so the cider fermented down to 1015 SG yesterday, so I racked it into a demijohn for secondary fermentation. I topped it up with some apple juice as it was slightly under the 1 gallon of the demijohn. Left it and the wine kit in beside the hot tank, as it stays at a steady temperature of 22 degrees celsius. Pictures to follow.
Happy winemaking!
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
its cider time!
so, whilst checking my wine the other day I noticed one of my protein jars was nearly empty and its slightly bigger than the demijohn. so I decided that it would make an excellent primary fermenter. its big, food safe and empty!
i went to tesco and bought 5 litres of apple juice. it was quite cheap at 56p a litre. poured it into the container and measured the SG. sitting around 1045 which hopefully will give me around 7% alcohol. I planned to use cider yeast, but my homebrew store was out of it. I had to use champagne yeast instead, but they were out of lalvin, so had to make do with young's. after using lalvin yeasts for the first time with the wine kit i have decided to try and use them wherever possible!
so i didn't add any sugar to the juice and added the yeast leaving it for 15 minutes before i stirred it in. it has been fermenting away for a couple of days now, getting quite a strong cidery smell and plenty of nice fizzing! will test the SG in a couple of days. i plan to rack to secondary when it gets to about 1015 SG
Happy winemaking!
i went to tesco and bought 5 litres of apple juice. it was quite cheap at 56p a litre. poured it into the container and measured the SG. sitting around 1045 which hopefully will give me around 7% alcohol. I planned to use cider yeast, but my homebrew store was out of it. I had to use champagne yeast instead, but they were out of lalvin, so had to make do with young's. after using lalvin yeasts for the first time with the wine kit i have decided to try and use them wherever possible!
so i didn't add any sugar to the juice and added the yeast leaving it for 15 minutes before i stirred it in. it has been fermenting away for a couple of days now, getting quite a strong cidery smell and plenty of nice fizzing! will test the SG in a couple of days. i plan to rack to secondary when it gets to about 1015 SG
Happy winemaking!
Friday, 25 November 2011
another new adventure.
hi guys, having been a bit bored since classes finished and with my new collection of demijohns, I decided to try a wine kit to make some homebrew! I bought a Vineco merlot kit from my local homebrew store and tonight i set about making it. I first sterilised the equipment using a Campden tablet solution. The wine concentrate was then added to the demijohn. I added bentonite and a packet of oak shavings, which will hopefully impart an oak aged flavour to the wine. I then topped up the wine with cold water. The yeast, Lalvin EC118, was added to a small cup of water to rehydrate for 15 minutes. First time using lalvin yeast and I'm impressed. I haven't seen such activity in a starter solution ever with the previous yeasts I've been using! after 15 minutes the yeast was added to the wine and as per instructions the airlock was added. heres a few pics of the process.
lets just hope it tastes alright!!
happy winemaking!
happy winemaking!
Saturday, 19 November 2011
new arrivals!
Hi guys, got a bit of a bargain on ebay this week! picked up 12 demijohns, the glass ones which i prefer, for an absolute steal of £15! adding on my petrol it still only came to approx £22! much cheaper than buying them brand new! 9 clear and 3 brown. they do need a good cleaning out, but for the price I'm more than happy to do that myself! heres a couple of pics
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Plastic vs Glass & Cork vs Rubber
Hi guys!
I have been wondering what your opinion are on the above matters! do you prefer glass demijohns and carboys to their plastic equivalent? I know i certainly prefer glass over plastic.
I'm still on the fence over the cork vs rubber bung debate. I'm only taking about using it in the fermenting vessel. I know cork is traditional and all that, but I have been told rubber gives a better seal. But then there is a risk of the rubber imparting a flavour to the winem or so I've been told.
So, what are your views on this? let me know in the comment section of this post!
Happy winemaking!
I have been wondering what your opinion are on the above matters! do you prefer glass demijohns and carboys to their plastic equivalent? I know i certainly prefer glass over plastic.
I'm still on the fence over the cork vs rubber bung debate. I'm only taking about using it in the fermenting vessel. I know cork is traditional and all that, but I have been told rubber gives a better seal. But then there is a risk of the rubber imparting a flavour to the winem or so I've been told.
So, what are your views on this? let me know in the comment section of this post!
Happy winemaking!
Thursday, 10 November 2011
second racking!!
Ok, now i'm really spoiling you guys! two updates within the space of ten days! Am i generous or what???!!
onto the wine now, and over the weekend mum had a chance to rack the apple wine and the apple & plum wine. When i left them in september just going under secondary fermentation, the were very cloudy and clearly had a lot of sediment and yeast suspended in it. Pleased to say that after several weeks fermenting the wine has cleared dramatically as you will see in the pics below! :) following the same procedure as before the wine was racked into a clean demijohn/bucket and topped up with a sugar solution. The air lock were fitted once again and the wine was allowed to happily ferment for another few weeks!
apple and plum just before racking
apple and plum almost racked
midway through racking the apple and plum
apple and plum
taking the hydrometer reading
my collection of demijohns. L-R rhubarb, damson and apple. Using plastic demijohns for the first time ever, not a fan. I'd be interested to hear what other views people have on them
apple wine just before racking
apple wine being racked
apple and plum in its new home
apple and plum just started
apple just started!
Happy winemaking!
onto the wine now, and over the weekend mum had a chance to rack the apple wine and the apple & plum wine. When i left them in september just going under secondary fermentation, the were very cloudy and clearly had a lot of sediment and yeast suspended in it. Pleased to say that after several weeks fermenting the wine has cleared dramatically as you will see in the pics below! :) following the same procedure as before the wine was racked into a clean demijohn/bucket and topped up with a sugar solution. The air lock were fitted once again and the wine was allowed to happily ferment for another few weeks!
apple and plum just before racking
apple and plum almost racked
midway through racking the apple and plum
apple and plum
taking the hydrometer reading
my collection of demijohns. L-R rhubarb, damson and apple. Using plastic demijohns for the first time ever, not a fan. I'd be interested to hear what other views people have on them
apple wine just before racking
apple wine being racked
apple and plum in its new home
apple and plum just started
apple just started!Wednesday, 26 October 2011
FINALLYYYY got some new pics and updates!!
Hi guys, sorry for the biggggg delay in posting this new update but i promise my excuse is top notch! I'm out of the country at university! See, told you it was good!
The wine has been left in the capable hands of my mum and last weekend the Damson wine was racked into a new demijohn after fermenting for about 4 weeks. It was the first time mum had ever racked wine and at first it seemed a daunting experience. but after a few phone calls back and forth the racking was successful! yayyy! :D Made sure plenty of pics were taken as they explain better than I can how the whole process went. The pics are shown below. The wine was topped up with sugar syrup and left to continue on its merry fermentation. next up is the apple wine and apple & plum wine!
Apple and plum in the bucket, apple and then rhubarb
Same as above!
Damson ready to rack
Racking underway
Almost finished!
The latest vintner in the family! Happy winemaking!
The wine has been left in the capable hands of my mum and last weekend the Damson wine was racked into a new demijohn after fermenting for about 4 weeks. It was the first time mum had ever racked wine and at first it seemed a daunting experience. but after a few phone calls back and forth the racking was successful! yayyy! :D Made sure plenty of pics were taken as they explain better than I can how the whole process went. The pics are shown below. The wine was topped up with sugar syrup and left to continue on its merry fermentation. next up is the apple wine and apple & plum wine!
Apple and plum in the bucket, apple and then rhubarb
Same as above!
Damson ready to rack
Racking underway
Almost finished!
The latest vintner in the family!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)