busy weekend

I found some time last weekend to fill my empty demijohns. Unfortunately I also had to consign one DJ to the great wine store in the sky. Whilst moving the DJs around i must have dinged it on something hard as there's now a massive crack pretty much all the way round the base. Sad times!

Anyway, i've expanded my repetoire and created a gallon each of the following:

Ribena wine- taken from a litre bottle of hi juice cordial (50% fruit), and a carton of red grape juice. The cordial was simmered for 25 minutes to remove any nasty preservatives. I added sugar to this for the last 5-10 minutes. Whilst this was cooling i put the grape juice and usual additives into a clean DJ. I think I didn't let the cordial cool down enough as the yeast didn't really kick in like the other wines so I stuck more yeast in. It's now bubbling gently away and I'm intrigued as to the final taste!

Wurzel - this was a red grape and OJ combo, with a cinammon stick and a few crushed cloves. It's a replication of our Christmas wine so we're looking forward to how this come out!

Ginger Beer- the first batch has piqued my interest and I want to perfect a recipe! This time round I've made two variations, both on the same recipe as previuosly, with less citrus (I've zested and squeezed juice of one lime into each demijohn) and more ground ginger. One I've kept like this and the second I've added some cayenne powder for a bit more kick!
The first batch I made is slowly getting drunk. The issues I have with it are not enough ginger up front and that I couldn't find my fine mesh when I sieved off the sediment. there's a few small pieces of ginger/lemon flesh in the bottle which could be avoided.
So I can easily sort that and the harder thing will be increasing the upfront ginger . But it's a good experiment and I'm enjoying tinkering with it!

ginger update

I've completed a ginger beer test. I mixed grated ginger, dried ginger' sugar, a lime, a lemon and a few other things for a trial. After bottling and conditioning it's clearly not quite right.

It's too citrusy (fair enough, easy to tone down), not gingery enough upfront (should be ok to amend), and not quite sweet enough (i've got some artificial sweetener for the next batch. I'm going to do a couple more test DJ's this weekend, with more ginger and others with more cayenne/chilli to get more heat in.
I'm keen to get this right, as i think a good alcoholic ginger beer will be a winner at parties!

I've also just bottled my coopers IPA. It looks good for now, will see how it goes when conditioned!

I'm now on the lookout for my next beer, probably another lager, as that's my priority...

Ginger

I've started an experimental Ginger Beer, from a recipe here . I've done just a gallon, to see how it goes.

With a successful brew, I'll extend this to a full FV and see how it goes. I reckon that would be a good brew to have lying around in the summer.

Despite my determination to get the IPA brewing in my last post, I only got this started last weekend, 2 weeks after the last post! Even though my fermenting bin is in the utiltiy room, which seems to be around 12-15 degrees C only, the IPA is on the go. It'll take a little while longer and I think it'll be good for it. It can't hurt to brew slowly, as it gives time for the flavours to develop properly.

My aim is to have a shed 'full' of a few different brews, enough to have a selection ready for whatever takes my fancy. I see this as a lager or two, ginger beer, the IPA and a couple of different wines. I really enojy this side of the brewing, and am looking forward to getting my 'rolling stock' moving along nicely!