StillSmart

The middle of last year we went to Wilko's to get tools for our new allotment, spades, forks, you know the score. While there they had the large wine kits on sale, the 30 bottle size so I bought 2 of them.
I got the one off to a good start, followed it through the the end and bottled it. These went out into the shed until the other day when the swmbo got one in...
well what a surprise!!! it's very nice, even had a sparkle to it.

Suppose I'd better get the other one on the go....ar well no rest for the wicked

Yup I regularly do a basic wine kit from my local HBS .. my sis is vegan so quite tricky to get wine that's suitable (co-op does it but its pricey ) .

Time is definitely the magic ingredient

Iain

Vegan wine?? what's in wine then that she can't have??. I do loads of fruit wines now we have an allotment, I have a couple that I looked at this morning that are destined for the pot still...

Ive been making the Australian syle blend pinot grigio and the chardonnay with good results but too nice to still.
Cheers

i make a decent basic white wine for the wife
20 litres of Aldi white grape juice
( keep an eye on prices it sometimes drops to 85p).
2 packs of white grape and peach 2 X 1.5 litre
2 packs of white grape and passion fruit 2 X 1.5 litre
or any mix of fruity drinks to add to the bulk grape juice
1 litre really strong black tea

so 27 litres all together
1 pack of lavin EC1118 yeast

takes about 10 / 12 days to run dry rack off and then clear in your appropriate manor, drinks great straight away but if left for a month or so its quite similar to a sauvignon blanc

enjoy

Icefever wrote:Vegan wine?? what's in wine then that she can't have??.)

A lot of the finings are animal based (fish swim bladders , etc) as well as a lot of sugar is whitened using charcoal based on burnt animal bones ..

Ye gods.... glad I don't use any of the fining then.

Hi There

Our house red,and has been for years is a 5g Cantina cab sav, we add a extra 2k of sugar to give it a bit of a boost!

It tastes like a house red that you would get in a family owned Italian restaurant, fairly light and fruity. When we have a meal or a get together with friends they all prefer our kit wine to your typical Aldi/Liddle £5 bottle of red.

Cantina is one of the most cheapest kits there is,and seems a lot of people use this grape juice under a lot of different brand names,some of the experts dont rate it that much, we have compared to many different kits, and it holds its own at the cheaper to middle price range.The extra sugar makes a big difference.

Wow!! i am very impressed with your lovely post.. i am so glad to left comment on this.. Baacco The Community Based Wine Marketplace >:D

This is my adaptation of a C J J Berry recipe for white wine.

12 tins of peaches

6 Kg of white sugar

100g Pectolase

Cup of strong tea, 2 or 3 teabags left to cool.

Champagne yeast

Usual '25L' fermenter, type with handles. Liquidise/blend the peaches, add tea, 4Kg of sugar and enough freshly boiled water to get the sugar dissolved, about 6 to 8 litres. When the sugar is dissolved, add cold water to give ~18 to 20 litres.

Add the 100g of pectolase and stir. Leave for 24hrs with airlock fitted. Next day add the yeast and stir.

When the ferment slows down, about a week/10 days, dissolve 2Kg of sugar in 3 or 4 litres of water and allow to cool. When cool enough, add to fermenter and top up with cold water just an inch or 2 from the very top.

If the room is warm enough, ferment will be done in another 3 weeks. It will be cloudy but bang it through a Harris Quickfine filter (the type with canvas bag and containers numbered 1, 2 and 3. btw, not for vegans.) and you'll have a glass of clear polished white wine in less than 30 minutes.

Maybe not the best white wine in the world but certainly not the worst. My brother had friends round one time and asked if they'd like a glass of wine, they declined. 'It's what John made'...'Oh in that case yes'...can't beat compliments from people you've never met.

Less than £15 to make 38 bottles of approx 15%abv.

If you get sticker shock when seeing the price of the Harris Quickfine, remember that your best bargains seemed overpriced on the day that you bought them.

Right on John...we're away next Sat for a two week holiday but I think I'll give this a try when I get back...watch this space..

Have you ever put any through a still??

About 20 years ago I distilled 5 gallons of coffee wine. (Another Berry recipe.)
Very crude pot still, masking tape as a seal, kept blowing so I had to nurse it for 16 hours. Lovely product though.

Nowadays I'm happy with neutral, maybe use it to make some apple pie.

John51,
That is an interesting looking recipe,and with BBQ season approaching one worth a whizz.
It seems the Harris Quickfine is now a defunct filter,although 'replacement' components are available.
Maybe patience and coffee filters (or in my cheapskate world,-kitchen roll)
would work,- seems to work well enough on my version of Southern Comfort,which usually ends with many macerated and broken down/disintegrated, (I can't find the right word here,it's late!) peaches,which take an age to filter,but boy is it worth the effort.
Robert.

I feel that I ought to add a 'signature',stating that I do re-read my posts,before posting,mainly for 'SP's',but not to check that they make sense to someone at a different time and state of alcohol infusion as myself.
Who needs to keep reading that each time I post?
As I thought..Cheers!

I bought my Quickfine over 30 years ago, I was on the dole at the time so cheap alcohol was sort of a priority lol. iirc, it cost about £13. Arm and a leg job, almost a weeks dole money. I ummed and aarghed for half a year while cursing out those lame coffee filter type filters.

When I did finally bite the bullet, I'd only filtered half a gallon before realising that I'd wasted 6 months. Sugar to clear sparkling plonk in 4 weeks, doley heaven. Lots of friends after that, many of them female. They all knew to bring a kilo or 2 of sugar when they called.

Here's the canvas bag:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-H ... 338df765f6

The only hard part to make is the 'funnel bucket'. The other bucket is a regular 10L food grade, commonly available. Turn one of those into something that can sit on a demijon and you've cracked it.

btw, bottle 2 is used at double the amount of 1 and 3 but they get sold as a set cos that's how Harris supply them. Bottle 2 seems like Isinglass to me but I never got around to trying it.