Just got some Boots winemaking gear off gumtree

[PenhowBrewer]

I have just bought a load of winemaking kit stuff via gumtree, and it really brought back some memories! It all Boots branded stuff, some of it still in original boxes.

notice the price stickers?


Does anyone have any tips about getting glass fermentation locks out of bungs? I can remember breaking quite a few in the past, So I can remember not to twist them ... it can get a bit dangerous!

Also, any ideas about cleaning the inside of pretty dirty demijohns? Is there anything better than WP cleaner and a brush?

finally, can anyone shed any light on what this is?

 

[An Ankoù]

Excellent find. Don't try to get the airlocks out, just sterilise the whole thing. The Campden tabs might be a bit past it by now. Your WP cleaner should work fine if you leave it overnight, otherwise, use bleach and water and, again, leave it overnight. The other thing is a quantum hyperspace-drive unit QHU #3, early-eighties. Went out of fashion with the Mark 3 Cortina.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Like the glass airlock.

 

[PenhowBrewer]

Excellent find. Don't try to get the airlocks out, just sterilise the whole thing. The Campden tabs might be a bit past it by now. Your WP cleaner should work fine if you leave it overnight, otherwise, use bleach and water and, again, leave it overnight. The other thing is a quantum hyperspace-drive unit QHU #3, early-eighties. Went out of fashion with the Mark 3 Cortina.

...I thought I noticed a slight spacetime continuum warping around by the greenhouse earlier. That must have been what caused it

 

[jof]

Hey, I still have a glass airlock like that!
I gave my boots wine hydrometer to my nephew (at university) & loaned him some kit to make his first Wilko Cerveza brew.

 

[An Ankoù]

...I thought I noticed a slight spacetime continuum warping around by the greenhouse earlier. That must have been what caused it

Haha.
My guess is that it's the packaging for a glass hydrometer, which also serves as a trial jar once the red rubber grommet is removed.
It's that very warping of space around a dense object (as demonstrated near a greenhouse full of ripe courgettes) that leads many to believe the Earth is actually curved!