anybody make homemade beer or wine?

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anybody make homemade beer or wine? any advice? i just have the urge to learn something new, and of course i want to enjoy what i learn lol thanks gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), May 07, 2000

Answers

I Do ! I never had any luck with beer, it always came out bad. Since I couldn't pasturize it, it spoiled quickly. I do make a mighty fine dandelion wine ! It is cheap and easy-no special things to buy. If you really want to "move up" than there is a nice article in an old Countryside about "what to do" with old pressure cookers,copper lines,corn and yeast. I'll be glad to send you the recipe. Honey wine is good also.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), May 07, 2000.

Gene, if you have some old copies of Countryside you can look in the 3/92 issue on page 50 or 1/00 issue on page 78. The articles seem to cover everything you need to know, but I'm not a winemaker, YET. Also in the July 97 issue page 42 there's a recipe for tomato wine, sounds interesting. Good luck, let us know how it comes out.

-- Betsy (betsyk@pathwaynet.com), May 07, 2000.

Gene,

I love making my own beer, its rewarding and you can make excellent, import quality beer at a fraction of the cost of buying the real stuff. Start by finding yourself a beer-wine making store, there are a number of good books for new brewers available and the clerk at the store may be able to put you in touch with a local homebrering club. Homebrewing is not difficult but does require attention to detail, and especially to equipment cleanliness. The basic equipment needs are pretty simple, a primary (usually 5/6/7 gal plastic lidded bucket) and secondary (a glass carboy) fermenter, siphon tubing, cheesecloth, fermentation lock, some stainless or new clean wooden spoons, a hydrometer, and a big stainless or enamel stockpot. You will aslo need a bottle capper and some bottles, I scrounge around for the old returnable bottles in cases but you can buy bottles at the homebrew stores also. You should be able to get all the equipment for under a $100.00.

All the ingredients are available from the homebrew stores (and also from net now). The quality and variety available to the homebrewer is excellent. A basic lager recipe requires nothing more than malt extract (I usually use Munton & Fison liquid canned), yeast (dry or liquid), hops (most prefer the real thing, some use hop pellets or extracts), and water. Maybe some corn sugar. You can make about 2 cases of beer 1/4 the cost of store bought.

Wife just informed me we have to leave in 10 minutes so I'll stop rambling, keep everything clean, sterilize everything, follow the recipes in a good book and you'll do fine. The hardest thing with your first batch will be resting the urge to sample it right away - once bottled it needs awhile in the bottle to age.

I'll check back as soon as I get free of inlaw entanglements today.

Bob

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), May 07, 2000.


I have 10 gallons of Dandilion wine fermenting in the crock right now (about a week old). I have 10 gallons of spiced apple cider wine ready to bottle up from last fall setting in the oak barrel. I still have about 40 bottles of a light grape just waiting to be drank, now that we've finished all the dandilion wine from last year (our favorite).

I know that we don't make it the way the books say to. Like, you shouldn't use a crock or an oak barrel. But that is how my mother did it and how her mother did it, etc. We never had a bad batch yet (knock on wood).

I'd like to start collecting pop bottles to make our own pop. We still have one company here that sells pop in thick glass bottles. So before they go to plastic I'd like to pick up about 6 cases to keep for that project. Has anyone ever bottled thier own pop? (Oops, "SODA" to some of you.)

-- Peggy Adkins (adkinsonthefarm@hotmail.com), May 07, 2000.


I make Root Beer--is that considered soda? I cheat and use extract that I bartered from some Mennonites. The kids usually slurp it all down before I can get to it but it is excellent !!!!

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), May 07, 2000.


I have not made any homebrew or wine. Although there is a good supply of elderberries around and I am starting beekeeping this year, so I could ferment some honey. Anyone make Mead? Homemade soda sounds delicious, the idea of knowing where the ingredients are coming from is very appealing and I like the "Snapple"style soft drinks-add some carbonation.

-- jeff s. (jmprint@epix.com), May 07, 2000.

I love making homemade wine! I ferment in wonderful old gallon bottles and have three "perking away" of strawberry wine.I made it this year from frozen strawberries..never did that before so i have no clue if it will taste the same as from fresh ones..we'll see..Brad.where are you here????? Brad makes terrific homemade wine!!!

