Grow Your Own Magazine

I thought it might help to sort things out by starting a new thread I have 30 year experience in brewing, mostly small scale. I also have many books with recipes for wines and beers and would welcome any questions on how to brew your excess products. The different products require different additives depending on what you want to use. Some fruit or veg have the essential parts that are required for a successful brew but some lack the required bits, be it tannin, pectin or whatever. If you want recipes that have been used over the years then you are in with a good start. So, If you want any advice just post it.

Hi Brewer, why not post some starter recipes on the " in the kitchen "section. I,m sure everybody would be interested in them. At least they would get us started.

Brewer we have pear trees and the fruit is not used so my husband keeps promising to make pear wine. However, he has never made wine before so what equipment do we need and can you post the instructions on how to make pear wine please.

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LJ, isn't Perry a cider made from pears?

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Brewer, same here with me and rhubarb. I was going to make chutney out my abundant excess but realise, what's the point, we don't eat chutney... Then though about rhubarb wine (??) but never made any before so don't have the first foggiest where to start / alcoholic contect (contrary to the image I seem to have created, nothing spirit percentage high!) / weather as I am brewing totally from scratch and not just infusing flavours into vodka can I dish it out to friends without fear of getting into trouble?

Do I need to have a demi john system or can I make do with outher bits?

Wow, questions, questions.... I think I'm going to have to check out Ebay etc to price up a kit..

Sorry to bombard you with so many questions at once... I'm sure there'll be more to come

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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 started some rhubarb and raspberry wine yesterday, the colour was amazing! Apparently rhubarb itself makes a not very interesting wine, so I blended it with the raspberry to perk it up. Never found a recipe for this blend so it's a bit of an experiment. Bewer, do you have any thoughts on this? I'm just starting out with homebrewing but definitley keen to know more. I've got CJJ Berry's book and have accumulated the essential bits of equipment but some tried and tested recipes with notes on taste testing wiuld be great.

Ooo that sounds a nice combination Birdie Wife. Thing is I don't even have flowers on my raspberries yet (autumn fruiting canes) so I don't think they'll be in season at the same time.

Brewer, can I use frozen rhubarb if I wanted to keep some till raspberries were ripe?

Not sure if rhubarb and strawberries would go as I have them in flower... anyone tried this combination before? Couldn't stand to waste fruit if loads of people say that's an awful mix....

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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

Well spotted Shortie, I used frozen raspberries. Actually I think it helps to freeze the fruit first, as the cell's rupture with the ice crystals and when you thaw the fruit it means it's easier to press the juice out. I also used a port yeast as that was recommended for the raspberry wine. I basically used two recipes, one for rhubarb wine where I covered the chopped rhubarb with dry sugar and left it to dissolve and one for raspberry wine where I poured boiling water on the fruit, added pectic enzyme and left it a day. Then I combined the two quantities of juice and added the yeast. Simple!

Hi! all what an excellent response. Glad to hear of so many like minded growers, well you would not wish to through it away would you. You can even brew with the weeds which keep invading your vegetable bed. OK so:
Bramble there is no point in me posting in the kitchen as nearly everything requires a different treatment. Idea ! I could maybe do a what is ready this week guide throughout the year.
Lesley Jay, I have pear wine recipes, mixed with plum or apple for an easy wine or on its own with pectolase which stops pectin haze and tannin which could be half a cup of tea to a gallon of must. Around 2.lbs sugar per gallon with 1 tspoon citric acid.
Peter, Perry is a pear cider, you can also have a wine strength, perry wine.
Shortie, I agree with birdie wife, Frozen veg can be far easier to brew from as the cell structure has been broken down unless you have a very fast freezer. This allows the juices to leak out when defrosted so do not throw the 'drip' away. Rhubarb lacks most things required for brewing so add nutrients, pectolase and citric acid or a lemon. Make sure that whatever equipment you use keeps air out from the first few days. Demijohns are fine small scale but you could improvize for larger amounts. Plastic is not as easy as glass to clean, but can be cleaned with a bleach solution.
Birdie wife, you seem to have an excellent understanding of the principles of brewing what you grow so good luck with your rhubard and rasberry, this will still require nutrients but should taste great. do not forget to rack it !

Cheers Brewer. Chatting to my Dad as he used to home brew and I had forgotten... I bought 2 fantastic books off eBay by CJ Berry, published 1968 . But they look very good an seem to explain things in layman's terms and with humour.

Re weeds, he mentions that Dandillion wine makes a very good table wine.... have you ever tried it? Wondering about a few gardens nearby that I'm sure could do with ome deadheading!

