Update
So, I've got a couple of things to update on, my wwurzels orange wine and sloe gin:
- Wurzel's orange wine: This was taken from a thread on the homebrew forum, which stole the recipe from a winemaking forum, but is basically the turbo cider of wine making. It's essentially a litre of pure OJ, a litre of pressed white grape juice, a few other nutrients, some sugar, water and yeast. It goes like the clappers to start with, and mine is now blooping away nicely 48 hours plus into the fermentation. I'll top up shortly with cooled boiled wtaer, once the first mad ferment is over.
I did make two errors when making this though. I wanted to make 2 demi johns worth, but knew I'd need to do them on separate days. I got the sugar mixed with the boiling water and was ready to go. I was too ready. I eagerly mixed the warm liquid with the cool juice and cold water and added to the DJ. After adding all my nutrients I found the temp to be over 30 degrees C still, far too high to add yeast, or take a respectable OG reading.
I left for a good couple of hours before adding yeast, and it's now going along nicely.
I thought to myself ' I won't make that mistake again' and 24 hours later boiled up another batch of sugar syrup ready to cool and add to DJ #2. I was in a mad rush that evening (as I have been all week). I've been cranking through the little DIY/house cleaning tasks, as I think we're getting a bit down that we've not got a lovely clean house. Anyway, between tasks I decided to get this second DJ going. I added my juices, some cold water, my nutrients, took a sampel to check gravity and watched my hydrometer sink lower and lower into the trial jar. I then thought 'surely something's wrong I've got all that sugar solutino in there'. I turned to behind the demijohn. The pan with the sugar syup was still full. I'd got excited and filled entirely with juice and plain old water.
I didn't have the capacity to work out whether splitting between 2 DJ's would work, and besides, that would have involved a journey to the supermarket, which was a little pointless, so I've ditched that, consoling my self that one DJ is enough to start with, and can easily get another going ASAP.
- Sloe Gin : We had gathered the sloes from near Pete and Suse's new house on the morning of Russ' wedding. I'd stuck them in the freezer ready for when I could get some gin. I've now got some gin. So the berries were defrosted, and last night I washed and pricked each sloe (not individually!). I added 900 grammes of sloes to a DJ, nearly 300 grammes sugar and 2 70cl bottles of gin. It's now intermingling and fusing away next to the orange wine.
I look forward to this, as it's something I've been meaning to try for a a few years, but a) had no access to sloes, b) never knew what a sloe looked like and c) had no idea it was so easy!
In a similar way, I'm keen to find out what the raspberry gin's like, now it's been steeping for a good couple of months. I tihnk it may be time to sample, and possibly remove from the fruit. I'll take a look soon...
- Wurzel's orange wine: This was taken from a thread on the homebrew forum, which stole the recipe from a winemaking forum, but is basically the turbo cider of wine making. It's essentially a litre of pure OJ, a litre of pressed white grape juice, a few other nutrients, some sugar, water and yeast. It goes like the clappers to start with, and mine is now blooping away nicely 48 hours plus into the fermentation. I'll top up shortly with cooled boiled wtaer, once the first mad ferment is over.
I did make two errors when making this though. I wanted to make 2 demi johns worth, but knew I'd need to do them on separate days. I got the sugar mixed with the boiling water and was ready to go. I was too ready. I eagerly mixed the warm liquid with the cool juice and cold water and added to the DJ. After adding all my nutrients I found the temp to be over 30 degrees C still, far too high to add yeast, or take a respectable OG reading.
I left for a good couple of hours before adding yeast, and it's now going along nicely.
I thought to myself ' I won't make that mistake again' and 24 hours later boiled up another batch of sugar syrup ready to cool and add to DJ #2. I was in a mad rush that evening (as I have been all week). I've been cranking through the little DIY/house cleaning tasks, as I think we're getting a bit down that we've not got a lovely clean house. Anyway, between tasks I decided to get this second DJ going. I added my juices, some cold water, my nutrients, took a sampel to check gravity and watched my hydrometer sink lower and lower into the trial jar. I then thought 'surely something's wrong I've got all that sugar solutino in there'. I turned to behind the demijohn. The pan with the sugar syup was still full. I'd got excited and filled entirely with juice and plain old water.
I didn't have the capacity to work out whether splitting between 2 DJ's would work, and besides, that would have involved a journey to the supermarket, which was a little pointless, so I've ditched that, consoling my self that one DJ is enough to start with, and can easily get another going ASAP.
- Sloe Gin : We had gathered the sloes from near Pete and Suse's new house on the morning of Russ' wedding. I'd stuck them in the freezer ready for when I could get some gin. I've now got some gin. So the berries were defrosted, and last night I washed and pricked each sloe (not individually!). I added 900 grammes of sloes to a DJ, nearly 300 grammes sugar and 2 70cl bottles of gin. It's now intermingling and fusing away next to the orange wine.
I look forward to this, as it's something I've been meaning to try for a a few years, but a) had no access to sloes, b) never knew what a sloe looked like and c) had no idea it was so easy!
In a similar way, I'm keen to find out what the raspberry gin's like, now it's been steeping for a good couple of months. I tihnk it may be time to sample, and possibly remove from the fruit. I'll take a look soon...
posted by Garry at 3:52 pm
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