Old hobby rekindled

[quadbikeman]

Hi all,

I made beer, wine and preserves years ago and since retiring I have gone back to it and my how it has changed.

At present I am making wine from a selection of kits priced up to mid range and they are coming out pretty good (or so my drinkers tell me). Made Wine Works kits, Beaverdale, Wine Buddy and about to start a Cellar 7 and an On the House kit. Best so far has been a Nebbilio from Beaverdale.

Would really like to hear from people which White, Rose and Red kit they have liked most of all.

Not made any beer or lager yet but my lads are asking me to give it a go.

Take care everyone and stay safe.

P.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't spend lots on wine kits and have found the WineBuddy kits good value we currently make the Range Store make your own range £19:99 + £3:49 postage great wine and rumour has it Beaverdale make the kits for them - https://www.therange.co.uk/cooking-and-dining/drinks/home-brew/#sort=relevance&page=1&lpp=24

Full review here - The Range store make your own rosé wine. (rebranded 20/8/2019)

 

[soupdragon]

The best advice I can give is to be guided by your taste buds.
I only make reds and have found that the likes of Cellar 7 and others in the £30-35 ish bracket are where I'm happy. I'm just finishing a Kenridge classic Nebbiolo (£50 ish). It's nice but I'm not sure it's worth the extra.
Other people may say that if you want a good red you need to spend £50-60+ at a minimum and the likes of Cellar 7 have little or no body or depth of flavour. There is some truth in that but I'm happy in the £30-35 range.
It's your palate, if you're unhappy with one price point move up a level till you find your sweet spot.

Cheers. Tom

 

[Bold_Ron]

FWIW I've found that a homemade blackberry wine makes a far nicer red than pretty much any £40ish kit. Not a great deal more effort involved and costs only the price of a packet of yeast and some sugar.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

FWIW I've found that a homemade blackberry wine makes a far nicer red than pretty much any £40ish kit. Not a great deal more effort involved and costs only the price of a packet of yeast and some sugar.

How long do you need to age it?

 

[Arcs]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't spend lots on wine kits and have found the WineBuddy kits good value we currently make the Range Store make your own range £19:99 + £3:49 postage great wine and rumour has it Beaverdale make the kits for them - https://www.therange.co.uk/cooking-and-dining/drinks/home-brew/#sort=relevance&page=1&lpp=24

Full review here - The Range store make your own rosé wine. (rebranded 20/8/2019)


View attachment 42818View attachment 42819 View attachment 42820

Excellent chippy, but I do find it somewhat wanting that there is no recommendation of the finest Chippy Tea in the land :C

 

[quadbikeman]

The best advice I can give is to be guided by your taste buds.
I only make reds and have found that the likes of Cellar 7 and others in the £30-35 ish bracket are where I'm happy. I'm just finishing a Kenridge classic Nebbiolo (£50 ish). It's nice but I'm not sure it's worth the extra.
Other people may say that if you want a good red you need to spend £50-60+ at a minimum and the likes of Cellar 7 have little or no body or depth of flavour. There is some truth in that but I'm happy in the £30-35 range.
It's your palate, if you're unhappy with one price point move up a level till you find your sweet spot.

Cheers. Tom

Thanks Tom, I have been trying lots to make but I don't drink much of it and people are sometimes just "nice". Ithink I'll stick to the £30 to £40 ish range. Phil

 

[quadbikeman]

Excellent chippy, but I do find it somewhat wanting that there is no recommendation of the finest Chippy Tea in the land :C

I think I'll just keep experimenting thank you.

 

[quadbikeman]

FWIW I've found that a homemade blackberry wine makes a far nicer red than pretty much any £40ish kit. Not a great deal more effort involved and costs only the price of a packet of yeast and some sugar.

Have you tried using frozen or dried fruit?

 

[An Ankoù]

Welcome, quadbikeman. I used to make gallons of wine, all from foraged stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed it- and still enjoy experimenting even now. However, the stuff began to pile up as I favoured beer and I ended up giving most of it away. I used to use Berry's First Steps in Winemaking (and still do) and follow the recipes for stuff that's available month by month.
The one I always make every year is elderflower champagne based on his rhubarb wine recipe. I've got a gallon of that carbing up in the garage, somewhere, and another gallon with hibiscus flowers which I hadn't made before. I must dig them out and see if they're ready.

 

[Arcs]

I think I'll just keep experimenting thank you.

Sorry, was just ribbing Chippy on a Thread a wee while back - nothing to do with you Sir =)

 

[Arcs]

Yes Welcome indeed!

 

[soupdragon]

FWIW I've found that a homemade blackberry wine makes a far nicer red than pretty much any £40ish kit. Not a great deal more effort involved and costs only the price of a packet of yeast and some sugar.

Interesting...........

Never given something like that a second thought. I had a couple of CJJ Berry's books back in the day but didn't make anything from them, no idea where they are now either.
Which particular recipe is your go to for the blackberry wine? Would be seriously tempted to have a go.

Cheers. Tom

 

[Bold_Ron]

How long do you need to age it?

Not long, it's pretty nice after a month or so but does get even better after about six months. I bulk age in DJs and just bottle six at a time when I run out. I try to keep a bottle or two tucked away for a year or longer but rarely manage it.

