sultana wine. cheap and at £3 nice.

hey peeps

following the cheap but nice brews heres one that you don't see every day.
 I got the recipe from a rather old home brew book printed in the 70's

it had a small blurb about in the 16th century some dude won a case to produce this wine commercially.

intrigued by this i thought I would have a look in to it.

you can use raisins or sultanas. the recipe is exactly the same for both.
being cheap sultanas was my choice.
 for a gallon (5 liters) you need 2 kg of sultanas

I went for the cheapest I could find and 2 kg set me back a whole £3!
I have to say it broke the bank :P

the original recipe called for the fruit to be washed and then soaked for 24 hours but me being me I chucked all the fruit in a large pan added 3 liters of water and simmered for 30 mins.
 I changed the recipe for 2 reasons.

1 the fruit is coated in sugar and seemed a waste to wash it off and
2 simmering just about anything for 30 mins will kill and harmful bacteria 

I also blitzed down the fruit in to a rather lovely brown watery paste,
my thoughts were, if its in pieces it releases more sugars as two thirds of a raisin / sultana is ferment able sugars 

allow this lovely brew to cool,chuck in to a demijohn with the pulp in it. then pitch your yeast.

( remember that sterilizing your demijohn / container of choice is good. nothing worse than vinegar or mold!)

every day for the next 10 days shake the demijohn. this keeps the pulp from going moldy on top and helps get as much of those lovely sugars out of your pulp.

on day 10 take the lovely brew and strain the pulp out of your liquid.
 for this you could use a cheese cloth, fine sieve or even a tea towel.
 just make sure the container which could be a pan is clean as well as the strainer.
  squeeze the pulp out. 

wash out your demijohn and decant the liquid back in

top up to 5 liters and replace your air lock.

it will bubble away slowly.

once its stopped bubbling you have two options.
 1 add finnings to clear
 2 leave it to naturally clear

I have done both and they both work just naturally clearing takes an age. weeks sometimes months, even then you need to rack it ( siphon your wine every 3 weeks in to a new demijohn as it clears)

my advice is to add a Camden tablet then 24 hours later add the finnings
then generally 24 hours up can be up to a week once you can see through your golden white wine. siphon into bottles.

store for at least a month after bottling before cracking it open.
   again this is personal choice you can chug it as soon as its cleared but I like to mellow a bit.

the wine is light and quite tasty. if i was going to place it with a meal its a dessert wine.
 its not the strongest but a nice 9% isnt too much to sniff at.

6 bottles for £3
you don't get that in tesco.

    

making cheap cider

Yo peeps,

 well it seemed a shame not to start with the classic cider but with a twist.

 turbo cider!

I will presume you have followed on from the other posts, so you have your 5 liter water container, an air lock and your yeast.

now you will want to get on with making some thing to drink!

turbo cider is called that because you wont have to get loads of apples, press them into juice and then ferment.

we are getting out apple juice from .... cartons of apple juice!
 in America you can get frozen juice that works too.
cartons of value apple juice are the cheapest way to get apple juice any time of year with out fuss and all the hard work is done for you.

 if your not sure have a look on the side it will say ingredients: apple juice
 and maybe: from concentrate.

tesco value apple juice and asda (walmart) and lidi carton apple juice all work fine.

they are made up of loads of different apple juices that have had the water removed for shipping then water added back and packaged, thats why is from concentrate and saves blending apple juices.

any way for this you will need

5 liters of carton apple juice
2 tea bags  
 sugar (optional)

i have purposely not mentioned anything about a hydrometer since it's not essential to know the starting gravity and end gravity but later i will go into it.


different apple juices will have slightly different sugar amounts in it so this is a  rough guide for those who want to play.

on the side of the carton it will tell you the sugars in it per 100ml.
multiply this by 10 to give you the total sugars per liter.
 lets say its about 111g per liter as that what i'm looking at on mine roughly
 that will give you about 5% cider.
thats pretty standard for shop brought.
 if you added 550g of sugar to 5 liters of apple juice it would ferment out at about 10-11 ish %

notes if you decide to add sugar try not to add at most a kg. yeast produces alcohol as a byproduct as well as carbon dioxide. once the alcohol gets to a certain amount usually 15% just to be safe with universal wine yeast it dies.
 so 2kg of sugar added = really sweet sickly cider.

you get the idea.

so take your water bottle and pour out the water. it not needed this time.
add 4 liters of apple juice and add the yeast. give it a shake!
  you have just started making cider.

put on the air lock (adding a little water in to it )

boil your kettle and put your 2 tea bags in a cup and make half a mug/cup of strong black tea. this is for the tannins and you wont be able to taste tea. Really!
set to one side for 10 mins ish.

if you want to add sugar you can now. take your last liter of apple juice and put in a jug or pan.
add your sugar and stir.
microwave it or heat on a hob till the sugar has dissolved. leave to cool.

yeast is killed by heat so pouring boiling liquids into yeast is bad. you want it luke warm.

once your tea is cool add to the container, and top up with your cooled sugar added apple juice.

replace air lock.

you will notice that the clear brown apple juice will turn cloudy. thats normal.
and your air lock will start to bubble. depending on the temperature it may take longer or shorter but usually overnight is a safe bet.
 keep in the airing cupboard or kitchen or lounge.
some people will say keep it dark but i just have mine in the corner of my dining room.

so far so good.

it will bubble away for a week or 2 or maybe 3.
but in any case once the bubbling stops you have cider!

