Camping brew - Getting sodded on home-brew wine

Hey there Niel :)

Yup - this one is a little spritzy too!

Verrry noice!

And as cunning as a tack ?

Jimbo - it's VERY easy!!

Get yourself a 20 litre plastic keg with a big screw top. Stick an air-lock in it with a grommet (a few bucks at a home brew shop). Make sure it is clean by washing it out (no soap!!!) with clean water and home-brew-shop-steriliser powder.

Mulch up (no pips) about 4 kilos of ripe plums. Doesn't need to be mush - but rather hand squished. Get a couple of litres of REALLY warm water (but not boiling) on the stove and add 2 kilos of white sugar. Dissolve as much as you can and let cool. Add to the plums. Add enogh water to fill the 20 litre container to the 16 litre mark. Add a couple of teaspoons of baker's yeast. Good enough!

Sit aside for about a week. It'll go bloop-bloop-bloop for the entire period. Keep at around 26 degrees.

At the end of the blooping cycle (when it slows down appreciably) prepare another one litre batch of water with about a kilo of sugar. Add to the keg and let go for another 9 days.

Once it's all done, strain the mix off through muslin cloth into sterilised bottles and cork.

Nothing to it!!

Thanks Omaroo.

Willie, when I said she's as sharp as a Dunny Rat, I meant her mind. My old Nanna hasn't, and never has, got a nasty bone in her body. Poor wording on my part. She's a gem.

Hey Willie! WhereaboutsareyouinthebigNSW? Stuff the dollars - we have to catch up and swig a few over a campfire!

It's not exactly Grange mind you - it's still a bit sweet and spritzy - which will go with age. Apart from that it drinks well cold - kind of like a Spatelese Riesling.

Oh well! It is very noice!

Chris ,

You will have to pack and post and I would not like to see you out of pocket . I would member message you with my address , but I cannot figure out how . That's the problem with being thick .

Can you message me , or tell me how to do it please .

Willie .

I've sent you a message Willie :) We'll arrange it somehow soon!

If you prefer, my email address is:

chris@omaroo.net

Cheers
Chris

Right now - I know how he feels!!

:)

fermenting fruits ends up with a higher % of methyl alcohol (the bad stuff) than fermenting grains etc. ethol is the good stuff.

hence contributing to worse hangovers etc. Cant vouch for blindness, but thats always been rumoured from drinking straight meths, attacks the optic nerve or some such.

Good to see homebrewing is alive and well. been making beer,dark ales, ginger beer and cider for 2.5 years (not long compared to the staunch brewers) but long enough to enjoy the rewards and notice the improvement in my beers over time.

Have made some killer tropical death (sunshine punch, fermented...ends up like over alcoholic sparkling grapefruit juice..) packs a kick like a mule.

wine...now thats something i've yet to try...

Rev

Well... it's morning now and after a lot of home-brew alco-juice last night I thought that I'd be suffering horribly this morning.

Apart from a slightly dry mouth (should have drunk more water before crashing) I feel absolutely fine :) No headache at all... for a change!

We'll see how I am this arvo.....

I think that if I were to do the same, I'd end up sleeping on my face.

Sure Mr Bullwinkle :)

Any fruit with high sugars are oK.

We've used plums, pears, red apples, peach and...... Ribena!

So... try mangos, kiwi fruit, water melon or whatever you want. As long as it is naturally sweet.

It's all good - my folks even tried "grass" wine about 30 years ago and I still remenber it. Not bad at all..... ;)

A _long_ time ago my ex. and I use to make wine from almost anything: tea leaves, rose petals, nettles etc as well as the usual fruits. The secret is not to rush things and to ensure temperatures are stable during the fermenting process. I remember one we did (rosehip maybe?) which was bloody awful when we opened the first bottle about 6 months after bottling so we put the remaining bottles at the back of the cupboard and forgot them. About one year later we remembered the rosehip wine and dared to try another bottle - absolutely beautiful!

Another time we bought a few bottles of expensive wine and a few bottles of cheap wine from two adjacent vineyards in southern France. The expensive wine was very nice and the cheap stuff was not bad. By the time we had driven them 1600km north a couple of days later the expensive wine was best used over chips and the cheap wine was excellent,
some wines just don’t travel well.

It's funny stuff is wine :)

Mike Harding

Mmmmmm.... mulberry wine........ :)

Yep - got to put that on the agenda!