Author Topic: Getting started (Read 8744 times)

Beewyched · « **on:** April 07, 2011, 08:53:12 pm »

Never done the home-made wine thing before - making not drinking that is

& would really love to have a go at making our own. Where do we start ...?

doganjo · « **Reply #1 on:** April 07, 2011, 08:56:37 pm »

I bought a complete kit for about £28 from an ebay store - and apart from a couple of things you have all the makings of the next one from the raw materials. Tasted great too. So much that Sandy and Steve were motivated to pick a load of nettles today to have a go at nettle wine.

Beewyched · « **Reply #2 on:** April 07, 2011, 09:03:40 pm »

Ta will have a look at ebay later. Hey Annie, a plant you can grow then = nettles

Mine are barely through at the mo.

doganjo · « **Reply #3 on:** April 07, 2011, 09:17:14 pm »

Quote from: Beewyched on April 07, 2011, 09:03:40 pm

Ta will have a look at ebay later. Hey Annie, a plant you can grow then = nettles Mine are barely through at the mo.

Not from my garden - mine are only just through too - in the chicken run. I met them in Devilla forest when I was waiting for a wayward Brittany to come out of the rhododendrons after half an hour of whistling and thrashing the leaves to move on what she was pointing, while they were sauntering back from a leisurely 4 labrador walk with a bagful of nettles and stinging hands!

Beewyched · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2011, 09:24:34 pm »

So you've started rhododendronicide too now

& it wasn't even yours

doganjo · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2011, 10:34:52 pm »

You make me sound dreadful!

I'm not REALLY a plant murderer

ellied · « **Reply #6 on:** April 09, 2011, 01:12:27 pm »

Sounds interesting - I have a feeling I may be getting interested in too many new things at once and make a muck up of most of them

but £28 and maybe I could do something with my elderberries, nettles and other unused aspects of my garden

What's the easiest wine to make for a first time go? Or doesn't it matter?

oldwolf · « **Reply #7 on:** April 09, 2011, 06:50:52 pm »

Kits are best to start with and then progress onto your own ingredients was you have got the hang of the process. You can make wine out of just about anything that grows but beware, some of it tastes awful. I once made two gallons of beetroot wine, even bought the dark demijohns so that the light wouldn't affect the colour. 18 months later I had a luminous pink concoction that was alcoholic, but was like eating freshly cooked beetroot. At two year old (the wine, not me) I still couldn't face it and poured it down the sink. Some people swear by their veggy wine but to me it needs to be fruit.

doganjo · « **Reply #8 on:** April 09, 2011, 08:14:37 pm »

lol - we kept checking our beetroot wine for 5 years - it never got any better so we poured ours out to in the end. What a waste - I could have pickled it instead, love pickled beetroot.

Beewyched · « **Reply #9 on:** April 10, 2011, 09:39:26 pm »

See your a bit homicidal on the wine too Annie

doganjo · « **Reply #10 on:** April 10, 2011, 09:44:15 pm »

ARE YOU STALKING ME?

??

I'm not REALLY a killer, honest, m'am

MelRice · « **Reply #11 on:** July 03, 2011, 12:47:57 pm »

Good luck with your wine making. I bottled some very nice elderberry wine last week (and an experimental strawberry wine that was vinegar!) Ive just started off some blackcurrant wine to see how that goes...I have so many blackcurrants, and Ive made jam and a cordial(experiment too!) so we will see if the wine works.