Home-made wines and beer.
Using Yeast
Wine, like bread, needs yeast. You can buy all-purpose wine yeast. Generally you put 2 rounded teaspoons or 1 yeast tablet (but follow instructions on the drum) in a bottle with 1/4 pint warm water. Shake and leave for about 6 hours before adding to the must.
Never add the yeast to hot liquid, only warm. Wine must be covered with a clean cloth or piece of polythene at all its stages. This is to ensure that vinegar bacteria do not enter the wine -- should the wine turn to vinegar use as salad dressings both in summer & winter.
Fermentation
Fermenting wine should be stored in a worm place about 65-75degF. At first it froths a lot and at this point you can plug the tops of jars or bottles with cotton wool, changing this when nec. When the wine quietens down, in about 3 or 4 days, the fermentation lock can be used. The length of fermentation time varies with different wine. Once it has stopped fermenting, the wine should be moved into a cool place. Don't bottle and seal the wine while it is still fermenting or it will blow the cork or bust the bottle.
Once the bubbles have stopped completely, the wine should be "racked", that is firstly siphoned into bottles (these must be perfectly clean and dry) or storage jars, and sealed down.
It is simpler to siphon clear wine off sediment in jars rather than keep pouring it from bottles. To make some corks fit properly, one can buy a special gadget called a "corker".
New corks must always be used. Keep wine for 3 months before drinking unless a different storage time is indicated.
Points to remember
Many recipes include oranges or lemons. The pith should never be used. To get a really fine rind, peel the fruit with a potato peeler.
All the recipes are based on a gallon of water. This produces (with the other ingredients) more than a gallon of wine -- use in jars.
What you need
Equipment is not expensive (dried yeast we get at Timothy Whites). I use polythene buckets and tall glass sweet jars.
Sterilize bottles and containers with Campden tablets. 3 tablets, 3 pints warm water and 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid. Pour into containers, swill round and leave for 1 hour, empty containers and rinse 4 times with warm water, filling them to the top each time. Leave upside down to dry.
Ingredients can be boiled in saucepans (I use preserving pan) but once fermenting starts wine must never come into contact withe metal. --use wooden spoons for stirring. A plastic funnel for pouring through/butter muslin, kitchen paper and jelly bags for straining liquids through. Fermentation locks should be used (but I did not use one for elderberry + apple at first).