Hi,
I've just become a supporting member, so thought I'd update you on my progress.
I made wine from kits about 40 years ago and drank it as soon as it was fermented. It was horrible! Now I am retired so I decided to start making wine again. I bought a few books second hand including First Steps in Winemaking by CJJ Berry.
Wilko was asking £12 each for demijohns, so I started searching for cheaper ones. No car boot sales at this time of year but I looked on Facebook Marketplace and found them for about £5 each . Boyes was quite good for other equipment such as yeast, syphons and hydrometers.
My first attempt from CJB was Vin Ordinaire White made with cartons of pure orange and pineapple bought from Tesco for £2.75 each but enough for 3 gallons. I have a small spare room which is only used for storage but has a built-in cupboard. I bought one of those small heaters which looks like a fluorescent tube and am using it to heat the cupboard to 21 degrees for fermentation. The next problem was finding somewhere cool to store the wine. The garden shed gets too hot in the summer. According to CJB the ideal temperature is 13 degrees. I managed to get the spare room down to 15 degrees by turning off the radiator. It has heavy dark curtains which keep out the sun, but I'm not sure how cool it will be in the summer.
After the first batch I was a bit more adventurous and started making wines from vegetables (celery, carrot, potato) and fruit (dried elderberry, apricot and raisin). The recipes came from books by Judith Irwin and Paul & Ann Turner.
I have had a lot of questions which were not answered by the books and I am very grateful for the advice I found on this forum, so I thought I'd better become a supporter.
Van
I've just become a supporting member, so thought I'd update you on my progress.
I made wine from kits about 40 years ago and drank it as soon as it was fermented. It was horrible! Now I am retired so I decided to start making wine again. I bought a few books second hand including First Steps in Winemaking by CJJ Berry.
Wilko was asking £12 each for demijohns, so I started searching for cheaper ones. No car boot sales at this time of year but I looked on Facebook Marketplace and found them for about £5 each . Boyes was quite good for other equipment such as yeast, syphons and hydrometers.
My first attempt from CJB was Vin Ordinaire White made with cartons of pure orange and pineapple bought from Tesco for £2.75 each but enough for 3 gallons. I have a small spare room which is only used for storage but has a built-in cupboard. I bought one of those small heaters which looks like a fluorescent tube and am using it to heat the cupboard to 21 degrees for fermentation. The next problem was finding somewhere cool to store the wine. The garden shed gets too hot in the summer. According to CJB the ideal temperature is 13 degrees. I managed to get the spare room down to 15 degrees by turning off the radiator. It has heavy dark curtains which keep out the sun, but I'm not sure how cool it will be in the summer.
After the first batch I was a bit more adventurous and started making wines from vegetables (celery, carrot, potato) and fruit (dried elderberry, apricot and raisin). The recipes came from books by Judith Irwin and Paul & Ann Turner.
I have had a lot of questions which were not answered by the books and I am very grateful for the advice I found on this forum, so I thought I'd better become a supporter.
Van
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