Woodland Wine !!

[Landpikey]

Splodger

That is one fantastic collection of home brew.

On a totally different, not connected in any way whatsoever, matter ( ) when is your next open day.......?

You may get far more visitors than you bargained for though!

[splodger]

Splodger

That is one fantastic collection of home brew.

On a totally different, not connected in any way whatsoever, matter ( ) when is your next open day.......?

You may get far more visitors than you bargained for though!

i do love my wine went foraging yesterday - so will be making more brews today

not sure we will be doing any more tuition days actually landpikey - not for a little while anyway - i will be sure to let you know if we start doing them again - but it's a long way for you to travel

[splodger]

i'm starting to run out of brew space

been offered loads of fruit from friends, neighbours etc recently - and i am loathed to say no - as it's such a shame for such lovely fruit to go on the compost heap

got an email yesterday from a chap i hadn't spoke to for a number of years - happens he has a massive glut of grapes that needed picking

spent an hour this morning picking them - and all afternoon "processing" them

picked over 30 kg's - which is a fair harvest off of a single vine - couldn't squish the lot by hand - so had to go for more old fashioned way of squish (i did wash feet first)

[oldclaypaws]

I'm sitting here sipping my new Blackberry Wine, which is fairly OK. Not the 'fruitiest' I've had, but pleasant, fairly clean taste and pokey. Style wise, its a bit like a dry Rose (Thats Ro - zeh, not the bush).

Looking forward to Elderberry next year, which I understand is one of the best.

Just a couple of worthy ones to mention which i had great success with;

Use 1 Litre 'Orange' or any other Pure Fruit Juice Carton, works well with Mango, Tropical, Apple, 5 Alive, Red Grape. NB 100 % JUICE, not 'Drink'. Cranberry wasn't good.
Dissolve a bag of sugar in hot water, stick in a Demi-John with the Carton of Juice. Bung in wine yeast and stick an air lock on the top. Fermentation takes about a month, add finings, decant into another demijohn, drink. Bleeding good and about £1 a gallon.

Dr McFirtles Tooth and Tongue Embalming Fluid; (Patented). Dissolve 2kg Dried Malted Barley Extract in a gallon of water. Add brewers yeast and ferment for about a week, a bit of amalase enzyme also helps break down the maltose. Stick in an Alembic copper vessel as sold on Ebay, and put on top of cooker. Heat, chucking away first 50ml/half cup that comes off. Next Litre+ will come off at 78 Centigrade will be about 70 degree proof alcohol. Stop when alcohol % coming off drops below 30 proof or 15%, as measured by a hydrometer. Stick in a kilner jar for a week with a handful of charred oak chips, the size of pineapple chunks. When honey coloured, its ready (about a week). Tastes better than a £40 bottle of 18 year old 'Scottish Wine', for about £7 a bottle.

Alternatively use Brown Sugar (only), once 'refined, add cloves, cinnamon and golden syrup, 'Captain Morgan' for 70p a bottle.

[The Barrowers]

Hello Is that a 1 kg bag of sugar?

The copper is £150 plus on Ebay

B and T

[oldclaypaws]

If you get a turbo yeast they can handle far higher alcohol and you could use 2 kg. The Italian company I dealt with do a diddy 1 gallon copper vessel for about £90. I only use it to produce small quantities for 'personal research'. They list on Ebay.com rather than Ebay.co.uk now. Has a useful built in temperature gauge.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALAMBICCO-DISTILLATORE-5-LITRI-/171152498334?pt=Attrezzature_ed_Accessori&hash=item27d97bde9e

[Bearwood]

I'm smugly celebrating my 355th pint of new season cider firmly (but lightly) carbonated in the keg. The (Bayanus ) strain of yeast I use ferments to an eye-watering dryness which leads me to back-sweeten to medium-dry, as I only keeve the last batch or two. Unfortunately my choice of fermenting vessel size (60ltr) makes it difficult for me to artificially keeve in a brewing fridge, but it does mean that I make so much I have little room (or kegs) for anything else.

Once the last of the first keg has been emptied at the next birthday in early November, the bitter ales will commence. This year I'm going for a Damson porter and a Quickthorn lambic 'kriek' to name the more unusual planned brews.

Those eagle-eyed brewers will be able to just about make out the hop plant in the background. This year was my first attempt at growing and drying hops, and I successfully managed a couple of hundred (dry) grams of Wye Challenger, Fuggles and East Kent Goldings. I can't wait to use them!

[oldclaypaws]

Not that I'm trying to make anyone jealous, but in terms of 'past form', I think I probably get the gold star. Although I've been self employed for nearly 30 years, my last salaried occupation was I ran a very well known brand of whiskey. (There's an 'e' in this particular one).

My brief was to always carry several cases in the car, give it away to everyone I met, buy rounds of it in every bar, try every competitive product, and try to stay standing up. I think they now make around 11 million cases of the stuff a year, its the biggest American brand.

Ironically, I far prefer Scotch or my own. Don't think I've tried the stuff for years, its an 'acquired taste'. Not surprisingly, I was pretty popular at the time ! My unit/week intake now is probably a tenth of what it was then, you tend to get through quite a bit when its free, its one of the hazards of the profession.

[Bearwood]

If you dropped a couple of hundred grams of blackberries into a bottle of your previous employers produce it may make it palatable!!

There's only one whiskey I'm concerned with, and that's Jameson. I was weaned on it, and I'll take a bottle of it to the grave. I'm a sixth generation disciple of John, and I wouldn't break the mould for all the rest.

Aside from the spirit, has anyone (particularly Splodger) tried to make anything from Whitebeam berries? I have numerous trees burgeoning with fruit, but have only just discovered that they can be used to brew with.

[splodger]

Aside from the spirit, has anyone (particularly Splodger) tried to make anything from Whitebeam berries? I have numerous trees burgeoning with fruit, but have only just discovered that they can be used to brew with.

tbh - didn't know you could use the berries - so no, never tried.
don't actually see much whitebeam in my area - else i might be tempted to try