I did promise to dig out my homemade wine recipe for
@Harry Bloomfield months ago. Things very much got in the way.
Not from a kit, and far superior for it.
I'll have a look and post it, if I can find the book I wrote it down in.......
Found it!
(Made this in 2012 according to my homebrewing diary, so you may have to substitute some of the ingredients).
- 6 x 1 litre cartons of red grape juice (I used Rio D'Oro from Aldi at the time). It MUST be "pure pressed" stuff though, NOT "from concentrate" (these have something in them that deactivates the yeast, so it will never ferment).
- 3 gallons of warmed tap water
- 3 x lemons (juiced)
- 3.5kg granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons Youngs Dried Active Yeast
- 4 teaspoons Youngs Yeast Nutrient
This took just over 5 weeks until bottling, and made almost 5 gallons of lovely, medium-dry rose-type wine.
MIx the ingredients together in your large mixing tub, then siphon it off into (in my case, 5) demijohns.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of pectin to each DJ.
Stick the little swanneck-type valve into each DJ, to let it bubble while keeping the dust and flies out.
Leave somewhere warm - I just left the DJs at the bottom of my bedroom wardrobe, where they were undisturbed, dark, and quiet).
After about 10-14 days - when the bubbling (fermentation) has basically stopped - rack the liquid carefully off the sediment, into clean DJs. In my batch, about 41/2 DJs' worth.
After 21-28 days from starting, I bottled it up - about 6 bottles from each DJ - so you're pushing 30 bottles.
Cost:
- £10 for the grape juice?
- £5 for the sugar?
- £2 for the lemons?
- £15 for the yeast, nutrient, and pectin?
- tap water; basically free.
Just north of a quid a bottle, all in a month
