading no longer dropping (and below 0.998 and dry to taste for a dry wine) . Degassing is no good if fermentation is still proceeding slowly as the wine will be "regassed" If you are unsure if you have fully degassed...

Hi DanielB - its not complicated. After fermentation is over there is a still a lot of carbon dioxide CO2 dissolved in the wine - it will prevent the wine clearing as little bubbles keep forming on yeast and debris carrying them back in to he wine . This can render using finings...

In my experience in 50 years of brewing in some environments no matter what you do you never seem to get an infection (obviously the local microbiological flora is friendly ). However if you ever get even one infection or even some contamination giving on off flavour you need to become totally...

You can make an alcoholic drink from just about anything - but I'm not sure why anyone would want to ! There are two sorts of fruit juices from concentrate - cheaper and is a reconstituted grape concentrate like dedicated wine kits - but probably working out more expensive for the same...

Well remember kitchen brewers and ale wives did like that it for years before we understood micro biology. And mostly it worked as an active yeast fermentation suppresses other microbiological activity , and alcohol preserves! But we have improved our skill and success rates. So now we don't...

If you get a slight vinegary whiff - but has not turned to vinegar (no acid on the taste buds) - you can try restarting fermentation with a bit of malt extract or sugar . The fermentation will drive off the vinegary smelling esters and suppress vinegar production . Always worth a go...

chocolate courgette cake is lovely - a favourite recipe of mine. Make sure you ferment/pickle some (I d a green teabag when doing a sauerkraut style fermentation to provide some tannin (home winemakers might have some grape tannin - the tannin keeps it a bit crisper and stops it going soggy...

Have always sucked for 50 odd years of wine and bee making but never had problems..

sarky git! Go drink some beer instead of taunting football fans in mourning. Or write a thesis on comparative religion . Or write a disgusted of Tunbridge Wells letter to the the Times about apostrophes or Oxford Commas ! Meanwhile I will practise my touch typing all night so I will...

Pressure barrels are great - used them as my main dispense method for 40 odd years They do great for bitters pales ales amber ales stouts etc. I've recently started to use cornie kegs mch more Cornie kegs are best if you want to make a kegerator or keezer - and dispense chilled beer - and i...

You can play and experiment . playing is fun. True traditional ginger beer is made with a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria - probably mainly the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii but maybe a few other minor...

1) check your hydrometer is still calibrated right. Test it in pure water and then mix up a known SG sugar solution with table sugar. Worth every brewer doing this from time to time - I've known one or two off kilter hydrometers (i suspect invisible micro cracks) 2) if it is stuck restart...

Depending on your malt bill & using good quality modern malts - you certainly can speed things up if you have to ! Personally I think there is a difference in flavour and mouth feel . So those flavours ( usually a slightly thinner beer) are what you are going for why not . Personally I...

Hi mark here. Liverpool born but have been living in Yorkshire what seems like forever . Been home brewing for well over 40 years. I'm vicar (pastor) of a church near the Leeds/Bradford Airport. Our church treasurer works as a brewer and and has worked in many of the small Yorkshire...