a lot of vids on youtube will say you can drink it then and there. you can but it will have an acidic twang and its in my opinion crap.
 for it to taste like a half decent cider you need to leave it for at least a month. 3-6 months is the best. that way the acids in it are broken down and you get a fine drink

if you leave it the yeast will sink to the bottom and you will have a clearer cider.
simple enough.

for simplicity once your cider is mostly cleared decant into other containers with lids. pop bottles work well.
try and leave as much of the yeasty crud on the bottom.
or syphon out the liquid.

a lenght of plastic tube and put one in the 5liter cider and below that have your bottles. suck on the tube and the cider will flow.

i like mine still but if you like sparkling cider. add a level tea spoon to the pop bottles and leave for a week or 2.

hope you enjoy. if you cant wait that long i will do a follow on .... turbo apple jack!

what do you need to make home brew?

hey peeps

So..
you have decided to have a go at making home brew.
 so where do you start? what do you need? and most importantly how much will it cost?

well if your just starting out there seems to be a lot of things you need?
demi johns, thermometers, sterlizing solution, hydrometers ect

well over time you will collect bits and bobs but for the cheapest option
all you will need is a food grade container with a lid.

This could be a large jar, mayo bucket or an official demijohn.

food grade plastic is simple to find.
 if you take a look at various drinks bottles you will see somewhere on it a triangle with a number 1 in it. thats food grade plastic.

I STRONGLY ADVISE NOT TO USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN FOOD GRADE PLASTIC

Why? other plastics that arn't food grade can and do have things in them that can leach out of the plastic into your brew!
 these are usually harmful e.g. heavy metals
plus a plastic tasting brew isn't appealing.

for starting I would suggest going to your local supermarket and getting a 5 liter bottle of spring water.
  They are about a pound and are perfect for making home brew as they are the same as the 6 or 7 pound plastic demijohns you see on ebay or at a homebrew shop, even better they come with water in it so you can use for your brew.
and are pre sterilized for your 1st go.


WATER
There are alot of people who only use distilled water or filtered water when making home brew.
they say the taste is off or the yeast doesn't like the chemicals in tap water.
 well i've tried using bottled water/ distilled water and tap water and as long as it is drinkable it works the same.
 Cornish water is divine to the taste and has no lime in it and the water in linconshire has quite a lot of lime in it so i tend to mix squash in it to hide the shitty taste but both have worked with no problems fermenting some lovely wines & beers.

  but its up to you.


air locks

airlocks are used to keep out air from your brew and the beasties who love nothing more than you have a drink of your stash usually killing them selves in the process spoiling your brew.
 They are a one off investment and well worth the money.
£3-5 for 2

for the cheap and the skint there are 2 options if you cant afford them or just dont want to.

make a hole in the cap the same size as a piece tube or a straw.
put the tube/ straw in the cap and the other end into a glass of water making sure the end in the water will stay submerged
  you've just made an air lock! pat on the back!

the only real other thing you need is yeast
 depending on where you go to get yeast there are quite a few options.
wine yeast, beer yeast, cider yeast, high alcohol yeast ect.

too many to list here. I have found that a universal wine yeast is a good all rounder.

 I have made more than few cracking ciders, beers and wines with this.
there will be some who will argue that you need beer yeast for beer ect but lets keep it simple. it works and the results are good and its cheap.

you can opt to use free wild yeast but the results can be hit and miss. if you go to the trouble of making a brew you want to be sure you make alcohol and not vinegar or mould.

 cider ( hard cider for my American readers) is the only exception to this rule as usually only wild yeast is used. (more on that later)
 
so you have your container of a description, an air lock of a type and some yeast
 check you. now your ready to give it a bash.
  
if you went for the cheap option 5 liter water bottle and a straw in a glass of water and some yeast it will have set you back
 say £3 at most and if you got a real air lock £6-7 for the lot.

 not too bad.

theres just one more thing you will need to get something to sterilize your container if you already have one and after you have made your 1st brew.

there are cleaners that you can get from the brew shops and they are only £3 or £4
but baby bottle sterilizing tablets at £1 ish  work very well or unscented bleach at 30p for 2 liters also works.
 about 20ml per gallon seems to do the trick, leave for 30mins, just make sure you rinse it out well.
 bleach isn't tasty.
to all that worries about ingesting bleach, at these concentrations once washed out its safe to use. 



so next is making your 1st batch.

why homebrew?

Hi all,
with the rising costs of living, its becoming increasingly harder to keep a standard of living that should be a base line in modern society.
  luxury items like alcohol have to be put aside for many to pay for the ever increasing food bill.

why should we have to go with out or pay vast sums of money to have a bottle? ( or 2 ) 

I have been making my own tipple on and off for years now but its really been the last 2 years I've taken it up to just about replace all my alcohol spending.

When i tell people i make home brew there is usually a few common things people say:

1  all home brew is rough!
2  its for alcoholics
3  its always really strong

1
now, I'm not saying everything i have made was clear perfection in a glass but
i have put my average stuff up against the lower end of mid range wines, thats about £5-8 ish and mine usually gets picked as shop brought.

2
im sure there are some alcoholics that home brew but to produce alcohol takes time. do you think alcoholics can wait for fermentation to finish?

3
when it comes to home brew your the boss.
you have complete control of everything from the materials used to the end %
 as a rule of thumb there are 2 schools of thought.

* sod the taste! give me the highest % possible
                            or
*  go for flavor and quality

yes to the peeps that know, you can have both but to the beginner lets keep it simple.


hope you liked this peeps, more to come as well as cheap recipes.