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This summer I did a 30 bottle run of strawberry wine using local PYO strawbs. Sadly, the fermentation coincided with the heatwave and my temperatures were too high. The batch developed a distinctly acetone/solvent smell and the first bottles tried also exhibited this smell/taste. Ive still got...

I see lots and lots of references to using Lowictz syrups in TCs etc, but so far havent found any actual recipe for a cherry wine using it, I want to put on a 1gal cherry wine using Lowictz syrup, has anyone got a working recipe?

Its that time of year again where the hedgerows are full of interesting stuff. So, as well as a gallon of wild rosehip wine, ive decided to try something very different! For those that dont know, Haws are the fruit of the Hawthorn bush, whose flowers are called Mayflowers. Haws are also known...

Ive currently got my plum wine on the go. All the plums were mashed up and put into a straining bag, which is shut with a plastic clip, then the bag full of plum pulp put in the fermenting bucket along with the water, extra sugar, and all the other gubbins needed. It had a day on campden...

I have a list of final gravity for various sweetness of finished wines, as below - <1.007 dry 1.007 - 1.015 semi-sweet 1.016 - 1.025 sweet >1.026 dessert But, I havent got a figure for what the starting gravity should be! Should I go with the usual 1.090 for them all, or adjust it higher at...

Im wondering if anyone has any info on how best to extrapolate a hydrometer reading taken at a particular volume of must, in order to easily account for the extra water that will be added later? What im thinking is this - im currently putting on a summer fruits wine, which I know will be rather...

Quick question - ive just bottled and corked, with real mushroom corks and wire cages, two 75cl elderflower champagnes. My question is - how do I now store it? Do I stand it upright, or lay on its side? Ive seen something somewhere that suggests the neck slightly lower than the body. Which...

I have two 5L Elderflower wines on the go at the moment, both have just finished fermenting. One is a home grown using fresh elderflowers from my own elder bushes, the other a Wilko kit. I plan on trying one bottle from each as an Elderflower champagne, but, im not sure when I should bottle...

Picked up the last Geordie 'Winter Warmer' kit on the shelf in Wilkos today, along with a 500g bag of Medium Spraymalt (no Dark in stock). Plan on brewing it a little short (21L?). But im curious as to what effect substituting some of the remaining sugar for Golden Syrup would have? Ive seen it...

Im wanting to try a WOW with the *maximum* possible alcohol content! I have Youngs Dessert/High Alcohol yeast, and believe that with this I should be able to push 18% or beyond, but my hydrometer % scale tops out before that! So what SG, and/or starting total sugar content, should I be looking...

Hi All, Ive read dozens of threads, but im still a tad confused (dont take much!) Im planning of trying my first, 1gal TC. I just want to know some basic pointers and numbers to get me started, i'd be most grateful for some answers to the following questions - 1. What SG to aim for? 2. Total...

Reading up on the subject of carbonating and conditioning times, im sure ive seen reference to " 2+2+2 " or similar, as a technique/rule of thumb, but no matter how I search now I cant find it again! Can anyone explain it to me?

Not sure where to put this - someone at work had a kids party, and brought in the last of the sweets for us staff to finish off. It was a Swizzles 5kg 'Party Pack', same as this one here at Costco https://www.costco.co.uk/view/p/swizzels-matlow-party-pack-bucket-5kg-77013 I claimed the bucket...

Im considering trying my first Turbo Cider, a simple apple only job to start, want to aim for a 'medium-sweet' if possible (for the wife) I can of course get everything I need locally, apart from cider yeast. Im wondering what the difference would be if I just used the general purpose wine...

First go at a homebrew beer, a 40pint Geordie Bitter. Tried first couple yesterday, but noticed that they didnt produce any kind of head, should I be expecting much of a head on this? (im not expecting anything like a commercial pint, but i'd have thought at least a bit of head), does it need...

Midweek I had a day orf, and decided it was ideal to get my bitter bottled, and to bottle my strawberry wine, which had been sat for about four days as a final clearing after being racked off onto a crushed campden tab. So far so good :thumb: Whilst doing this, I decided that i'd also rack off...

OK, so after the success of my red grape, apple, watermelon and raspberry supermarket juice wine, Ive put another brew on today - 1L Sainsburys 100% Red Grape Juice 2L Sainsburys Cherry Juice drink (about 35%) 1L boiled water 810g Granulated Sugar (calculated to 1100g total sugars) 1tsp pectic...

Ive got a 40 pint kit on the go, but have only two dozen 500ml bottles, which leaves me around 10L of brew with no where to put it! For reasons two mundane to go into I cant get any more proper bottles yet, and I dont have a pressure barrel, So, im thinking of putting the rest into sanitized 2L...

Hi All, Thought i'd drop in and mention this WOW variant I have on the go. First time trying this method, but seems pretty good so far! All 100% juices bought from I think Sainsburys but might have been tesco! 1100g total sugars, 308g from the juice, 1/2 tsp Pectolase 2 tbsp Jif lemon 1 tsp...

Hi All, Ive come today to check and stabilise my strawberry wine, and found that its stuck at 1.020. This one was put on before I started taking proper notes, but I did take an initial gravity reading, an SG of 1.150! On my hydrometer this is right at the bottom and well outside the red marked...