Wine kits

Ratsathome

Anybody made any of the wine kits?

poitinstill

ive done the cantina twice ( whites) and the australian blend once (red) ...both make wine that is easy to drink.

Ratsathome

I bought the "Solomon Grundy Medium Sweet White" waiting for the delivery.Made a mead concoction(inmate brew) and bottled 3L.Cleared well and have a golden straw color.Still have to stand for a few months.

Saruman

Solomon Grundy 7 day wine kits are cheap but they work quite well as long as you leave the wine for a month before drinking.
Also when doing the secondary, adding some fruit is also beneficial. Frozen raspberries are an excellent option.

Ratsathome

Just noticed I did not order enough sugar,Need 3kg ordered 2kg.Can I add 1kg demerara sugar or honey?Will that change the flavor/color?

Saruman

Walk to local shop. Buy some sugar. Sugar as in white sugar. I can't imagine brown sugar working well. Honey would make it weird.

Darkginger

I made the DOC Merlot kit last year - was done in 4 weeks, and was better than the wine we can buy locally for €6 a bottle - got even better over the next couple of weeks, too (never did make it to a bottle, all 23 litres of it seemed to evaporate somehow...!).

mrmeindl

Hi is there any danger in using a kit thats about 10 years out of date, found 2 Hambleton Bard kits at home, have all the equipment. Would I be wasting the 4kg of sugar for no reward with yeast that old?

poitinstill

id say if you got new yeast it be worth a lash for sure.10 year old yeast would surely be dead as a door nail.?

mrmeindl

poitinstill wrote: »

id say if you got new yeast it be worth a lash for sure.10 year old yeast would surely be dead as a door nail.?

Thanks, Does it need to be any special type of yeast or would normal baking yeast do?

poitinstill

im sure baking yeast would do somthing but probably not recommended. contact one of the suppliers of home brew supplies . and they will post you some yeast so you'd only be paying a few euro for yeast to your door..after all you did just score a lash of free wine (almost)

thehomebrewcompany.ie or homebrewwest.ie shoudl arrange shipping of yeast without the 4.95 shipping charge im sure..

Khannie

mrmeindl wrote: »

Thanks, Does it need to be any special type of yeast or would normal baking yeast do?

Baking yeast wont do. It will die off at around 7-9% ABV to the best of my knowledge. You can get wine / champagne yeast for next to nothing (like 1.50 + delivery and if you phone, I've heard on here that the home brew company will post small packets for less than the standard delivery cost).

I would boil the arse out of that juice if you're going to use it. Wouldn't consider it safe myself, but that might be because I'm a scaredy cat.

Saruman

Is it worth it? A wine kit can be bought for the price of a bottle of wine. By all means, give it a go with fresh yeast but really... it's like opening a can of beans that are 10 years old. Chances are they will ber perfectly fine but since you can buy a can of beans for 25c or so, why bother?

Khannie

Saruman wrote: »

why bother?

The thrill of the ride.

sharingan

Saruman wrote: »

Is it worth it? A wine kit can be bought for the price of a bottle of wine. By all means, give it a go with fresh yeast but really... it's like opening a can of beans that are 10 years old. Chances are they will ber perfectly fine but since you can buy a can of beans for 25c or so, why bother?

I would get fresh yeast for the wine kits, and use the old yeast on something experimental (like an aldi grape juice wine, or pureed/strained fruit wine).

When you need consistency, you need your yeast to be good. For crazy projects nearly anything will do.

Degsy

I wouldnt be using something out of a tin ten years old..you could get toxic metals from the tin leaching into the contents.

Chuck em out and but a new kit..they cost 12 quid.

Saruman

sharingan wrote: »

I would get fresh yeast for the wine kits, and use the old yeast on something experimental (like an aldi grape juice wine, or pureed/strained fruit wine).

When you need consistency, you need your yeast to be good. For crazy projects nearly anything will do.

I'm not sure understood me I did say to use fresh yeast if one is going to use such an old kit, however why bother with the old kit when a new one is so cheap and guaranteed results.

Khannie

Am I mental? I paid (from memory) over 50 euro for my wine kit. I thought it represented very good value to be honest. The juice came in a bag, not a tin in my case.