Couldn't find any demin johns some bought some large plastic lidded tubs instead. Now on the look out on eBay for airlocks, hydrometer and jar, campden tablets and yeast. Think that's all I was told I needed

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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

Thats the book i've got its great, got loads of great reciepes in it I'm going to do peapod wine this summer one of my friends made it and says they hardly drink anythink else now

Great to see the interest in the subject, glad that people are going the self help route and buying 'how to brew books'. I bought mine in charity shops over the years and they all have slightly different twists for particular ingredients.
Shortie Many parents used to brew and it can be a very useful subject to break the generation barrier ( well I had one with my in-laws ).
When you come to sampling it helps again as you can share this with parents and in-laws alike. Dandelion flower heads should be picked at there newest and freshest. You could stick them in a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer untill you have enough. 4 pints of flower heads to the gallon. The recipe I have suggests steeping them in boiling water then stirring for four days. It may help to start the brewing process during this 'steeping' as I am sure it will draw more taste from the heads. You will need to add something to give this some body, such as apples or boiled pea pod juice, perhaps even grapes. In my poorer days I would visit the fruit market just before it closed and take the grapes which had been thrown away.
ElmoPea pod is lovely but you can rarely rely on sufficient pods to make a years worth of wine. The winning way seems to be collecting other peoples windfall apples which make a reliable wine.

Hi I hope you did not read my post as stir continuously for four days, just now and again. Looking forward to new ideas as we move through the year. It is mainly new shoots at the moment.

Hi Brewer do you have any info on elderflower or elderberry wine as I have a huge elderberry tree overhanging my garden and it seems a shame just to let it feed the birds!

Sorry Brewer, meant to reply and say "thanks" as you answered a puzzle I had over finding so many dandilions in one shot for the wine! Knowing I can freeze them has just made it seem much easier/better! I think I may try that next year. I currently have 6 galons Pineapple wine and 2 gallons of rhubrarb wine on the go. Not to mention the blackberries I'm likely to raid my Uncle's overgrown garden for!

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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

Hi Jersey Jan, Elder flowers have a fantastic perfume but wine will lack body. You will need to add something like berries, grapes pea pods even nettle tops would help. Two pints clean flowers to one gallon, 2lb sugar adjusted down if you use berries. Place flowers in boilng water, keep covered and clean and stir occassionally for four days then strain. Add (tannin and citric acid) could be tea and a lemon, then yeast and nutrient.

I have just bagged a proper beer pressure barrel off Freecycle and am going to have a bash at brewing some real ale.

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updated Monday 28th April at 11.50hrs

Bottled mead and port at the weekend, and now am out of bottles!!!
Also racked off orange wine, had a wee taster and tested with the hydrometer - crikey! It's fermented way past what I expected, now very dry and almost astringent tasting.

Maybe you could advise me Brewer - I added some demarara sugar (made a syrup) to try and balance the taste and improve the colour a touch. Is there anything else I could do to reduce the astringency, or will it mellow with age?

My first foray into wine making was orange wine - best I have made, but one glass and it knocked your knees out from under you! Must fish out my wine making stuff again!

Birdie. How do you make your mead? i have tasted the odd glass or two and have to say it was rather tasty.

Hi Birdie wife. I hope the wine was not going acidic, if it is very dry then congratulations. If you now add syrup it may continue fermenting so you need to stop it, the wine that is, by adding a camden tablet. My best advice would be to keep it in a clean container untill you find another wine or mead which is a bit sweet or maybe has a heavy body or very perfumed and blend them. Try to keep some notes as it will help you in the future, how much of one with how much of the other etc. Blending is the way to go as you do not have to acheive perfection with each brew, which is difficult.
JacksomLet me know how you get on as I have about six mead style recipes. Noticed honey at 39p for 5oogms at my mega store begining with a. Four of these and no sugar makes one gallon???? then keep the jars for chutney

Jaxom, I was fortunate enough to get a trip to Bulgaria last year and brought back a large jar of lime blossom honey, which I used to make mead according to a medium-dry recipe from CJ Berry's book. I tasted it a few weeks ago and it's lovely lovely lovely!! You can actually taste the lime blossom. Apparently heather honey is another good one for mead making, really anything with a good strong taste.
Brewer - I think I'll use the campden to stop the wine fermenting, I'm not too keen on ending up on the floor after a single glass! The wine isn't going acidic (yet!) but still a bit dry for my tastes. Thanks for the advice!

Hi Brewer, It's probably past it but I made a elderflower, sugar and lemon juice concoction which I have left in a bucket for about two weeks. I'm a complete novice, but it smells lovely (and looks bubbly) and I thought I could maybe add yeast, get a bigger bucket and rescue it for champagne or the like... any advice appreciatated!