Hi,

I make wine from country products, and wondered if anyone would like to chat about it and share experiences and recipes etc. There seems to be very little to do with this hobby going on in sheffield.

I asked the mods if they wanted to start a group on the groups board, and need to guage interest first.

thanks.

Hi,

I make wine from country products, and wondered if anyone would like to chat about it and share experiences and recipes etc. There seems to be very little to do with this hobby going on in sheffield.

I asked the mods if they wanted to start a group on the groups board, and need to guage interest first.

thanks.
ask winemaster he might :P

I would too.

who is winemaster?

who is winemaster?
whos more int he chatroom than the forum tbh
he makes and sells wine for a living i believe
next time i see him ill mention it

his recipes etc might be secrets tho tbh

Hi,

I make wine from country products, and wondered if anyone would like to chat about it and share experiences and recipes etc.
thanks.

Which wines do you make?

I would suggest it could be included in a wider Food and Drink group. There's loads of foodies on here and one or two who sometimes enjoy a snifter of port at Christmas :hihi:

If it included things like wine recommendations then yes, definitely :) . I have made wine before, though it wasn't much of a success and the results didn't much inspire me to continue. Wine tasting I'd certainly be up for :D .

Wine tasting I'd certainly be up for :D .

What, as opposed to the usual glugging :hihi:

What, as opposed to the usual glugging :hihi:

Ill have you know our hecate does not glugg shes more refined than that








she spits

errrrrrm

she spits

errrrrrm

so I've heard.........


runs for coat

Ill have you know our hecate does not glugg shes more refined than that


she spits

errrrrrm
Funnily enough, you're wrong!

It's far too much of a waste of good wine. :P ;)


Just remembered actually, I've had two attempts at wine making. The first was a kit from Boots for strawberry wine (I was young and lacked taste). That one wasn't too bad, as I recall; not as awful as it sounds, anyway. The second attempt was elderberry wine, made from berries gathered in the countryside. That was positively revolting. No idea where I went wrong, but it was absolutely undrinkable, and that's saying something for me.

Apologies to the OP for deviating the thread a little.

My Gran used to make Elderberry Wine which was uniformly awful but my friend's parents make some really good stuff. Very strong though - more like a fortified wine.

I'm trying to find winetasting groups or eating out groups- can anyone help me out or maybe help me start one?

I'm a novice to this site!

The second attempt was elderberry wine, made from berries gathered in the countryside. That was positively revolting. No idea where I went wrong, but it was absolutely undrinkable, and that's saying something for me.

I made 2 large (5 gallon) batches of elderberry wine last year. one went off (bacteria/air ingress suspected) and had to be thrown. The other batch is really nice, albeit a bit sweet for some tastes. Strong stuff, mind; I've been reliably informed about 13-15% alcohol, as is my blackberry wine made at the same time.

I made 2 large (5 gallon) batches of elderberry wine last year. one went off (bacteria/air ingress suspected) and had to be thrown. The other batch is really nice, albeit a bit sweet for some tastes. Strong stuff, mind; I've been reliably informed about 13-15% alcohol, as is my blackberry wine made at the same time.
Ah, contamination of some sort does sound like a posibility. I don't think it was bacterial, as I would have expected to see some degree of cloudiness. As I recall, the 'wine' (and I use the term very loosely) was clear; it simply tasted awful.

Hi all,

Im back on the post after a little bit, sorry for having started the original thread and not replying straight away!

I am glad that felow foodies etc are interested in creating a wine thread, perhaps we could have a food thread and wine reccomendations be a sub thread, and wine receipes another (mods ? ? ?) :)

I myself have made country / vegetable wines from almost anything edible! - I started early at the age of 14! when I wanted a hobby that was slightly different to other teenages! :thumbsup:

Recipes I have done that were nice include::)

Blackberry
Apple
Autumn fruits mixed together
Redcurrant
Elderberry
Ginger (from a root bashed up and boiled!)
Rasin
Carrot
Parsnip
sloe gin
Redcurrant gin

Recipes I would not suggest as they are horrible are:

Beetroot:o
Coffee (yes I made it thinking it would be like tia-maria and lets just say It got poured down the sink!:o :o )
Banana -if you use 100% bananas not mixed with anything else, its like gloopy sweet whisky and only drinkable with lemonade when youve not got any other wine left!:gag: ::


I have today been picking blackberries and they are nestling in my freezer at the moment, ready to be made into some scrummy apple and blackberry wine. :D ::
anyway, hope someone wants to reply, look forward to watching this thread!!

Kay:| :|

The redcurrant gin sounds sublime! Do you still have the recipe and would you like to share it? :)

yes i'll share as that is what I wanted the chat group thread for - its simple. all you have to do:

Buy the cheapest gin you possibly can. - Lidl, netto, aldi or morrisons all do it for about £6 -7

then this will make 2 yes - 2 bottles full. :)

You need 2 bottles with resealable bungs or screw on caps / corks will do.

half fill both bottles with recurrants that have been pricked twice with a sharp knife or cocktail stick.

Add 4oz of granulated sugar to each bottle (about 2 tablespoons)

fill with gin.

seal and then shake up. :)

give it a shake up every now and then - I leave it in the kitchen and every now and then pick it up and shake it.

after about 4-6 weeks (if you can hold out that long) you can taste it! - you can either drink it as it is or strain it through a sieve to get rid of the berries.

also makes a brill unusual gift at xmas

enjoy fellow wine makers! - let me know if you make it and like it!

That sounds wonderful. I'm definitely going to try it. Thanks!

I would!
I've had a bash at Cider from apples & wine from blackberries.

Wine from elderberries is on the cards for this month I think.

