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Or English, take your pick.

Cheers Vinny, it’s actually worse than that. I’ve only been in to this for 2 weeks but I bought a second freezer yesterday. You just can’t have enough berry storage.. You’re not wrong. I’m from Sheffield, Yorkshire, England but I’ve been living in Perthshire, Scotland for 25 years. I actually...

@winemaker81 spot on, ta.

🤣🤣 Aye, maybe some of our phrases don’t travel.

I am dead chuffed with this. First wine made from scratch with our own fruit. It tastes like wine and it tastes like gooseberry so definitely not a failure.

How do you make a starter? Is it just yeast in warm water?

That’s pretty interesting. What’s the idea behind that? Are you just covering all bases or was it the result of some experimenting? We’ve got thermostatically controlled electric under floor heating in the bathroom. I reckon that would be ideal but my Mrs thinks not….

😂 no no, not at all. The house is generally 16 to 18C all year. None of us are heat lovers. We’ve also 4 dogs. If the house gets warm they stink! That’s worth knowing. I’ve been pitching dry. I’ll try a starter. I’ve been doing a bit of reading about fermentation times. For white grape wine...

Temperature has been around 18C (64F ish) in the house. I might have a look at heat pads for next winter. I’m going to transfer the gooseberry into a gallon demijohn today, day 12. It’s at 1.012. I must admit, the smell of it is something else. Really looking forward to it.

Thanks Jovi’, I’m just leaving the lid loose fitted. That’s fast. My gooseberry started at 1.088 and hit 1.022 at day 9. It’s fairly cool here though.

Perfect, thank you very much. 👍

Do I need to stir during the primary fermentation if I use a syrup or tea base rather than fruit pulp? I’ve got my first 2 wines on the go. The first is a gooseberry where I had the fruit in a bag in the fermenting bucket for the first week. The second is a rhubarb where I extracted the syrup...

Thanks both. Just so I’m understanding you correctly- I need to transfer from the fermentation bucket to the demijohn when the SG is around 1, let it complete fermentation in the demijohn, rack it off the lees and then degas. Use finings and once clear I can bottle? It’s similar in that it’s...

I’ve got some questions about how to go about bottling country wine early. Im about to start 5 gallonsof dragonblood-ish type wine and would hope to have some ready to drink for an event on the 1st July, which gives me about 9 weeks. Can I just bottle it once it has cleared in the secondary...

That’s interesting stuff. I don’t think there is a limit in the UK but if you try to sell any without paying the duty there’s likely to be a big fine or jail time.

Interesting stuff @Rice_Guy. Another wormhole to get lost in. I’m going to assume the Jerry cans are HDPE but won’t know until the weekend when I can pick them up. They are conveniently the same volume as a 1 gallon demijohn which I plan to store my wine in long term. So, when we pack up the...

Curiosity got the best of me last week resulting in me starting my first country wine, a gooseberry with last years fruit out of the freezer. This week I’ve found myself constantly thumbing though recipes, diligently keeping the house at the right temperature, accidentally buying all the sugar...

Thanks Bob, I haven’t come across vacuvin but I’ll have a look.

I’m very new to all this so please excuse me if I’m on the wrong path here. I’ve got the chance of a load of new food safe 5ltr plastic jerry cans. Is any one using similar for storage (short or medium term). I’m building up my equipment but there’s a good chance I’ll be making wine quicker...

@VinesnBines I’ll get a look at them links you posted, thanks very much. I’ve got a few kilos of rhubarb in the freezer. That’s the next one I was planning. Might even get to it tonight. 👍