Hi Folks,
New to the forums, been 'stalking' for a little while now, the goal being to absorb the relevant knowledge to have a bash at a little home-brewing.
Having managed to acquire 4 DJs (2 clear, 2 brown) and a 5 gallon fermentation bucket (with lid & tap - the tap appears to have a small leak (where it passes through the bucket) which i'll need to attend to before I can use that!), and purchased some other bits & bobs (hydrogemeter & beaker, syphon, consumables) from Wilco, all I needed was a little bit of time to get in the kitchen and have a go.
I'm well versed with yeast as an ingredient in baking (my sourdough starter has been living in the fridge for the best past of 6 years now), but not for alcohol production, and I think I have the science/book-work side of things down, but the 'art' side of things remains entirely new to me.
My first attempt at brewing is a variation on a WOW, which I'll come to momentarily.
My broader goal is, for the most part, country wines, and ciders, using the bounty which we're fortunate enough to have out in the garden (pears galore, apples, brambles, damsons, plums, elderberries/flowers, rhubarb, strawberries, beach leaves? mint?), we also have a very productive grapevine in the conservatory - I believe it's white (seeded) eating grapes, rather than wine grapes, so am not expecting any kind of 'epic' wine from them, and am currently thinking that using them alongside other fruits in country wines may well be the best way to go.
Ciders will likely come from the pear harvest later this year. I may also have a run at a ginger beer, as the misses is very keen on them.
To the WOW, then...
Not being able to locate any cartons of grape juice alone, I've opted for 2 x 1lite cartons of grape, apple and raspberry juice (40% WGJ, 10% RGJ, 35% Apple Juice, 15% Raspberry Puree).
Giving me 106g of sugar per carton, 212g total, I've added an additional 840g sugar (dissolved into ~500ml of boiling water, then cooled). I'm making this in a 4.5 litre DJ, thus - when topped up - should be around 235g of sugar per litre, roughly in-line with the basis WOW recipe.
My method was pretty standard: juice, syrup, tea (earl grey, as it was in the pot - very lah-de-dah!), yeast (wilco sachet, started off in a jug 30 mins earlier), nutrient (wilco), pectolase (wilco) all into the FV, given a jolly good shake up, topped up to bottom of shoulder, airlocked and then left to get on with it.
Fermentation started pretty quickly, with one bloop roughly every 3/4 seconds, rising to every 1 second after about 12 hours. 24 hours on (this morning), the pace was up slightly, to one every just-less-than a second.
It's remained pretty well behaved thus far, quickly forming a ~2cm layer of gunge on the surface, and fizzing away, but without any sign of climbing the inside of the DJ and heading for a mucky ejection. Of-course, this could all have changed by the time I get home from work today.
The DJ is stood on a tray in our utility room. Temp is, perhaps, a little on the low side (I'd guesstimate around 18oC ambient), so I expect it to run a little slowly compared to being sat in the lounge, but stable with little variation (which can't be said for much of the rest of the hosue).
I plan to let it ferment right out to dryness, stabilise, and then taste test before deciding whether or not to sweeten.
We'll see how things progress...
I have a few questions on the 'art' side of things, however:
* I didn't add any gliceryn (didn't have any), but figure I can add this post fermentation? and can then taste test to see the difference it makes? Reasonable?
* Acid - I ran with the assumption that the raspberry in the juice would have sufficient acidity for me not to need to add any. Reasonable? Or do you think it might have benefitted from some?
* Has anyone done the same/similar brew in the past? How did it turn out? What should I be expecting from a taste point of view? something akin to a rose? Should I expect the raspberry flavour to be prominent? or to have diminshed?
Thanks for reading, for your comments/answers to my questions. I'll follow up with posts detailing progress & what have you, I'm also keeping notes, pictures, etc in Evernote, and you ought to be able to see them, here: http://www.evernote.com/shard/s5/sh...7ce151f63ed3/8b1dbd9219c6f7c6541d8b133829d7b4
G.