 

[An Ankoù]

Interesting...........

Never given something like that a second thought. I had a couple of CJJ Berry's books back in the day but didn't make anything from them, no idea where they are now either.
Which particular recipe is your go to for the blackberry wine? Would be seriously tempted to have a go.

Cheers. Tom

I've made it, although not for years, and it can be a great wine- mine has always come out very dry. The last lot I made I put about 25% elderberries in with it and it was much more full-bodied.

 

[Bold_Ron]

Have you tried using frozen or dried fruit?

I forage for fresh then add them to a bag in the freezer until I have enough to do a decent few gallons. I'm lucky in that I have access to plenty of brambles close by and away from busy roads. I can pick a few when they are nicely ripe without having to strip the bushes or use overripe or flyblown fruit.

 

[johncrobinson]

In the days when I had a local homebrew shop I used to buy the out of date kits and boost them with country wine ingredients, Using the kit grape juice as a base. Obviously the kit timescales and procedures go right out the window But the end result was very much worth it.

If anybody is wondering why i did this,There are two reasons
(1) In those days supermarkets did not sell grape juice.
(2) The grape juice available now in supermarkets does not come from winemaking varieties(fresh wine grapes are not the same as eating grapes.)

Country wines require more investment in time and equipment (to handle the fruit and other ingredients.)
But the results if you get it right can be outstanding.

Kits and WOWs on the other hand can produce a wine which is rather drinkable from the off,They don't improve very much with long aging.They are expressly designed not to.How many of us would buy kits if you had to wait a year or more to taste the results.
As an example of what i am saying think of the 7day kits on the market.
They are however a good introduction to the hobby.

All grain beer brewers will know exactly what i am talking about.

 

[An Ankoù]

In the days when I had a local homebrew shop I used to buy the out of date kits and boost them with country wine ingredients, Using the kit grape juice as a base. Obviously the kit timescales and procedures go right out the window But the end result was very much worth it.

If anybody is wondering why i did this,There are two reasons
(1) In those days supermarkets did not sell grape juice.
(2) The grape juice available now in supermarkets does not come from winemaking varieties(fresh wine grapes are not the same as eating grapes.)

Country wines require more investment in time and equipment (to handle the fruit and other ingredients.)
But the results if you get it right can be outstanding.

Kits and WOWs on the other hand can produce a wine which is rather drinkable from the off,They don't improve very much with long aging.They are expressly designed not to.How many of us would buy kits if you had to wait a year or more to taste the results.
As an example of what i am saying think of the 7day kits on the market.
They are however a good introduction to the hobby.

All grain beer brewers will know exactly what i am talking about.

In my wine-makingf days, I never had the wherewithal to actually purchase a kit, so I can't make the comparison. I do know that foraged wines were good. One of my favourites was parsnip wine, which would take yonks to come into its own.

 

[Bold_Ron]

Interesting...........

Never given something like that a second thought. I had a couple of CJJ Berry's books back in the day but didn't make anything from them, no idea where they are now either.
Which particular recipe is your go to for the blackberry wine? Would be seriously tempted to have a go.

Cheers. Tom

Try the Brewbitz recipe (on YouTube). The parsnip wine also comes out really well. In fact, a neighbour's friend is a wine buyer for a large supermarket chain and had a taste of my parsnip wine Mk I and said although he could tell it wasn't a grape wine it was a standard that would pass their buying threshold.

Using a dedicated red fruit wine yeast (Gervin GV11) makes a big difference to the taste compared to a general purpose yeast. You will have to adjust the sugar additions to compensate for the variable sugar in the fruit and how strong you want it. I tend to aim for 12%ish.

I used to make Beaverdale kits but now pretty much exclusively make hedgerow wines. I will experiment and any that are of a disproportional effort compared to the taste I don't make again. It's probably heresy on here but I find elderberry wine is not worth the effort compared to blackberry. Damsons make a decent wine but de-stoning can be a pain. Gooseberry and rhubarb make nice white/rose with very little effort.*

*Disclaimer - Other opinions are available and may differ from the above.

 

[quadbikeman]

Try the Brewbitz recipe (on YouTube). The parsnip wine also comes out really well. In fact, a neighbour's friend is a wine buyer for a large supermarket chain and had a taste of my parsnip wine Mk I and said although he could tell it wasn't a grape wine it was a standard that would pass their buying threshold.

Using a dedicated red fruit wine yeast (Gervin GV11) makes a big difference to the taste compared to a general purpose yeast. You will have to adjust the sugar additions to compensate for the variable sugar in the fruit and how strong you want it. I tend to aim for 12%ish.

I used to make Beaverdale kits but now pretty much exclusively make hedgerow wines. I will experiment and any that are of a disproportional effort compared to the taste I don't make again. It's probably heresy on here but I find elderberry wine is not worth the effort compared to blackberry. Damsons make a decent wine but de-stoning can be a pain. Gooseberry and rhubarb make nice white/rose with very little effort.*

*Disclaimer - Other opinions are available and may differ from the above.

Thanks for the useful information. I will have to watch out for free rhubarb and gooseberries as I like both those fruits. I'll take a look on youtube too. Phil