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Anyone have any idea where I can get a decent wine making kit (without the wine package) for a reasonable price. Found one for £15 but they wouldn't let you buy it without the wine package! Which was another £30.

I just want to make some wine but have limited space.

Andrewo

Here is a subject I know a little about or at least I used to do. When I was eleven my foster brother and I took up wine making for a hobby, Michael was a year older than I was so why we were ever allowed to start making wine sometimes puzzles me still.
We saved up our pocket money and bought a starter kit from Boots the Chemist. We bought the medium sweet white wine kit. A fortnight later we went back and bought a Red kit. Between the two starter kits we had enough equipment to make many batches of wine. The only thing that was missing was the demijohns, airlocks and the ingredients.
The Demijohns and airlocks were sold separately in Boots. We still had bungs left in the kits as well as all the sterilising solution and camden tablets etc.
Wine bottles were not needed as we got empty bottles from the local pub. Recycling in action twenty nine years ago.
The ingredients often came from the fruit and vegetable outdoor market at the end of the day when things were cheep. Other ingredients came off my foster parent’s allotment or from the hedgerows locally. The only thing we had to buy was sugar. We once made fifteen gallons of Elderberry wine in three five-gallon plastic cubes that we got from the local chemist. In those days the chemist sold it by the pint. (I kid you not)
Soon our bed room smelt of fermenting wine. The airing cupboard was so full there was no room for laundry.
We sold the wine for twenty pence a bottle and managed to make a profit on our output. In the end it got a little crazy. But what I think I am trying to say is buy a basic starter kit and then purchase the extras on single basses.
You would be surprised how equipment comes your way when you can trade finished wine for it.
Oh and by the way the carrot wine that the landlord in the Gardeners rest offers round so much is based on a recipe by author C.J.J. Berry and when finished will knock your socks off. I first made it when I was twelve.
C.J.J. Berry
I have found this book by C.J.J. Berry to be the only one I ever needed it is a classic.
hope you have fun if you take up wine making.

Hi Andrewo
I take back everything I posted in my last post
I have just gone looking on the net and found the whole winemaking/hobby environment has changed.
Shows you how long ago, I last made wine. Where have all the people gone who want to make wine with out using grapes? It seems as though everyone wants his or her wine finished yesterday. When I made wine the process took years. The ingredients took anything from 48 hours to one week in a bucket before it ever got near a demijohn; now everything seems to be ...Have your own supermarket type wine in six weeks.
What ever happened to vegetable wines? The joys of picking your own ingredients from the hedgerows? I think I now feel as old as the first ever winemaker "Noah" I'm going to see if I can find an Ark and sulk.
Jax

The last time i had homemade wine it was gorse wine and fantastic. Gorse is certainly plentiful and free but does anyone know how to make it? Would love to make it and it was great but dont know how.

Gorse wine? There is a use for it then?

All I need now are wines for the following;

Doc Leaf Liqueur
Chickweed Cocktail
Bramble Brew
Dandelion Distillation

I'm sure there are loads of recipes for the last one already!

I've asked for one for Christmas! It's easier. Not sure that I would want any wine made out of chickweed.

Now pea wine.........that it dangerous.

Andrewo

Jax - Dont despair just yet ! We (me and a 2'6" person aged 2 and a bit), have taken up home winemaking this autumn - great fun
We picked up a 2nd hand CJBerry First Steps on Ebay for a few pence, and have spent many blissfull afternoons wandering local fields and hedgerows in our wellies ! Elderberry(2 versions cos we picked too much), blackberry, damson, sloe, and wild greengage have all been 'appropriated', and turned into wine and a little jam.
I have found it cheaper to pick up 1gall plastic water bottles from supermarket for around 70p than glass dj's(and safer with a toddler!) and many people suddenly remember an old stash of equipment in the cupboard when we mention winemaking
Apart from a little 'taster', we are stowing the finished wines in the loft till their birthdays
Now cant wait for spring to do rhubarb, broad bean, and elderflower !

Rhubarb wine - so I can grow it for more than just crumble. Good news.

I have also bought CJBerry's book for the good lady's Xmas stocking.

