Hello Noobie here...

[Geezah]

Hi there, I just wanted to introduce myself as i'm new here and might be wanting some advice in the near future.
Just put my first ever brew on ghetto style.
2 x 2l 'westons scrumpy dj's'
2 fingers off a rubber glove
3l of Lidl apple juice
1l of Lidl red grape juice
1 cup of tea
1 tablespoon of brown sugar made in to a syrup
Tesco's bread yeast

1 dj is apple juice / 1/2 cup of tea and sugar syrup with 1/2 tsp of yeast
1 dj is aplle and grape / 1/2 cup of tea and sugar syrup with 1/2 tsp of yeast



2 hrs in and its started to foam

I got imaptient and put on the brew before my kit arrived so I cant take a graverty reading until monday.
Will keep you posted how it tastes.

[kitwom]

Hi Noob

Welcome and good luck. Not sure I've ever seen anybody use bread yeast before,... or tea....or rubber gloves for that matter. Please do tell us how it goes..

[Geezah]

I topped both jars up with more apple juice tonight as the frothing has now subsided, and its fizzing away merrily.
I got a blanket wrapped around them for the evenings to keep the temperature stable as they are in the garage extension and it get a little bit colder in there when there is no central heating on.

So far, looking good.

[Geezah]

Well I took a reading yesterday and today as activity seemed to have slowed right down, and both was on 1.0 so I took the chance of bottling it up in 330ml plastic Gaymers cider bottles, added 1/2 tsp of brewing sugar and crown capped them.
They are now out in the shed to mature for 2 weeks ;-D

I chilled a 1/4 pint of the apple/grape brew after adding a 1/4tsp of sugar to it, and it tasted a bit empty, but nevertheless nice.

[fatbloke]

Welcome.............

Well I wouldn't have bothered with the blanket over night......

You'll find that even with bread yeast, that sort of mix can (and often will) ferment dry.

How they'll turn out is anyones guess as they seem to have become sort of "wine cooler"/alcopop type mixes.

while you've fermented pretty close to dry, they could probably have done with being left a bit longer - either way, with just 1 table spoon of sugar and the sugars in the juices, I'd suggest that they won't have a very long shelf life - or be particularly strong, alcohol-wise, that is.

It's fair to point out that if you looked into the world of commercial sparkling white wines/champagnes, you'd see that they're basically made as dry white still wine before they're put through the process of "methode champenoise" for bottle carbonation etc......

At the same time, to follow the abilities of bread yeast, just look up Joe's Ancient Orange Spiced Mead. He uses about 3lb of honey, plus the other bits, then bread yeast. The recipe seems designed to leave some residual sweetness - but it can still ferment dry (from memory, the average gravity reading at the start is in the region of 1080/1090).

Either way, well done, I think it's an excellent idea - just be very careful with the first few when you open them. The tiny amount of residual sugar (what with you mentioning a 1.000 gravity) and the glucose to prime, you might have ended up with a slightly higher pressure that you need. Oh and I'd get them out the shed, as that's likely to get very warm during the day - if you have somewhere that stays reasonably constant, like under some stairs or similar, then they'd be better placed (and you're less likely to get the carbonation CO2 expanding in the heat and exploding the bottles. The yeast will do it's job anyway, and you'll even likely get a little bit of sediment at the bottom of the bottles).

And chill them before opening.........

regards

fatbloke

[Geezah]

Took on board your comments, but this was the first episode of the ghetto brew series.
I just wanted to make an alcoholic beverage whith the things I had to hand ala TC stylee.

The bottles in the shed aint a problem, where the shed is, it doesnt get neither hot or cold and was the most stable place for a capped bottle to be stored.
I put a bottle in the fridge tonight (11 days from the start of the brew) and to be honest it was much better than expected.
A bit sharp, like a hint of lemon would make your tongue, but not overly dry as expected.
Its clearing nicely, and body and flavour seem to be developing from the initial sample i tased after bottling.
The carbon content is as I expected/wanted.... not fizzy, but a very slight sparkle when it hits your tongue.
I'm sure in 3-4 weeks time, this will be a reasonable drink. I've certainly bought worse in my time.

[Geezah]

I'm getting more impressed by the day with this