Non-motoring > any winemakers about? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: devonite Replies: 19
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 10:35 
 any winemakers about? - devonite
Recently started dabbling with Home wine making, one of my neiboughs gave me a "Boots" wine kit she`d had for a few years and had never got around to making.
In this pack were three flavouring sachets - Coffee/rum, Choc/mint and Ameretto. All turned out nice, with the Amaretto a favourite amongst those who tasted it. I want to make some more! but Boots seem to have ditched home brew, and the only thing i can find on the internet is 75cl bottles of Ameretto syrup, would it be feasable to use this to flavour a "base" wine?

cheers
me
Last edited by: devonite on Thu 26 Aug 10 at 10:36
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 10:41 
 any winemakers about? - Zero
AMERETTO WINE? WTF!

If you want the taste of wine, make wine. If you want the taste of Ameretto buy and drink Ameretto. If you want the taste of both drink both, one after the other.

Get thee back Satan,

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New Thu 26 Aug 10 10:53 
 any winemakers about? - devonite
I agree! - but!......for £7.95, I can make 6 bottles and make 7 people very happy at chrimbo! - the six recipients and me" ;-)
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 11:04 
 any winemakers about? - Bromptonaut
Twenty five years ago every other High st had a homebrew shop. Supermarkets and DIY stores also carried a range of half decent kits. Unfortunately greater prosperity and cheap supermarket wine/beer created a demand spiral and even Morrisons have stopped selling beer kits.

There are still a few specialist shops and I guess Google will be your friend in finding them.

Good luck!!
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 11:40 
 any winemakers about? - BiggerBadderDave
"I can make 6 bottles and make 7 people very happy at chrimbo!"

Devonite, if all you're going to get me this year is a bottle of home made plonk then you will not be making me very happy.
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 11:17 
 any winemakers about? - Mapmaker
Chocolate & Mint wine??????

You don't need a winemaker, you need a shrink!

That said, a gallon of "amaretto" for £16 tinyurl.com/24hxtzw
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 26 Aug 10 at 11:20
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 11:24 
 any winemakers about? - CGNorwich
So you know the way to Amaretto
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 13:09 
 any winemakers about? - Armel Coussine
My late mother-in-law was making wine into her nineties. The tastiest was elderflower, the most dependably drunk-making apple, the dodgiest tasting oak leaf. Any of them could be lethally strong or disappointingly weak.

Orange wine seems an extremely bad idea. Never had any that didn't taste awful and give one the gripes.

A cousin-in-law has been working for years on producing calvados. This year at last he has produced some palatable stuff at 65% alc by vol, yum yum but watch out. There's another batch at over 70% but it's not so nice.

Distilling without poisoning people is a bit finicky. But one doesn't want an Indian wedding scenario with 100 dead.
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 17:20 
 any winemakers about? - Iffy
You could buy an Amaretto miniature from a decent off-licence for £2 or so.

I imagine that might even be sufficient to flavour a batch of your brew.

Or look for almond flavouring/syrup in the home baking section of your local supermarket.

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New Thu 26 Aug 10 21:08 
 any winemakers about? - Alastairw
Most Morrisons have a homebrew section like Boots used to have. Can also recommend the local brew shop option. Whereabouts are you Devonite? (or was that a daft question)
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 01:59 
 any winemakers about? - devonite
thanks for the links and suggestions! - going to try adding some almond flavouring to a "guinea-pig" bottle of rather insipid Apple that i made in August last year!. If that works, i`ll treat the whole batch, and add a bit of Caramel syrup for colouring ;-) and wrap them very prettily!!! - then i`ll do the crap Pea-pod!! (made this after watching the "Good Life")
If it fails, I suppose i could always part with a few bottles of Sloe-gin from my colletion ;-(

P.S
>>Whereabouts are you Devonite? (or was that a daft question)<<

;-) not in Devon!! - my local is called "The Devon" tis on the outskirts of Wainwrights country!!
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 21:54 
 any winemakers about? - AnotherJohnH
If you're after something "interesting" in the surprisingly pleasant, where did the floor go? stronger than it seems area, I have a recipe for runner bean wine somewhere...
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New Mon 9 May 11 16:55 
 any winemakers about? - Dave_
My dad's been having a clearout at home, and has unearthed a couple of dozen bottles of his homemade wine from the first half of the 1980s. He says he laid down a couple of bottles of every batch he made, in the hope that they might improve with time.

He's got Elderberry, Strawberry and plenty of Rhubarb (well what else can you do with it??), all in bottles with corks. Half the bottles have then been sealed with tape around the top. The non-taped ones have all had the wine leach through the cork a little bit, and when he opened one it didn't smell too good. It went down the outside drain and cleaned the concrete surround as it went...

The taped ones generally look clearer and lighter in colour though. Is there any point in keeping the decent-looking ones sealed any longer, or should we open one or two and give them a try?
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Mon 9 May 11 at 16:56
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:11 
 any winemakers about? - Mapmaker
They're 30 years old. Few of the finest wines made will last that long. And you're talking about the worst sort of plonk...

If you don't want to try them, what's the point in keeping them...???!
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Mon 9 May 11 at 17:11
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:14 
 any winemakers about? - Zero
Do you have any Hazchem warning signs? NBC suits?
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:28 
 any winemakers about? - Dave_
>> Do you have any Hazchem warning signs? NBC suits?

I did suggest he might want goggles and Marigolds at the very least...
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:29 
 any winemakers about? - Perky Penguin
I have some 1984 claret which hasn't been cellared properly and is drinkable but not nearly as good as it should be. I came across 6 bottles of decent Rioja which had been overlooked in my garage. They had turned into undrinkable cloudy brick red carp. I used them as drain clearer! I do not any home made wine will last for than 3 or 4 years but I'd be pleased to be proved wrong
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Mon 9 May 11 at 17:30
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:36 
 any winemakers about? - Bigtee
Pop along to Asda and buy a bottle you know it's safe to drink.
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New Mon 9 May 11 17:50 
 any winemakers about? - Mapmaker
PP, 1984 was a shocking year for claret and all of it should have long-since been drunk.

Not sure why your Rioja had turned cloudy, doesn't sound like over-ageing to me - normally turns is brown. Even so, still useable in cooking - the better the wine WAS to begin with, the better the result (I know some posters on here wouldn't risk it).
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New Mon 9 May 11 18:20 
 any winemakers about? - Perky Penguin
I'm wrong - it was 1983. www.robersonwine.com/shop/chateau-palmer-1983

I paid £170 for a case en primeur and if I had kept it well/better it would be worth about £7000, which it isn't. Bother! I also had 83 Beychevelle
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Mon 9 May 11 at 18:20
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