Hi there

Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

thanks in advance

xiv

"louisxiv" wrote in message
...
Hi there

Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

thanks in advance
xiv

It's a pity my Mum is no longer alive....she could make wine out of
anything, including old socks !!
Her wine tasting evenings were a thing to behold !

here's a couple of sites with recipes etc:
http://www.homemadewine.net/
http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/

jenny

JennyC wrote:
"louisxiv" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

[...]
here's a couple of sites with recipes etc:
http://www.homemadewine.net/
http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/

One of those sites is American, and the other doesn't seem, at a
glance, to give recipes. Maybe I didn't look closely enough.

I did a very quick Ggl on wine recipes, and there are so many that
it's confusing. From those which came up, I picked these two almost at
random:
http://www.btinternet.com/~g.dodge/page6.html
(This one should open at a blackberry recipe, and I see it also lists
one for blackcurrants. A tip: add some preservative-free grape juice to
any recipe for improved quality.)

http://www.harvington.org.uk/hic/winerecipes.html
may also interest you.

There's a great book, which is probably out of print: W.H.T.Tayleur,
The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making. If you can get a copy
somewhere, it'll tell you everything you'll ever need to know and a lot
more. You may find his style a bit rambling, and the index is strange;
but it was my dependable companion for the years I was brewing all the
time.

A further Ggl will certainly find online winemaking discussion groups
which could be helpful.

--
Mike.

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:25:57 +0100, louisxiv wrote:

Hi there

Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

thanks in advance

'rec.crafts.winemaking'?

JennyC wrote:
It's a pity my Mum is no longer alive....she could make wine out of
anything, including old socks !!

Yes, I've been given glasses of wine like that.

In article .com,
writes:
| JennyC wrote:
| It's a pity my Mum is no longer alive....she could make wine out of
| anything, including old socks !!
|
| Yes, I've been given glasses of wine like that.

About 40 years ago, I made some peapod wine. It was so disgusting, that
I junked it all except for one bottle which was put aside to see if it
improved with the passing of a decade. My brother found it when
clearing up my mother's clutter, and ceremonially presented it to me.
I have relabelled it and stored it under a cupboard in my workshop for
my children to deal with when they clear up after my death.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message .com
from contains these words:

JennyC wrote:
It's a pity my Mum is no longer alive....she could make wine out of
anything, including old socks !!

Yes, I've been given glasses of wine like that.

Me too. My FIL used to make wine out of tea :-(

Janet

I've used cold tea in winemaking, it adds tannin, but like everything else
is a matter of taste, very usefull if the recipe doesn't require grapes or
sultanas etc.

The best wine I managed to make in a 15 year winemaking spell was from
nettles, but a tip for anyone attempting it - don't use nettles after mid
May - the seed heads give the wine an aroma of old cheese!! - early spring
growth is best, anything else and you are in Camembert country.

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message .com
from contains these words:

JennyC wrote:
It's a pity my Mum is no longer alive....she could make wine out of
anything, including old socks !!

Yes, I've been given glasses of wine like that.

Me too. My FIL used to make wine out of tea :-(
Janet

Dandelions (OK), rose petals (ugggghhhh), parsnip (OK)
jenny

In article ,
"JennyC" writes:
|
| Dandelions (OK), rose petals (ugggghhhh), parsnip (OK)

Rose petal wine can be delicious. What was horrible about it?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"JennyC" writes:
|
| Dandelions (OK), rose petals (ugggghhhh), parsnip (OK)

Rose petal wine can be delicious. What was horrible about it?
Nick Maclaren.

Like drinking cheap perfume !
Jenny

I can recommend "First Steps in Wine Making" by C.J.J. Berry.
It has become something of a home brewers bible.
Not only does the book have lots of recipes, it also guides you through the
wine making process, do's and don'ts, importance of sterilisation etc.
Importantly the book also gives you a "feel" for the wine making process so
you are unafraid to have a go at your own recipes. The best one I ever made
was Grapefruit and Sultana wine. Really nice flavour and very potent.

A really good home wine can be made from gooseberries - also know as "hairy
grapes"!
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

louisxiv wrote:

Hi there

Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

thanks in advance

xiv

I've made wine on and off for years. Pretty much anything will work - I
worked out a long time ago that you don't want to get too bogged down in
fussy recipes. Plenty of the basic ingredients, a hydrometer is very
useful - add enough sugar until the OG is right and bung in the yeast.
Cleanliness is very important - rinse everything in sodium
metabisulphite solution. About a week in a dustbin and then into the
demijohns.

Elderberry is an excellent basis but does need to be left for 6-9 months
after bottling for the sediment to drop. Too my surprise, tinned peach
is excellent - don't add too much sugar and you end up with a nice dry
white.

Mixed summer fruits works well, too - basically, anything that is
around, boil it all up and add sugar to get the OG right.

You do need a proper wine yeast.
--
Larry Stoter

"louisxiv" wrote in message
...
Hi there

Can anyone recommend a good recipe/website/book which will help me create
wine from the elderberries, currants (blue ones from a ribes shrub) and
brambles growing in my garden?

My wife used to make a delicious ginger wine, but I can't remeber how she
did it, and I'm not sure she would be able to either!(:-)

Alan


thanks in advance

xiv

Larry Stoter wrote:
[...]
Mixed summer fruits works well, too - basically, anything that is
around, boil it all up and add sugar to get the OG right.

You do need a proper wine yeast.

I'd never boil, though: for my taste, it spoils the flavour. I've never
bothered with measuring OG, either: I just work on the principle that
every quarter-pound of sugar in a gallon, if fermented right out,
raises the alcohol by 1%. So for most fruits, three pounds or so, added
in two or three stages, plus some grape juice or concentrate, is about
right.

But here we go, confusing our enquirer by telling him different
versions of how simple it is!

--
Mike.

On Sun, 6 Aug 2006, Mike Lyle wrote:

I'd never boil, though: for my taste, it spoils the flavour. I've never
bothered with measuring OG, either: I just work on the principle that
every quarter-pound of sugar in a gallon, if fermented right out,
raises the alcohol by 1%. So for most fruits, three pounds or so, added
in two or three stages, plus some grape juice or concentrate, is about
right.

Quarter of a pound of sugar will produce 1.5% alcohol in every gallon
(source: Peter Duncan and Brian Acton - forgotten the name of the book
as I don't have it here in Normandy).

And adding three pounds of sugar all in one go is likely to inhibit the
yeast and the fermentation will possibly have difficulty in starting.

I suppose that three pounds of sugar will produce a wine heavy in
alcohol but is that the primary aim of making a pleasant wine? For
myself, when I make blackberry wine (members of my family are allergic
to red wine and so I have to make a fruit wine for them) I put in no
more than two and a quarter pounds of sugar. That makes a wine pleasant
enough for drinking and cooking (boeuf bourgignonne, for instance).

I'm not even sure that three pounds of sugar will ferment right out to
produce a dry wine. That would be around 18% alcohol and even a yeast
with a high alcohol toleration would never achieve more than around 16%.
Most ordinary wine yeasts will stop fermenting at around 13% - 14%.

My white grapes usually achieve a gravity of 1.075 which is about two
pounds of sugar in every gallon. That produces a wine of 12% alcohol
which is around the level found in commercial wines, and pleasant enough
for me!

And you're right - never, NEVER, boil the fruit for wine-making,
especially if it contains pectin. If you do the haze will never clear.

David (in Normandy!)

--
David Rance http://www.mesnil.demon.co.uk
Fido Address: 2:252/110 writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France