wine bottles

[carrowcrin]

I am for the first time making home made wine, I have a few brandy bottles (unfortunately empty)
I am wondering if i sterilize these would they be suitable to bottle this vintage in?

many thanks

[BENIDORM]

Your brandy bottles should be fine, the main thing is to ensure that they are clean, you can use bleach as long as you ensure that they are thoroughly rinsed.
We tried an experiment last year when we bottled some of our wine, we used a variety of bottles including spirit bottles and plastic bottles with screw tops, all tasted great after 1 year.. !.
If you are hoping to keep wine for more than 1 year though I would recommend that you use 'proper' wine bottles with new cork.
Most people that I know have drunk their 'home made wine' within 3 months...whatever it tastes like....

Regards,
Gordon

[carrowcrin]

Gordon thanks for that, considering your an expert, will i need to keep the bottles tilted to keep the brandy bottle corks moist? its unlikely my wine will die of old age if it is drinkable.

regards and thanks

[BENIDORM]

Well I'm not really an expert...just an enthusiastic amateur..

However I wouldn't worry about 'tilting' bottles etc., we keep them in a cool area away from sunlight...Seems to work !

Anyway I hope that you get to enjoy the 'fruits of your labour '..

Regards,
Gordon..

[swerve]

I've got three brews on the go ATM two apple juice and one red wine concentrate. I've tasted the red and it's not bad. The two apple just taste like a cider but it was so easy to do.i can give details if anyone's interested.

[swerve]

I've got three brews on the go ATM two apple juice and one red wine concentrate. I've tasted the red and it's not bad. The two apple just taste like a cider but it was so easy to do.i can give details if anyone's interested.As for bottles I'm going to use old grolsh bottles with the swing tops.

[carrowcrin]

Back to you experts, this morning i was racking (i think)
Well the wine has being fermenting from a demijohn for 18 days so i decided to siphon to new jar as no bubbles coming.
Anyway didn't i push the silicone bung into the demijohn which i do not expect will be a problem.
At the moment i have it covered with kitchen foil and wonder if this ok or if i need to do something else, getting a bung is not possible round here as i bought online.

Swerve i would be interested in what recipy as its my first time. I really went for it picking slows from the hedges and also blackberries, i then picked apples in tesco.
I made slow wine and also blackberry/apple wine.

many thanks

[swerve]

The apple wine/ cider is just made using shop bought apple juice and the red wine is just the same using grape juice concentrate and after fermentation I added a litre of apple juice to sweeten the taste. There's loads of recipes on YouTube for either. Btw I made the red wine in a demijohn but the apple stuff is just made in a plastic 5l water bottle with the lid on loose. So very easy to do. I'll have a look again at the recipes and pm you.

[carrowcrin]

sorry to be wrecking your heads.
anyway the first wine i made (sloe) all the fruit was on the bottom of original bucket, after a week i squeezed the gunge out of put in demi and all the sediment settled to the bottom.

second wine apple/blackberry, this time the fruit seemed to be on top of bucket which i did not take any heed of.
this morning i squeezed the gunge out of and put in demi, the problem is the gunge is on top and the co2 is pushing it out through the airlock.
i wonder if anyone knows if this is normal?
on the basis of the man hours i am putting into this i would need at least €100 a bottle.

many thanks

[swerve]

Re the gunge. It's only the juice you need to ferment the rest is just waste. And always leave space in the demijohn for fermentation bubbles ie if you only have a 5l Demi only fill to say 4.5 litres.
Until you get confident I would just use concentrate either apple grape or cranberry. Also most fruit needs to be frozen before use as it helps release more of its own sugars. Please note I'm just a beginner aswell so we are all learning.