Cyril Berry Is My Hero

APPLE AND BLUEBERRY WINE Ingredients:  (makes 2 gallons) ~7kg mixed apples (aimed for 80% cooking, 20% sweet) 400-500g blueberries (used 2 punnets from Sainsbury's) 2kg white sugar Pectoclase Campden tablets Yeast & nutrient (yeast used was Gervin GV5 - white fruit wine) Method: Put 4 litres of water into a fermenting bin, add 2 crushed campden tablets and 2 teaspoons of pectoclase. Wash apples, core them, roughly cut up, put straight into water (inside a straining bag). Add blueberries to straining bag, press gently. Dissolve sugar in warm water and add to mixture. Top up with cold water to make 1 gallon. Add yeast and nutrient. Ferment for three days, stirring daily, then ring out all the pulp as dry as possible, crushing the fruit to extract liquid. Siphon into demijohns through a muslin. There will be a large amount of solids collecting in the muslin. Fit airlock. Once fermentation has slowed, a large amount of solids will have already collected, rack and...

WHEAT AND RAISIN WINE   Ingredients: 1 pint of wheat bran 1kg raisins (used Sainsbury's basics sultanas) 1.5kg demerara sugar 2 lemons Yeast & nutrient (yeast used was a mixture of Alcotec turbo yeast distiller's strain for fruit and Bulldog mead yeast) Method:  Soak the wheat in a pint of water overnight. Put wheat and raisins through a food processor. Dissolve sugar in warm water then add everything to the fermenting bin (Note: It would probably have made things much easier if at this point the wheat and raisins had been placed inside a straining bag). Top up with cold water to 1 gallon. Leave in primary for 7-10 days then transfer into a demijohn, passing the liquid through a muslin to remove any solids. Rack once fermentation has ceased, bottle once clear. Sources: CJJ Berry - 'First Steps in Winemaking', Wheat wine Notes: I have absolutely no idea why this is called a wheat wine when many of CJJ's other fruit based recipes use muc...

INSTANT WINE Ingredients:  1 bottle (950ml) Tropicana golden grapefruit juice 1 jar (370g) malt extract 700g white sugar Yeast and nutrient (yeast used was a mixture of Alcotec turbo yeast distiller's strain for fruit and Bulldog mead yeast)   Method: Dissolve the sugar and malt extract in warm water. Add everything to a demijohn (passing the fruit juice through a muslin). Top up to 1 gallon with cold water. Fit airlock. Rack once fermentation has ceased. Bottle when clear. Source: Taken from CJJ Berry's book but with some quantities and ingredients changed for ease. 

APRICOT WINE Ingredients:  4 tins Sainsbury's halved apricots in juice 500g wheat bran 1.2kg white granulated sugar 1/2 cup of black tea 1 bottle Tesco orange and mango juice (with no preservatives) 1 lemon Yeast & nutrient (yeast used was Alcotec turbo yeast distiller's strain for fruit) Method: Use orange and mango juice to make up a yeast starter two days prior to the brew. Pour  1/2 cup of juice into a jar, add 1tsp sugar and the yeast. Cover with paper towel and elastic band. Add 1/4 cup juice and 1tsp sugar every couple of hours. Puree apricots and their juice with the tea. Put wheat into a straining bag and place in primary, then pour the pureed apricots in on top. Dissolve sugar in water and add to the primary. Add juice from the lemon and any remaining orange and mango juice. Add water to make up to a gallon and add the contents of the yeast starter jar.  Leave for two weeks then transfer to a demijohn and fit airlock. Sources: CJJ Berr...

I have recently been brewing a lot of my own wine, but haven't been recording any of my bastardised recipes anywhere. I'm starting this blog in case of the unlikely event that something I make is actually drinkable and I wish to make some more.  Current Brews:  Bottled: 1 gal red - early harvest of grapes, was probably left on lees too long and is likely horrid 1 gal rosé - second press of same grapes from red  In Demijohns: 1 gal mead - made from Grandfather's honey 1.5 gal red - late harvest of grapes 2 gal apple and blueberry wine - made with cooking apples and blueberries, backsweetened, very pink 1 gal 'instant' wine - made with grapefruit juice and malt extract  1 gal  raisin and wheat wine - brown, made with demerara sugar  In Primary: 1 gal apricot - made with tinned apricots and wheat  Future Brews: Barley wine 'Cheshire homebrew' (beer)