RECIPE PAGE

[pi55ed]

Anybody thought of doing an ongoing! recipe page on here, say for doing basic washes, or maybe tried and tested recipes, seems maybe easier to have an ongoing page......

Being new myself would get me started on some of the basics.....

You never know in time i may come across a masterpiece recipe myself by accident, then i could add it to the page.....
Just a thought, what you think !?

[Jimmy]

It's a good idea - I think that if you invent a new one then you should start a new thread and give the thing a title, then people can comment about that specific recipe rather than jamming them all into one post.
Who wants to go first? Even if you want to write about your experience with a type of commercial yeast (Alcotec 48 or whatever) then that's still helpful for everyone - what you put in, how long it took, what strength it was, how it distilled, general verdict, etc. Let's make this an invaluable resource for choosing which wash to run. If I get a fair few together I will knock up a table or something, we'll see how it goes.

[pi55ed]

just thought it would be a good idea, as i saw a recipe for ( skittles vodka )....google it!!

it open my eyes, what you can do with vodka, or any spirit really

[bluecap]

Well this isn’t really a recipe but ill include it as it keeps the wife quiet for the first liter but alas the alcohol takes over for the second liter and makes her twice as bad.
Take 300mils out of any 2 liter bottle of pop and replace it with 300mils of 50% spirit, instant alcopops @ 7.5% she prefers the traditional lemonade as it’s not too sweet.

[quietman]

Good Idea Bluecap, my missus would like that
Regards, Ian

[Jimmy]

LOL, the only way to make 'em STAY quiet is a pool ball in a sock, or so I've heard (cough cough)

[pi55ed]

Tomato Wine
Ingredients

Red Tomatoes

5 pounds ripe tomatoes

4 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

2 lemons, juice only

2 campden tablets

1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package wine yeast

water
OR--------------------------------------------------------------
Green Tomatoes

3 1/2 pounds green tomatoes

5 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

4 lemons, juice only

1 campden tablet

1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme

2 pounds raisins

1/2 oz fresh ginger root (optional)

1 package wine yeast

water
Wash and trim tomatoes. Chop and place in primary fermentor. Add water to make up to 1 gallon. Add all other ingredients except yeast. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Let sit overnight.
Specific gravity should be between 1.090 and 1.095. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and stir. Stir daily for five or six days, until specific gravity is 1.040.
Strain the must and squeeze out as much juice as you can from the fruit. Siphon into secondary fermentor and place airlock.
For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.
For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.
Alternate Method

Place tomatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Boil until soft. Mash. Add water to make up to 1 gallon and all other ingredients except yeast.

The next day, strain the must and add yeast. Stir daily for 3 days. Siphon into Secondary Fermentor and add water to make up to 1 gallon. Attach airlock.
Finish as for dry or sweet wine above.

[Jimmy]

If you're going to make a fruit/veg type wine, I would HIGHLY recommend that you put the pulp into some kind of special straining bag in the fermenter, because I speak from experience in saying it's a real bitch to try and strain it all out afterwards with just coffee filters and a small funnel!!!

[pi55ed]

I looked on youtube at wine making, and a guy used stockings or tights which were boiled in water before use, clean ones from a packed, and not ones strait from the wife
Then he strained the fruit which is tied in the nylon stocking and was placed in the container with the water sugar and ..... that was then squeezed into the container before adding the yeast.... so the fruit was in the nylon for i think a few days to get the sugars and flavour out first

[Opus 27]

If your into all grain brewing you may of come across nylon grain bags that you use to retain malted barley etc. in the mash. They would be ideal for fruit and the like in the fermenting bucket.
Opus

[umpa]

I have just made some gooseberry wine.

Here’s what I did.

Mashed up 2.2kg of washed berries in a blender.

Put them in 3 gallons of tap water in a beer fermenter

Added 3 campden tablets

Left for 24 hrs with airlock on

Added 3kg of castor sugar

Added 3 teaspoons of wine yeast

Added 3 table spoons of DAP

Added 3 teaspoons of pectolase

Shuck the living life out of it.
Left till it reached .1000 - and racked into secondary.

Added wine stabilizer (3 teaspoons)
Left for another week - then filtered with a Minijet http://www.wineworks.co.uk/product/minijet_filter/

Sorry for the plug but I really like the company
Bottled and put labels and shrinks (well ya gotta)
I supped some and it was very nice.
Tis my own recipe I made it up as I went along

[Phantom]

You\'re gonna get slightly better results if you don\'t whiz the berries in a blender umpa. Freeze them and thaw them, then when they\'re mixed with the water, add pectolase/pectic enzyme, as it helps prevent pectin hazes, but also helps with juice extraction and the flavouring of the wine.
The reason why it\'s better not to whiz the fruit is because it tends to smash up the seeds aswell and that can cause problems with traces of bitterness in the wine - hence the freeze/thaw suggestion.

[umpa]

Yeah I read that somewhere and I\'m sure your right, I did start out mashing them with a potato masher in a hop bag, but I broke it - lol.
It turned out fine though. Since then I was lucky enough to have some more given me, so I did the same - but this time I have done a secondary fermentation with honey - I\'ll let you know the results.

[Phantom]

It turned out fine though. Since then I was lucky enough to have some more given me, so I did the same - but this time I have done a secondary fermentation with honey - I\'ll let you know the results.

Excellent.
Again, if it\'s a melomel I\'m making, I\'ll try and ferment the honey with either just a little of the fruit or just as a traditional mead, then either at the 1020 or 1010 point or when it\'s fermented dry, add the fruit then (with the pectolase). You tend to have to use quite a "gentle" yeast if you don\'t want the ferment to kill off a lot of the fruit flavour. Well that\'s what I\'ve found anyway..... i.e. either secondary or let the alcohol extract the fruit flavour (it often means that the wine/mead/etc is drinkable earlier than it otherwise would have been).
Still, AFAIC as long as you like your wines etc then it doesn\'t matter a shit what methods/techniques you use. Meads are just a PITA cos they can take such a long time to age/mellow properly....
Oh and if you use the "freeze/thaw" method on the fruit, you don\'t need a spud masher, you can just break the fruit up with your hands......