The little instruction leaflet included in the pack, isn't particularly comprehensive, but still it was fairly easy to work out what I needed to do and before I could start I did need to do a little preparation. The instructions did state that I would be needed cold water but didn't say whether that water needed to have been boiled first or left to stand so that any chlorine could dissipate. As I do usually boil the water that I am going to use in a home brew and further along in the instructions it says to add cool, boiled water, I decided better safe than sorry and boiled up the 1.8 litres of water I was going to need and then left it to cool while sterilising all the equipment I was going to be using for the first stage.
This was actually …show more content…
I can't say that the fermenting liquid looked particularly pleasant though. There was a frothy foam across the surface and I could see little beads of nutrient and yeast suspended in the golden liquid. Not having used a wine kit before, I had no idea if this is what it was supposed to look like, so I just crossed my fingers that all was well.
Day Three
Day three heralded the next step in my wine making journey, it was time to top the demijohn up with cooled, boiled water. Before adding the water the wine was still fermenting nicely with carbon dioxide almost constantly bubbling through the airlock. It had also cleared quite a bit, there was less froth and the nutrient had dissolved, although I could still see particles rising and falling through the liquid.
Calling my trusty funnel in to action, I tried to work out how much water I would need to add to make the total liquid 4.5 litres before remembering that the demijohn has a capacity of 4.5 litres, which means I simply need to fill it to the shoulders. There was nothing in the instructions about stirring or swirling, so I didn't attempt to combine the liquids. Instead I simply replaced the bung and airlock and hoped the magic of fermentation was going to continue over the next seven days or …show more content…
Even after the first day the wine was looking far more like, well, wine and had cleared considerably with a new layer of sediment forming. Even though I am incredibly impatient, I decided to sit on my hands and let the magic happen for at least a week, just looking in on the wine each day.
Day Eleven to Eighteen
Over the next few days the wine gradually cleared while a layer of white sediment formed at the bottom of the demijohn. Personally I felt the wine had cleared as much as it was going to by about day fifteen, but I stuck to my guns, tasting the wine in the evening of day eighteen and then getting ready to bottle.
Day Nineteen
Having tasted the wine and decided that it was ready to bottle, I sterilised some green bottles ready to transfer the wine. I did think about using the supplied bag and box, but in the end decided that bottles would making storage easier. I once more used a syphon kit rather than the supplied tube and set to work filling the bottles. Now, I'm going to have to say that I didn't manage to fill six bottles, if I include the glass or so I tasted I probably ended up with five and a half bottles, so not too
This was actually …show more content…
I can't say that the fermenting liquid looked particularly pleasant though. There was a frothy foam across the surface and I could see little beads of nutrient and yeast suspended in the golden liquid. Not having used a wine kit before, I had no idea if this is what it was supposed to look like, so I just crossed my fingers that all was well.
Day Three
Day three heralded the next step in my wine making journey, it was time to top the demijohn up with cooled, boiled water. Before adding the water the wine was still fermenting nicely with carbon dioxide almost constantly bubbling through the airlock. It had also cleared quite a bit, there was less froth and the nutrient had dissolved, although I could still see particles rising and falling through the liquid.
Calling my trusty funnel in to action, I tried to work out how much water I would need to add to make the total liquid 4.5 litres before remembering that the demijohn has a capacity of 4.5 litres, which means I simply need to fill it to the shoulders. There was nothing in the instructions about stirring or swirling, so I didn't attempt to combine the liquids. Instead I simply replaced the bung and airlock and hoped the magic of fermentation was going to continue over the next seven days or …show more content…
Even after the first day the wine was looking far more like, well, wine and had cleared considerably with a new layer of sediment forming. Even though I am incredibly impatient, I decided to sit on my hands and let the magic happen for at least a week, just looking in on the wine each day.
Day Eleven to Eighteen
Over the next few days the wine gradually cleared while a layer of white sediment formed at the bottom of the demijohn. Personally I felt the wine had cleared as much as it was going to by about day fifteen, but I stuck to my guns, tasting the wine in the evening of day eighteen and then getting ready to bottle.
Day Nineteen
Having tasted the wine and decided that it was ready to bottle, I sterilised some green bottles ready to transfer the wine. I did think about using the supplied bag and box, but in the end decided that bottles would making storage easier. I once more used a syphon kit rather than the supplied tube and set to work filling the bottles. Now, I'm going to have to say that I didn't manage to fill six bottles, if I include the glass or so I tasted I probably ended up with five and a half bottles, so not too