I bottled up a gallon of cider last night, this one has been brewing since the beginning of november last year (so about 2 and a half months)  which isn't that long really :)  but, this is the best tasting cider I've made so far, it has a fantastic flavour and crystal clear :)

I bottled it up last night with a bit of sugar a little sweetener, so hopefully it'll have a bit of fizz to it too, although I wanna take it to a Lan party on the weekend, so I't s probably not going to have enough time to carbonate.

 Not a bad strength either for such a nice tasting cider, clocking in at 7%

 I still have a red wine brewing, but i'm going to leave that for a good 6 months.  I also have some more bananna wine to bottle and some rosemary wine to bottle up, will have to find out what that tastes like :)

For those interested in the Cider Recipe, it's very very simple.. follow the brewing instructions on the Cider/Alchohol page  and just use apple juice.. that's it, not carton stuff.  real apples.  and try to use a blend of apples too, I use a blend of whatever is at hand, so the results vary.  but I try to stick a few cooking apples in there if I can't get crab apples or something with a bit of bite.

I also added some citric acid to sharpen it up a bit.  I also ensure it gets well oxygenated at the beginning whilst in the fermenting bin to give it a nice golden colour.

so bottled up 9 bottles of it, and put nice cider labels on it :) sorted.

 I have a ton of fruit left over this week so i'm thinking of making a Mixed fruit wine/cider, gonna try keep the alchohol level down to about 7% and keep it a little sweeter I think, so no additional sugars required, i'll back sweeten it with sweetener/lactose afterwards if needed, and put a bit of sugar in to carbonate.

I'm a little unsure about oranges though, I'm not convinced they will work, but might try them anyway heh.  It'll be a blend of Apples, Bananna, Plums, Peaches and maybe Oranges.  so looking forward to seeing how that one will turn out :) 

I eventually bottled up the Banana Wine, this was fermenting for about 4 months in total, it's not quite clear but it's very very strong.  clocking in around 16% somewhere.  I bottled it up with some additional lactose and sweetener to make it a little more drinkable, because it was quite bitter.

Taste wise, it has a Hint of banana but taste quite similar to a cider in a way, only stronger.  this would likely go well with a little lemonade in it, or as a mixer in a coctail.  I'll have a play and find out what to do with it though :)

For those interested in a Recipe.

It was quite simple..  used about 2 bunches of bananas per gallon, mashed em up in a fermenting bin, along with half the skins and some currants.  poured on a gallon of hot water and a pound of sugar.
Mixed it up well and left in the fermenting bin for 2 days, stirring a couple of times a day.

I then strained it into a demijohn and let it ferment for 4 months.. it probably could have done with longer, so I still have a gallon in a demijohn and a gallon bottled up now, just in time for xmas :)

Well today I made up a bit of Red wine out of some grapes I found growing in my garden :)  

was a simple process, although it's likely to come out more a rosé than a red I think.

following the guide written in the Cider/Wine Section to make this, so won't go into full detail, but do have some pics of some of the stages to help.

There was roughly 400g of red grapes, which is just enough to make a gallon of red wine, cause you put a lot of water in it heh.

so, first step is wash your grapes off and chuck em in a sauce pan, then cover them with water and smash em up. It looked kinda gross, but hey, if it's alcoholic I don't mind heh :)

Then I put it on the stove on high heat until boiling, remove any of the scum and reduce to a simmer. I now leave it simmering for about 20 mins.  Look at the colour, fantastic eh :)  (well the red colour, not the scum that's not yet been removed lol.)

After 20 mins of simmering, I add 200g of sugar and fill the pot up to the top with water, simmer and stir for a few minutes, then turn the heat off and leave to cool for about an hour.

I then strain the liquid off and throw away the skins and stuff, leaving me with a nice, very sweet liquid :)  it's quite nice at this stage, and it should be very sweet.  if it's not then you may need more sugar.

Before putting in the demijohn it must be cooled, so make sure it isn't hot still before popping it in. at this stage I also may take a reading on the hydrometer to check what the OG is, mine was a little low for a Wine at about 1.040, so I added more sugar to push it up to around 1.090.  which should leave us with a wine around 11-12% If adding more sugar it's usually best to mix it up with water first, but you can add it straight to the demijohn and stir it around until it's all dissolved. ok, when all your liquid is in the demijohn you may need to top it up with water to about the mark shown in this photo, you need to leave space for any frothing etc that the yeast will cause.  *Note: If you add more water this will adjust your OG, so take another reading.

today is day one for my wine, so I've popped in a crushed Campden tablet to destroy any natural yeasts that might be present. You then need to fill the airlock with Vodka or water (I only ever use water, not had an issue yet.) then stick the airlock in the demijohn. so in 24 hours I'll add Yeast, Yeast Nutrient, Pectolase and Citric acid into the demijohn and watch the storm brewing :)

Hopefull in about six months time I'll be able to tell you what it's like.

However, I also bottled up a gallon of elderberry wine today, and I have to say, it's the most fantastic wine I've made so far.  

The elderberry wine was made pretty much in the same way as this red wine, berry pulled off the bush, crushed in some water and boiled, sugar added, popped in a demijohn.. hey presto 3 months later I have 6 Bottles of fantastic elderberry wine at 11.2% Vol (ABV)