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), May 07, 2000.

Jeff S,

An easy mead recipe, try substituting your elderberries for the raspberries: 5 gallon recipe 15 pounds honey, 5 pounds raspberries, champagne yeast. Boil the honey and as much water as you can fit into your biggest pot (but at least 1 gallon) for 45 minutes, throw in berries for another 15 minutes, pour into primary fermenter (adding water to bring total up to 5 gallons if needed), pitch in yeast when cooled to 80 degrees, two months primary fermentation, transfer to secondary fermenter for another two months, then bottle, using corn sugar to prime for sparkling (you'll need champagne bottles) or just bottle up for a still mead. Give it at least nine months to age.

My favorite, and I think the most easy recipe, for hard cider:

Buy a gallon jug of fresh (or pasteurized) cider, open and dump in 1 packet champagne yeast, cover/wrap the jug mouth loosely with tin foil, put in closet for a day or two (or throw a cover over it), put in fridge to cool and drink. Be careful when pouring not to stir up the yeast in the bottom of the jug or transfer to another container for serving.

Regards,

Bob

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), May 08, 2000.


We've tried..........

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), May 08, 2000.

I have been making beer and wine and sodas for 25 years or so, and the only bad batch was some elderberry wine the was "greasy" which I found is a problem with some elderberries. Beer (and wine) made carefully in sanitary conditions will keep a long time (I've made some strong ales that have still been good 3 or 4 years after bottling). There is no need to pasteurize it if you are careful when making it.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), May 08, 2000.


Ah! Lesley - I see you opened that bottle of wine I left with you. Can't even remember which one it was. I actually wrote an article on beer-making for Countryside a few (3? 4?) years ago. I have been making both beer and wine for about as long as it has again become legal, but I won't say which side of the line. Let me suggest 2 sites that are my favorites for good equipment, ingredients, and advice. For beer - Williams Brewing. www, of course, williamsbrewing.com Or at 1-800-770-0620. They are in California. (Does this get me some points with those who were miffed by my term "screamin' liberals?) They have good stuff, although you can find cheaper stuff elsewhere. This is a classic case of "You get what you pay for!" For winemaking supplies, I suggest Portage Hills. They're in Ohio, at 1-800-418-6493, or (www) portagehills.com. I like to make some of my own creations as well, and have previously posted my recipe for strawberry-rhubarb wine, my personal favorite. After you get some practice, you can make decent wine out of fenceposts, but it will never be most people's favorite. Good luck, and if you need more (anyone) I'll try to help!

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), May 08, 2000.

So far, I have been making wine, mead, beer, and liquors, having started with my father well before I was legal to sample my creations. My all time favorite supply place is www.listermann.com - this is where a lot of the equipment you see in other catalogs is made. They are based in Cincinnati, and are a tremendous resource for beginning brewers. They have everything from the basic kits, to the full setup for all grain mashing.(beer)

-- Connie (connie@lunehaven.com), May 09, 2000.

To both Gene and Jeff, Mead is the nicest thing a bee can do for you, unless you're a flower. E-mail the Mead Lover's Digest: mead-request@talisman.com and, in the subject line, type: subscribe Digest Editor Dick Dunn (he calls himself "digest janitor") does a first-rate job. There is a searchable archive, and you'll find the letters range from rank beginners to incredibly knowledgeable experts.

-- Rog (flanders@probe.net), May 10, 2000.

Joel, PLEASE would you mind sharing your directions for making Dandelion Wine? I saw in your response way at the top of this thread that your version is "cheap and easy with no special things to buy." I live in Minnesota and my crop of Dandelions has outdone itself this year. I'm sure my neighbors hate me, but I've always left the poor Dandelions alone (can't bear to poison them) with the intention of making wine some year. I'm a little apprehensive about trying the process, though; everything I read about it makes it sound difficult. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance!

-- punky (mayfaire@netzero.net), May 10, 2000.

