The seven short days with my wine were fairly uneventful. There was a lot of bubbling going on in the airlock and not much else. Solomon was kind enough to include detailed instructions and after five days he told me to check a sample of the wine with a hydrometer. Reading the hydrometer was a Grade-A bitch of a difficult task and I practically didn't have a clue what I was reading. Depending on the outcome, I was meant to add Stabiliser but I couldn't read it, so added it anyway. I then did some funky shaking stuff to get rid of excess gas from the bottle, and then added a sachet of "Add Back" - whatever that is. I had a distinct feeling that the wine making was quite out of my own hands. It would've been nice for Solomon Grundy to let me know what each sachet of whatever was doing. Regardless, I continued on to add a sachet of "Kieselsol" which I presume is some sort of Hungarian prostitute concentrate.
I drunk the sample used with the hydrometer - it was yeasty and bitter which I wont lie, is not how I usually like my wine or anything at all. Went straight to my head though, so on the fifth day I rested - a bit like God.
The day after I added "Chitosan" which apparently clears the wine - god knows how. I left it for 24 hours and the wine started clearing and going a sort of amber, apple-juice colour. Sediment built up at the bottom and with the wine ready I sterilised some empty wine bottles, added a final 400g of sugar to the wine mixture, shook to dissolve and siphoned the wine into the empty bottles. I had another go at the hydrometer and managed to work out it has an alcoholic strength of about 11% and is classed as "very sweet".
On to tasting - it really is not bad. In fact, it's a lot better than I thought it would be and I'd happily drink six bottles of it, which is convenient because that's how much I possess. It's very sweet, fruity, and I'd go as far as saying it's actually good. So frankly I reckon that's a success for my first home brewing attempt.
Now to come up with a name for my home brew...-?
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Solomon Grundy's Home brewed Wine in SEVEN DAYS
Ever since I was 16 and unable to legally buy booze from supermarkets, off-licenses and so on, i've had a persistent dream to brew ale, mead or wine at home. I'm chronically lazy so it's taken me four years to walk to the shop and buy brewing equipment, as well as a "kit" to make my first home brew.
I opted for "Solomon Grundy's Elderflower Wine" which apparently brews in a mere seven days. "Bought on Monday, drunk on Sunday" or in my case, bought on Monday, started brewing on Tuesday (there's that laziness I spoke about) and drunk on.. next Tuesday. Or, more accurately - hammered on Tuesday.
From the picture I have deduced you need a big hat to enjoy this wine to it's full extent.
I started by sterilising all my kit - a spoon, funnel, a gallon bottle, lid of said bottle and rubber stopper, scales, air lock and a jug. I then realised I couldn't complete the wine making process without having Marmite on toast and some tea.
After a tea break I returned to work. Solomon Grundy was kind enough to include all the ingredients I needed, bar sugar, in the kit. I followed his instructions and poured various amounts of hot and cold water into the jug, followed by approx 775g of granulated sugar. That was particularly difficult to get down a funnel so I ended up spooning most of it in - boring work. LESS SPOONING, MORE WIIIIINE!
I then chucked in the grape concentrate, wine yeast, stabilizer and acid (didn't know wine needed class A's but if Solomon says so..) and gave the whole thing a big shake. I half filled the airlock with water and put the bottle in my room to emit some nice brewery-like smells about the house.
Hopefully i'll have some beautiful tasting wine in a weeks time. I'm a bit dubious I didn't do it a little wrong though, because there was rather a lot of yeast and sugar stuck around the rim of the bottle. I wasn't sure to clean it off and considered using my finger. Unsure and in a state of panic whether it was a good idea to put my non-sterilised finger into the tip of the bottle, I sort of got a bit scared and put it in half way and waggled it about (story of my life). Hopefully this won't affect the quality of the wine.
From the picture I have deduced you need a big hat to enjoy this wine to it's full extent.
I started by sterilising all my kit - a spoon, funnel, a gallon bottle, lid of said bottle and rubber stopper, scales, air lock and a jug. I then realised I couldn't complete the wine making process without having Marmite on toast and some tea.
After a tea break I returned to work. Solomon Grundy was kind enough to include all the ingredients I needed, bar sugar, in the kit. I followed his instructions and poured various amounts of hot and cold water into the jug, followed by approx 775g of granulated sugar. That was particularly difficult to get down a funnel so I ended up spooning most of it in - boring work. LESS SPOONING, MORE WIIIIINE!
I then chucked in the grape concentrate, wine yeast, stabilizer and acid (didn't know wine needed class A's but if Solomon says so..) and gave the whole thing a big shake. I half filled the airlock with water and put the bottle in my room to emit some nice brewery-like smells about the house.
Hopefully i'll have some beautiful tasting wine in a weeks time. I'm a bit dubious I didn't do it a little wrong though, because there was rather a lot of yeast and sugar stuck around the rim of the bottle. I wasn't sure to clean it off and considered using my finger. Unsure and in a state of panic whether it was a good idea to put my non-sterilised finger into the tip of the bottle, I sort of got a bit scared and put it in half way and waggled it about (story of my life). Hopefully this won't affect the quality of the wine.
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