Ok, you have your
gear now, maybe a kit too and maybe a book. It can all seem a bit bewildering eh, so much you could do so where do you start? This is what I would have liked someone to say to me at that time ...
First of all what kind of brewer do you want to be?
- Just simple quick brews that don't entail spending hours in the kitchen or gathering ingredients
Then brewing from kits is probably a good place to start. You get what you pay for with kits, so buy what you can afford. This is especially so it comes to genuine wine kits (just grape juice no other fruits) and you should go for the kits that need no added sugar if quality is what you value. Brewing from cartons of juice
(e.g. this one) will also give great results and will allow you to experiment more and learn. I've made a little how to vid for this wine;
check it out and get started.
- You have plenty of time but a limited budget
In this case cartons of juice will be good again. But you'll have way more fun if you get out and about and forage. There's free brewing ingredients all about you in the hedgerows and parks, along canals and road verges, pretty much everywhere really. You can easily make fantastic wines with
Elderflowers, Blackberries and Elderberries to name a few. You may also want to try Dandelions, Gorse flowers, Hawthorn blossom, Birch sap, Sycamore sap and Rosehips to name a few more.
Then getting back to basics will suit you. As well as foraging for free stuff you will also want to consider making wine from fruits and vegetables
(e.g. parsnip wine). You'll soon be up to your elbows, washing, scrubbing, peeling, zesting, chopping, crushing, steeping, boiling, simmering, stirring, straining and all the other stuff you like doing (did I mention washing up?). The list of stuff you can brew now is endless, and it doesn't have to be fresh ... frozen, canned and dried products are all just as valid, even jams, and don't forget honey cos if you go there you're making mead!
- You love to experiment or have quirky tastes.
Go for it. if you have quirky tastes you'll probably have to experiment to get a wine that is tailor made for your tastes. Enjoy the journey. If you just enjoy experimenting then brewing is great. You can keep it really simple and make two batches of the same wine but for one ingredient. Perhaps the yeast variety, the amount of sugar,
which acid(s) you use get to the acidity level right, or how much acid. Doing it like this simplifies determining the difference each element makes to the wine. Vary 2 or more things at once and it's much harder, tho may be more fun. I mean you don't want to make only grape and apple juice wine until you perfect it. So your first steps will probably entail making heaps of different stuff; Elderflower then Orange then Blackberry. You are already experimenting!
- You are Vegetarian or Vegan
No probs, you can brew entirely veggie or vegan. The main thing to watch out for is finings. These are used to help your wine to clear. Some are chitin based (which comes from shell-fish), some are gelatin based, some are entirely mineral (bentonite). But the best news is that you often don't need any at all. Time will clear most wines, and putting it somewhere cool will help too. Yeast is a fascinating thing, and you'll have to make your own mind up whether you think it's animal, veggie or vegan! Even the folks who study it are not sure if it's a fungus or an animal or something else altogether!
- You have heaps of money but little time.
Just go for kits, get the most expensive you can afford and love making fine wines, you will be astounded by how good they are, I'm not exaggerating!
