Get everyone saving empty bottles, Mums making Wine (Carafe 21 Winemaking Kit)

Member Name: fairdonion

Product:	Carafe 21 Winemaking Kit
Date:	21/04/09 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap wine, no not cheap plonk

Disadvantages: it has a kick so do take care as it does look harmless

Years ago I used to make my own wine as a hobby and what with the family growing older other things took up my time and I forgot all about it.
Then the other week in a "remember when" mood we started talking about how good it was and wondered if they still did the 3 week wine kits.

They do. They are roughly £18 each but for that and 4 x 2.2kg you can have 30 bottles.

What you will need to buy before you can get started

5 gallon fermenting bucket
syphon tube
sterilizing powder
Bung with hole in a hubble bubble tube
bung with no hole in it
corks
hydrometer and glass tube or plastic.

Once you have bought the above which should come to about £20 - £25 you wont have to buy it again and can make any wine with this equiptment.

Carafe 21 is an express wine but please dont think because it is done quickly that it is not excellent or strong or belittle it in anyway.

The first thing you do is sterilise all the equiptment. This usually means putting 2 teaspoons of sterilising powder in 2 gallons of water and swilling it around. Then rinsing.

Day 1 you dissolve 2kg sugar into 3 gallons of 25 deg. c. of water and pour this into the vessel. Add the carafe 21 concentrate - thats what is in the big carton.

You are then told how to put the bentonite, pectolase, yeast nutrient into the solution. Each bag is named with the instructions on it as well as on the instruction list itself.

On day 3 you dissolve the 1.5kg in 10 pints of warm water and add and shake well.

In the next days you will see the hubble bubble tube with a bit of water bubbling away. It is quite hipnotic watching it!

You then leave till day 12. when you check the specific gravity. This is done by putting some wine in the tube and reading 1000 or below on the hydrometer.

Day 16 if the reading is 1000 or below - below being a dryer wine you do some more packet emptying into the wine. This is to make the wine stop fermenting.

Day 17 you shake the container morning and night. This removes carbon dioxide

Day 18 you do as for day 17 and then leave it undisturbed.

Day 19 this is when it becomes interesting as you taste it and syphon it off the sedement into another container leaving the sediment behind. You also add the last bag which is the clearing one although I think you will find that it is already nice and clear.

Day 21 taste the wine again. Like it? then bottle it.

It is now ready to drink and to say to everyone come and have a sip of my homemade wine. Dont be surprised if someone thinks yeuk I bet its awful and done in the old way with a bit of toast on it lol.

I have not as I said made this for a few years and in that time my children are young adults that like a taste of wine and I think they thought their old mum was just messing around and all three were shocked that it was so good. In fact they all are going to buy kits for me to make for them cheekily.

By the way carafe 21 does all kinds of 3 week wine from red, rose, dry white, sweet etc.

If you are looking for a new hobby I would definately have a go at this as once you have the equiptment you are away I worked it out to £23 all in for 30 and yes it IS good, real good wine.

Thank you for reading and no I resisted the temptation to have a taste while doing this!

Summary: make 30 bottles of superb wine in 3 weeks