Brewing watermelon wine

Based on this watermelon wine recipe. Ingredients ready to go:

All done:

OG: 1055

Expected FG: 996

Started Alresford mead

Based on this mead recipe; made a starter from 200ml white grape juice, 1tsp nutrient, a few dashes of citric acid, a little tannin (quarter of a teaspoon), and 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient. The kitchen smelled great while boiling the must, despite the little spots of honey all over the place. Took a while to cool - don't pour the mixture into a demijohn until it's below 40c!

OG: 1108

Here's the mead and starter:

Apple juice wine recipe - pectin haze?

The apple juice wine is being slow to clear. Suspecting a pectin haze, I make a pectolase starter as described in CJJ Berry's wine making book, with half a pint from the hazy wine, and a teaspoon of pectolase. This was left for a few hours in a warm place, then mixed back in to the wine.

If this doesn't work, Vinclear (isinglass based finings) have worked for others on apple wines.

Watermelon juice wine recipe

Just a simple recipe, from supermarket juices. To keep the juice fresh tasting, the alcohol content is around 8%.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon wine tannin
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1/2 teaspoon pectolase
• 30ml lemon juice
• 1 tin white wine concentrate
• 200g fructose
• 4L watermelon juice (supermarket stuff is fine, as long as there's a high proportion of fresh juice)
• 1 teaspoon Young's wine yeast (or something fancy if you prefer)

Method

Add all the ingredients apart from the juice to a demijohn. For a stronger wine, you can dissolve 1kg sugar in the watermelon juice. Pour in the juice, take a hydrometer reading, then add yeast. Leave to ferment until dry, then rack for a few months until clear, rack again and leave a few weeks longer, then bottle.

Alresford mead recipe

Take 3-4 ½ lb. of mild honey, amount according to dryness or sweetness of wine required. If a wine yeast is to be used, have it activated and ready in advance.

Bring the honey to the boil in two or three times its volume of water. Stir withwooden spoon until honey is dissolved, or it may burn. Skim off any scum which rises.To the hot liquid add approximately ½ oz. of citric acid and the yeast nutrient. Alternatively, one may use the juice of 4-6 lemons, when only half the yeast nutrient need be added.

Add the rest of the water when convenient, transfer to fermenting containers andadd yeast when cool. A narrow neck and fermentation lock are advisable. Since there is a gallon of water and several pounds of honey there will be about nine to ten pints of liquid. This will allow for a full gallon after racking, which should take place when the wine is beginning to clear and a definite layer of sludge can be seen at the bottom. Wine made in mid September would be worth drinking at Christmas, but would be better for keeping.

Moving posh cider away from lees

Moved the posh cider away from the fruit into its own demijohn. Very cloudy but apparently tastes excellent!

Rack lychee and peach wine

This one's developed a funny sponge-like layer near the top. It's been at it for a while, so I've racked it away from its sediment. Still tastes extremely sharp; it might need a bit of aging for that to mellow. Topped up with chardonnay and water.

Rack apple wine

This doesn't appear to have cleared, and it can be racked from the end of this month, so I racked it from its sediment, added some Bentonite finings, and gave it a good few minutes of hard shaking. If this doesn't work, different finings may be worth a go - perhaps kieselsol?

Started elderflower kit wine

Based on a Young's kit - I can't be bothered sorting out good and bad smelling flowers, and it's far too late for them anyway! Used demarara sugar (500g extra to the kit juice) instead of cane without thinking; it may be a little darker than expected. Didn't use the supplied yeast, but went for an SB9 Chablis instead.

OG: 1101

Brewing caramel cream ale

Following this recipe, I knocked up a lovely caramel cream ale.

All the ingredients ready.. with 6oz of caramac and Wyeast 1007, plus the vanilla, bittering & aroma hops (1oz C at 60, 0.5oz Saaz at 20, 0.5oz, Hallertauer at end of boil); 1.5kg light DSM, 1.5kg wheat DSM, and a bit of Irish moss.

Steeping the half kilo of caramel grains

Everything in at the beginning of the boil

Mid-boil - it's going like the clappers!

Leftover crap

No shots of the hydrometer, but it worked out pretty cloudy and weighed in at 1040. The yeast didn't really wake up so pitched a Gervin English ale instead, which is now bubbling away nicely!

Rack strawberry wines

Racked these into dark demijohns to preserve their colour, topping up with a bit of spanish tempranillo. The table wine threw off its stopper overnight - obviously not quite finished yet. Flavour is improving vastly.

Rack jasmine tea wine

Racked this from its lees; has taken on a greenish tinge, though tastes slightly sharp and strong. It's still young, so this shouldn't be a problem yet. Fermentation not quite finished.

Started organic cider

Added 3L organic apple juice, a chopped decent-sized bramley, 1L apple juice from concentrate and some commerical cloudy juice to a demijohn, along with 1 tsp pectolase, 1tsp yeast nutrient, and a sachet of SB24 cider yeast. Bubbles within ten minutes!

OG: 1048 (excluding sugar in the apples)

Rack cherry lambic

After its three week primary fermentation, moved this one into a new clean FV. It looks rather thin and tastes it too; bolstered the mix with some extra sugar and malt - 250g demarara, 250g light dry spray malt - as well as some home; 10g Hallertauer. These were fresh and so nothing at all like what should be used! Also added a few scoops of the yeast cake from primary.

Keg ginger beer

Stopped fermentation on 25th July with 1/2tsp potassium sorbate and 1/4tsp sodium metabisulphite; left for a week, and then kegged. As this should be a fizzy drink, I force carbonated it in the pressue keg with one CO2 capsule; not really a good idea, and the let-off valve certainly complained loudly toward the end. This is ready for bottling once the CO2 has dissolved.