Christmas Wine

Nik and i have made up 2 gallons of 'xmas wine'. It's a variation on the wurzels orange wine, using red grape juice, orange juice, 2 cloves and a stick of cinammon per gallon.

It's progressing nicely, having been brewed on wednesday. Plenty of pops from the airlock. Should be interesting what this turns out like.

I've added the clearing agent to the apple wine. It's going nicely, so will bee racked and bottled on sunday ready to possibly come with us away.

I tried a bottle of Jims Beer last night. It's an alright pint. Not very fizzy, but perfectly drinkable. It's from a cheap kit, and the two of these I've done have taken their time to carbonate. I don't know whether this is the reason, or is due to the new house and our lack of a heated room (stinginess not no heating really!).
The woodfordes great eastern hasn't fizzed up much, and the ponting hasn't done anything yet. In this case andrew said his half didn't fizz either so i think we may have under primed that.

Who knows! I was really looking forward to the Ponting, but without the fizz it's useless...

Time will tell.

All change in the brewing arena!

So I've moved everything around in the homebrew department to try and maximise my potential.

Firstly, it seems like the lager for our trip to center parcs is carbonating so I've moved it out to the shed for cold conditioning. While I was out there I checked on the Ponting brew. This still wasn't carbonating, so that's now under a duvet in the bedroom to hopefully warm it up and get those yeasties making some CO2!

I also managed to make some room in the shed for my empties. I've been acquiring wine bottles, and these had been sat in the kitchen. I've relented and moved them to a more sensible place.

Yesterday I racked my apple and grape juice wine, as the FG was 992. I've added a campen tab and some potassium sorbate to end fermentation and stabilse this. It's now sat in the utility room on my brewing/painting shelf. I have brewed my beer in here, but with no urgent plans for more ale, i've made space for 6 demijohns!

I'll add finings in a day or so, rack, after a couple of days and bottle. I'll add some juice to each bottle, mainly to help with flavour.

I've also started a youngs cab sav wine kit. This is bubbling away nicely, started last Weds, though I may have topped up too far with water too early, as I got up this morning to a frothy red airlock!

So the reason my demijohn stash has expanded to 7 is that Nik's parents found a bunch while clearing the loft. I wasn't greedy, I only took 4 for me! Once clean I can get more orange wine on the go, and I've been intriguied with atomic lemon since I found the forum thread. I may have to start that soon!

Right then! I'll end this post here, enjoy!

More bottling, jims beer

Yesterday i found the time to bottle the beer I'm brewing partly for my dad's birthday and partly to take away at the end of the month.

The bottling went well, i sanitised everything with a mild bleach solution at 10mls per litre approximately. I've now run out of bottles, so will need to drink some/ buy some before I can make another brew!

I've changed regime slightly this time round. I've added slightly more than half a teaspoon per pint. I think that my carbonation issues may partly stem from this, and the euro lager brew that i loaded with 1 teaspoon per pint turned out well, so i'll see what happens. I used a half tablespoon measure and loaded that with an eye's measure of a half full spoon.

The second carbonation issue I think relates to storage. I've been brewing in out utility room, which is a steady 18-19 degrees. However i think it's a bit cool for the bottled beers to get going properly, so I'm starting this off in the bedroom, which should be the warmest room in the house. Here's hoping!

On a side note i treated myself to a bottle of my woodfordes great eastern as a bottling reward. It was pretty good. Nicely balanced between hoppy, bitter and fresh. I'll enjoy drinking this I think!

things to update

Right. I haven't updated in a while. The main reason is that i keep forgetting!

My orange wine has turned out really well. It was still murky after 3 weeks in the demijohn so i got hold of some clearing agent. This worked fantastically and left me with 5-6 bottles of crystal clear white wine that is crisp, light, faintly orangey and very easy to drink.
I've put a slight variation on already, an apple juice and grape juice combo. We've already slurped our way through most of the orange wine!

I'm having a little trouble at the moment conditioning my beer. Once bottled, I'm leaving it in the utility room (where i've brewed the beer) for a few days before sticking it in the shed to cold condition. i
I've tried a couple of different bottles of my improved coopers aussie lager, Ponting (runout Flintoff) and it's just flat and weak.
I've brought it into the main part of the house for a week or so, to try and revive it. I thought it had done the trick but having sampled another bottle last night, it's still decidely flat. I'll advocate patience, and making sure the plastic bottles used are screwed on properly and i'll see where i am in a couple of weeks..

The same seems to be happening with my Great Eastern Ale, which should be ok, as it shouldn't need to sparkle like a lager, but would be good to have some fizz!

Could the carbonation issue be due to the use of 2 litre PET bottles. I've used more of these than usual.

On another note i've got a youngs harvest pilsner on the go, as a combination of gift for my dad's birrthday and to take away for our center parcs trip. It's currently at 1008 and it would be sweet if it's ready tomorrow as i need to bottle it to gift wrap!