Wine and beer making

I was asked if I would do a post about wine making and brewing.  My mum used to make wine (her Plum wine was a triumph but I can never look at a Dandelion again without thinking about the vat of disgusting slimy mess that resulted from her using the whole flower head and not just the PETALS!!) 

Anyway, I started making wine in the late 1970s and continued, on and off, until a few years back when I was unable to drink wine as it affected my asthma.  I (stupidly) gave away all my wine making stuff to the charity shop (someone would have been delighted I'm sure).  Anyway, I am able to drink it again now, and decided that it was a good way to use up fruit gluts which we have in the summer and autumn, but of course, the Lockdown had already started and so I had to pay full whack for a basic wine making kit from Wilko's.  £45 including delivery bought me a big plastic fermentation bin with lid, one demi-john (that alone was £8 - I could buy them from any car boot sale at £1 a hit normally), a syphon, a pack of corks, 4 bungs/airlocks and 4 sachets of general purpose yeast, and some Camden tablets.  That is pretty well the basic starter kit, although you will need a BIG saucepan (I use my jam making pan) if you are brewing beer.  I forgot, you also need a big bottle brush to clean out the demijohns - that was ONE thing which had stayed in the cupboard!  

I am very basic with my wine making and try to use as few additives as possible (because of my allergic asthma).  Even the smell of Camden tablets can take my breath away - one crushed in water is what you use to sterilize the items you are using for wine making.  The Blackberry wine used blackberries, raisins, sugar and water, though it did call for pectin enzyme but I didn't have it and have never used it or noticed the lack.

Beer making equipment is much the same, though you don't often use a demijohn (the kit that Tam was given DID, however, need one, with an airlock and we had to sterilize everything along the way. 

I have saved wine bottles for a while, cleaning them thoroughly and taking labels off, and then putting a sheet of folded kitchen roll in the neck to keep dust etc out.  For beer you need Grolsch bottles or 1 litre lemonade bottles - we found the sort Tam's tonic water came in just the right size.  Don't use wine bottles or similar as the glass is too thin and they could explode!

I bought this book for Tam for Christmas (perfect timing!) and can recommend it.  The wee book below has traditional homemade drinks and is where the wine recipe I used came from.  

Below - I found this book on my travels and thought it would be a good one for Tam.  There are lots of excellent recipes in it, including fruit wines, cordials, liqueurs, beers, lemonades, possets and even vinegars.

Tam's beer was one made using the mash shown above.  It was a Thistle Ale Kit which she was given for her birthday 2 or 3 years back (!).  It included the malt bag of wheat, then two hop bags, plus yeast and a steriliser.  It was rather labour intensive and one of us had to stand over it stirring every 15 minutes and making sure that the temperature did not get above 85 deg.   It was strained and put into a demijohn, and the yeast added.  One mistake we made was not to test the yeast first (as it was old) in a separate jug, but fortunately it DID work, but only when we put the demijohn over a box with a lightbulb in it and a rack on top, with a thick towel wrapped round the demijohn to keep the heat in.  We used this heat box when Keith was making his homebrew (the sort that comes out of a tin and you just add water!).  Anyway, when it has finished working you sterilise the bottles you are using and add a teaspoon of sugar to each, and fill to about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the neck, put the lid on and and shake to incorporate the sugar.  These are now on one side for 2 months to mature . . .

P.S. The Chilli seed tray is now on the beer warmer box, so let's hope it works!

It's good to be wine making again, I have to say - seems almost like alchemy!