I always wanted to reply to Countryside after reading that very good artical by Doc Salsbury on making wine. Tho it was good I felt it might discourage someone from "just doing it". I started making wine one year when my naking bush cherries were just loaded with fruit and wanted to make use of them. I asked my neighbor's who made wine for years and they said to take 2 1/2# fruit (I used a 1 gal.icecream pail half full) add 3# sugar (6 cups) and boiling water to fill pail. Stir, cool, and add 1pkg. regular yeast. Let sit a few days. strain off into a glass cider jug and put a ballon on it tight. Let sit at room temp. and after 2 months or more, siphon off into clean bottles.Drink or store for better flavor. I was astounded when it turned out delishess! That sucsess encouraged me to learn more and get fancy airlocks,real wine yeast,siphon hoses( instead of aquarium hose)and even a hydrometer! Sure, that all help make a more reliable product, but, if on some sweet summer night when the chores are all done, take an icecream pail and the kids and pick some chokecherries,elderberries,or whatever and enjoy the peace. take it home with you. Give it a try. Do the best you know and dont worry! "Just Do It" You'll always have the memories, you might have some organic vinegar, or you might just have some super, good, sulfite free wine! For supplies, I use E.C. Krauss, that advertizes in Countryside Magazine. The've always been good,fast, and inexpensive. They also have books on different kinds of wine to make, every kind imaginable. Good Luck and have fun. Jeni

-- Jeanette Springer (jeni@dwave.net), May 10, 2000.


Many years ago, I came across a paperback at Goodwll, called (I think) Successful Home Winemaking, by a British guy who used to write a wine column for an English newspaper (I'm sorry I don't have more exact details.) I took it with me when I went to live in Pakistan, an Islamic republic hence with total Prohibition. There was a recipe in there for "carrot whisky". It used grated carrots, wheat, lemons, oranges, sugar (I used a succanat-type of local brown sugar -- more molasses kind of flavor than ordinary sugar) and ordinary bread yeast. I had never made any fermented substance before, but it came out great -- golden in color, it tasted rather like sherry, so we named it Sherrot. The second batch I made, I made with black carrots, a kind of carrot they have there which is aubergine dark violet with a fuschia pink core. I think I used too much sterilizer on the fermenting vessel (I used potassium permanganate aka "pinky"), and it did not seem to fully ferment, resulting in a sweeter wine, dark red, and so it was dubbed Porrot. Good luck to you. Just follow your recipe and you should be fine.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), May 11, 2000.

RECIPE--for Dandelion Wine-- 2 Quarts of dandelions(mostly flower use as little green as possible), 4 orange peels with as little white as possible, juice of 4 oranges, 1 gallon of boiling water, 2 and 1/2 pounds sugar, 1 teaspoon yeast and yeast nutrient( fruit fresh ) Poor boiling water over dandelions and let stand for 48 hours only ! with cover over bucket or crock. Place in pan and boil with orange peel for 10 minutes. Strain mixture through muslin cloth(or old sock) add sugar and let cool--ad juice of 4 oranges,yeast and yeast nutrient. Place in gallon containers(glass) place under air lock(we use a balloon) place in dark,cool spot. When mixture turns clear than bottle. Will be good at christmas ! Read a book on racking wine--we use a kerosene syphone(clean--not like the sock above) to take the liquid and leave the sediment. Replace missing liquid amounts with suger water. After you drink the first glass than read old countryside posts written by Joel--than they'll make sense!!!

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), May 12, 2000.

just this year i started making wine still waiting to taste it i was wondering if anybody could send me a recipe all mine call for is fruit sugar and water!!! let it sit for 21 days then ready to drink or air lock !! anybody know how this work or even if it does hope to hear from anybody sending thanks to all

-- ed (ed_pa_1999@yahoo.com), August 29, 2001.

Well, I included all the directions..where to get your supplies (Cheap or Free) .Just go to my website. Good luck and lots of fun.... NOTE: ALWAYS keep a log book when you make your stuff. So....You make it the same EVERY time and make no mistakes.(or learn from the ones you've made) http://expage.com/wine3

-- Major Nazsalem (http://expage.com/wine3 u@me.com), September 26, 2001.

just starting to get in to the wine and root beer home made dont know what i am doing ,dose anyone have any rescipes that they could send to me ? i like grape wine or any of the red wines or any fuit wines send me an e-mail-- thank you

-- wayne helmick (whelmick@westco.net), April 04, 2002.

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