If you are following this series of blogs on winemaking, you have probably made your first batch of 5 litres and have enjoyed sharing it with your friends. These wines are ideal for barbecues, although it hasn’t exactly been barbecue weather in England. You know that 5 litres doesn’t go far at a barbecue though and so maybe when you get good at it; you could make 25 litres! (more…)
I explained last week how to make your first batch of wine. After about 3 weeks of testing your wine to see if all the sugar has fermented into alcohol, you should get a reading with your hydrometer of just 1.000 for medium dry wine. You can now stop it fermenting with a stabiliser or wine stopper. Something like Potassium sorbate (from your local supplier or Amazon) will do nicely. I found a stabiliser by Young’s Home Brew on eBay too. Sorbates can cause a few people tummy trouble, but there are other stabilisers you can use. (more…)