New to the forums, been 'stalking' for a little while now, the goal being to absorb the relevant knowledge to have a bash at a little home-brewing.
Having managed to acquire 4 DJs (2 clear, 2 brown) and a 5 gallon fermentation bucket (with lid & tap - the tap appears to have a small leak (where it passes through the bucket) which i'll need to attend to before I can use that!), and purchased some other bits & bobs (hydrogemeter & beaker, syphon, consumables) from Wilco, all I needed was a little bit of time to get in the kitchen and have a go.
I'm well versed with yeast as an ingredient in baking (my sourdough starter has been living in the fridge for the best past of 6 years now), but not for alcohol production, and I think I have the science/book-work side of things down, but the 'art' side of things remains entirely new to me.
My first attempt at brewing is a variation on a WOW, which I'll come to momentarily.
My broader goal is, for the most part, country wines, and ciders, using the bounty which we're fortunate enough to have out in the garden (pears galore, apples, brambles, damsons, plums, elderberries/flowers, rhubarb, strawberries, beach leaves? mint?), we also have a very productive grapevine in the conservatory - I believe it's white (seeded) eating grapes, rather than wine grapes, so am not expecting any kind of 'epic' wine from them, and am currently thinking that using them alongside other fruits in country wines may well be the best way to go.
Ciders will likely come from the pear harvest later this year. I may also have a run at a ginger beer, as the misses is very keen on them.
To the WOW, then...
Not being able to locate any cartons of grape juice alone, I've opted for 2 x 1lite cartons of grape, apple and raspberry juice (40% WGJ, 10% RGJ, 35% Apple Juice, 15% Raspberry Puree).
Giving me 106g of sugar per carton, 212g total, I've added an additional 840g sugar (dissolved into ~500ml of boiling water, then cooled). I'm making this in a 4.5 litre DJ, thus - when topped up - should be around 235g of sugar per litre, roughly in-line with the basis WOW recipe.
My method was pretty standard: juice, syrup, tea (earl grey, as it was in the pot - very lah-de-dah!), yeast (wilco sachet, started off in a jug 30 mins earlier), nutrient (wilco), pectolase (wilco) all into the FV, given a jolly good shake up, topped up to bottom of shoulder, airlocked and then left to get on with it.
Fermentation started pretty quickly, with one bloop roughly every 3/4 seconds, rising to every 1 second after about 12 hours. 24 hours on (this morning), the pace was up slightly, to one every just-less-than a second.
It's remained pretty well behaved thus far, quickly forming a ~2cm layer of gunge on the surface, and fizzing away, but without any sign of climbing the inside of the DJ and heading for a mucky ejection. Of-course, this could all have changed by the time I get home from work today.
The DJ is stood on a tray in our utility room. Temp is, perhaps, a little on the low side (I'd guesstimate around 18oC ambient), so I expect it to run a little slowly compared to being sat in the lounge, but stable with little variation (which can't be said for much of the rest of the hosue).
I plan to let it ferment right out to dryness, stabilise, and then taste test before deciding whether or not to sweeten.
We'll see how things progress...
I have a few questions on the 'art' side of things, however:
* I didn't add any gliceryn (didn't have any), but figure I can add this post fermentation? and can then taste test to see the difference it makes? Reasonable?
* Acid - I ran with the assumption that the raspberry in the juice would have sufficient acidity for me not to need to add any. Reasonable? Or do you think it might have benefitted from some?
* Has anyone done the same/similar brew in the past? How did it turn out? What should I be expecting from a taste point of view? something akin to a rose? Should I expect the raspberry flavour to be prominent? or to have diminshed?
Thanks for reading, for your comments/answers to my questions. I'll follow up with posts detailing progress & what have you, I'm also keeping notes, pictures, etc in Evernote, and you ought to be able to see them, here: http://www.evernote.com/shard/s5/sh...7ce151f63ed3/8b1dbd9219c6f7c6541d8b133829d7b4
G.