Determined to make nettle beer one spring too :thumbsup:

after about 4-6 weeks (if you can hold out that long) you can taste it! - you can either drink it as it is or strain it through a sieve to get rid of the berries.
!
get rid of the berries.??? :o

Get them put in a trifle! :thumbsup:

Can I open a winos group? Id make a great wino!

get rid of the berries.??? :o

Get them put in a trifle! :thumbsup:

If they're anything like sloes after making sloe gin, they're all dehydrated and tough by the time you've leached all of the yumminess out of them and into the gin. Not actually that nice to eat at all.

We used the fruit from a rumtopft one Christmas & it was fantastic! :thumbsup:

Same principal - diferent fruits

how long does it take from start to drinking it

as long as you can for most fruit.
my first batches of blackberry vodka wre opened at 3 months, 12 months and 18 months, with definite improvements with age for the 'body' and smoothness of the taste.
I've just bottled up some '12month' elderberry vodka and elderberry gin; the gin is a bit too sweet, but still nice and the vodka is great.
Have also started blackcurrant vodka, a blackberry vodka, a strawberry/raspberry/plum rumtoft and a peach/banana/mango rumtoft for next year, in addition to elderflower wine, summer fruits wine, and some blackberry wine (which i'm thinking of adding elderberries to).

Does the production of fruit vodka work on the same principle as the gin? You add the fruit, sugar and leave to mature? Blackcurrent vodka sounds wonderful.

yes. err on the side of caution for sugar. Too little is better than too much.
Blackcurrant vodka is fantastic! It's like seriously alcoholic Ribena.
In a 1.5 litre pop bottle; 750g fresh washed blackcurrants, 300g white sugar, fill the rest of the bottle with supermarket vodka.
Give it a shake to release the air pockets, top up and then leave. A shake /stir every so often will help dissolve the sugar.

Elderberries need a lot more sugar, more like 800g sugar per 1kg of fruit, or even 1kg per 1kg if you prefer a sweet, smoother liqeur(sp?).

Thanks, stackmonkey :)

Hi, glad to see there are similar people to me out there - I get such funny looks when I ham out picking blackberries!

Gonna try blackberry gin or vodka....mmmmm.

I suppose if we did put too much sugar in we could always use it as a yummy syrup for over ice-cream!!

it's easy to make a non alcoholic cordial for deserts and soft drinks: I'll post my recipe up later this week.

As promised, one recipe for blackberry cordial.

2.5lb of fresh washed blackberries
comfortably cover with cold water in a large pan
bring to boil, simmer to reduce liquid by half
strain juice into container 1, put the berries into container 2.
add some extra cold water to container 2 and stir, then strain the juice from the berries back into the saucepan.
add the juice from container 1 back into the saucepan.
add 1kg(2.2lb) bag of white sugar and stir in
bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar and reduce until liquid is just starting to thicken.
leave to cool (liquid thickens further as it cools) and then bottle.

makes just over 1 litre of cordial.

I made some blackberry wine once, didnt like it so it got left in cellar for 8 years, then one night we had a party and run out of booze, got the blackberry wine up and mixed it with lemonde it was just like port and lemon; didnt see any of my mates for 3 days after (hangovers) :thumbsup:

I make wine from mine own grapes and from pre-packaged kits. This year I was processing about 90 pounds of white grapes late at night and I screwed up and did not check the sugar content of a 6 gallow batch before adding yeast 2 weeks ago. The anticipated alcohol content was only about 7% when the yeast was added. I racked the wine a week ago and had a specific gravity that was about 0.98. Is it too late to add more sugar and yeast to start another fermentaion process and increase the alcohol content to about 12?

I dont know much about wine making, but I did that with white grape wine and it was fine, but best get more info from someone more experienced

Did you pick the blackberries for the wine you made or buy them. I have some rasberry bushes that are getting to the point where I think I can make a small batch of wine or blend with some red grapes.

I pick them wild - far too expensive to buy given the quantities involved.

I've got a huge bush at the end of the garden that i didn't know what it was. I've been reliable told it's Elderberry and it's got LOADS on it. There must be 20lb of fruit.

My thought was why waste it. Elderberry wine sounds like a great idea. The only problem is that i don't know where to start. I have 2 demi johns in the garage so thats a start. Any one have advice, recipe shop where i can buy what i need. Any advice would be helpful and rmember i haven't got a clue where to start.

Cheers

I'll post up some wine making stuff later tonight (assuming I remember)
The blackberry cordial recipe above will also work for elderberries, but may need a bit more sugar to counter the natural bitterness of elderberries. I've found it tastes best either chilled (eg with lemonade) or warmed up, rather than at room temperature.

hi all


Tzannino, I would add just a bit of sugar and you might find that it restarts fermenting itself again, - even when youve added a campden tablet, it can restart if you add sugar ( I found this out last month when topping up some mixed fruit wine with plain grape juice after racking - it started off again!)

Cuey, glad to see youre keen to start, as a general guide, you need 4lb fruit and about 3lb sugar for one gallon. If youre making elderberry, id also add some rasins and citric acid. There are homebrew shops at hillsborough and woodseats and wilkinsons do a limited selection of stuff, (although you have to buy prepacked bits and pieces there instead of individual items). Try a google search for elderberry wine, and you will be suprised at the good reipes that come up.

good luck

Kay

So is the Winemaking group going to be set up on the Groups section? It seems that with my local shop closing in Hillsborough (this Saturday) and the fact that their are offically no wine circles in Sheffield, this may be a start of somethig good?

bump time!, any news? anyone?
Abbey lane shop is a long trek which was/is very busy with old Holme lane customers so has anyone any info regarding a place for supplies etc. for enthusiasts in the northern areas of the city and beyond?