We were into making wine back in 1970s - not long after it became legal to do it - not made any for years
Use to make loads normally in 40 litre batches, one of the easiest was cider from Lidl apple juice look up turbo cider. I gave up and sold all the kit as i was turning into a alcoholic and it’s cheep enough from the supermarket
Yeh, early home brew got a bad reputation as people just wanted to save money. So the kits were 1.5kg malt extract makes you 40 pints and an equal amount of sugar. Result strong but no body. Kits now are nearly all 3kg malt extract makes 40 pints. More expensive, but essentially The same ingredients as commercial beer. Yeh, I remember my dad brewing with a bin liner inside a black plastic bin. The smell of warm malt, hops and hot black plastic . Strange thing is it got me wrong interested. All nice stainless steel now
Ha, my mum used to make wine back in the 70s. Fond memories of demi johns bubbling away in the kitchen. The damson wine was very nice I remember
Yep, the rhythmic popping of a yeasty airlocks and several rather beautiful glass Demijohns belting away. Can’t beat it. Very 70s
The Coopers range is good . I bought a kit (lager ) but never got round to brewing it ..now i think it's out of it's sell by date . Reason i bought it was we went down to my wife's cousins house warming party . On arrival we were greeted with the words Ohh we got loads of home brewed lager ..it's in the cooler help yourself there's loads . I remember thinking Christ almighty this going to taste like yellow snow and was dreading it ...what with my attempts in the past . But it was really really impressive ..good continental wack taste to it and i would say a good 5.6% clout to it . Deffo worth the buy .
Yeh, the kits are quality now. As long as all kit is sterilised and you wait until the yeast is not in suspension, as that gives the classic dodgy taste, then should be fine
best two wines I ever made were Tea wine, strong and a kick like a mule and Blackberry, left it locked in my loft for two years it tasted fabulous,
Yeh, wine basically came from wild yeast attacking grapes = wine. Because we can’t grow grapes well in England we tried all kinds of strange substitute stuff tea, pea pods etc. Of course these didn’t have enough sugar like the grape, so loads had to be added. Yes, we definitely used imagination
I had a press, grinder, Demi John’s, etc, Used to make my own cider up until 2018. Last time, I made 120 gallons. Had the kit given to me, but someone offered me £250.00 at the end of last year for it all. So that was that! Bought another Honda CX500 eurosport with it!
....and if wine is allowed to be attacked little fruit flies it will turn into sour wine or vinegar - which was often used as a medicine or used on wounds to kill infections