Hi! Catrian and dni dave, I have found one gallon demijohns and larger left next to glass recycling containers as they do not fit in the holes. Generally it is recommend that you brew five gallon loads of stand-by wines such as apple using windfalls from friends. This can be drunk as is, or used to blend with the fruitier blackcurrent/blackberry style of wines. Glass is easier to keep clean as it does not scratch like plastic and in wine making cleanliness is all. . If you wish to make wine from leaves use new growth but you may need to add some other fruit to give the wine body such as grapes or apples. I have brewed with gorse before as previously posted but the flowers are the best bit and rival elder flowers for perfume. The flowers attract insects, that is what they are for, so place in netting and immerse in water untill they all swim out, unless you want the protein???

Hi brewer, do you have a recipe for heather beer? I think it's hops and heather shoots but I don't know about quantities.

Heather beer, is made the usual way, but when you strain the beer at the end you run it through heather contained in muslin, you do this several times. You do not put the heather directly into the beer but use it as a straining medium to wash the beer through, you can do this with lavender or rosemary too (however beware of the latter as taken in large quantities it has a hallucinogenic quality).

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Andrewo
www.andrewoldham.co.uk

Hi Andrewo, thanks for the speedy reply, that sounds lovely. like the idea of using lavender or rosemary as well, and (just realised!) sorry to hijack your thread briefly!

Oh God no, feel free, hijack away, anything to help, I have had lavender beer and heather beer before and they are lovely and such a simple way, you must make sure though that you do it while the liquid is hot/warm so as to take in the aroma.

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Andrewo
www.andrewoldham.co.uk

Sprout wine?

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated Monday 28th April at 11.50hrs

Never tried home made heather beer but there isa commercially available version called "Fraoch" (pronounced froch) and it is really really really nice.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

[size="1"]Journal updated Monday 7th July

How much would it cost roughly to start from scratch? I have a few old 1 gallon demijohns in the shed but that is it...do i need a fruit presser?
ilex

Re the fruit presser, I thnk it depends on the fruit. If you're doing apple wine then I suppose a fruit presser would be really handy. If it's small quantities I don't think you need one.

I've made the following wines this year without a fruit press:

Rhubarb
Blackberry
Pineapple

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

I don't have a fruit presser and I have made orange wine, banana wine, berry wine and who knows what else - can't remember now! I know I tried Ribena wine, was not too bad but was too cool and didn't ferment properly!

You just need a large fermenting bucket with lid, the stoppers for the demijons that take the bubblers and you are away! Search the threads because I seem to recall that there are some good ideas and tips about wine making!

Let us know how you get on!

Gorse flower wine is really nice but requires the flower heads to be immersed to release the animals. It will make a nice wine, although thin .
Andrew. Heather will only make a perfumed, light beer, Unless you add it to a malt first to give the beer body. so brew as normal but add heather flowers for perfume.

You suggest that one should avoid rosemary as it can be halucinogenic, What quantity should I avoid!!. I have a very healthy plant in the garden that I use for roast chicken but I would be 'theoretically' interested in its other 'theoretical properties'. Are you aware of any back up information web sites. What have you been brewing lately??

Mmm, I made a gorse flower and orange wine a couple of years ago, it was memorable for all the right reasons !

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

wilkinsons does good cheap kits andrew

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Yo an' Bob
Walk lightly on the earth
take only what you need
give all you can
and your produce will be bountifull

I got my first kit from Wilkinson in August, a Youngs brew, medium red, and was very excited. I bought a demijohn and airlock and went home.

Full instructions are on the back of the label and I discovered that you also need :

sterilising tablets (get the ones from the baby section, they work just as well
yeast, nutrient, sugar, stabiliser and finings,campden tablets, syphoning tube, bottles and corks, so had to go back for the rest (was a bit peed off!) However, altogether it cost under £20 and made 6 bottles.

I then bought the 'bible' - CJJ Berry First steps in Winemaking and once I started home brew using fruit/veg, I found I didn't need half the chemicals at all. Now I use sterilising tablets to get everything clean, yeast to start it off, sugar to feed the yeast and no campden tablets, finings, stabiliser or nutrient.
You don't actually need glass bottles, plastic water bottles will do just as well (and in fact are better in some respects as the dregs catch on the ridges)

Good luck and I hope you enjoy.

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Regards, Jane
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula LeGuin
http://www.etribes.com/madderbat