My First Homebrew, advice?

[Estrix]

As the title say, I've just started my first vat of homebrew. Gorse wine to be exact, one gallon following an old recipe from a book circulated in Britain in WWII.

 

However the recipe just said "yeast" so I adjusted for using dry yeast, but simply used the same stuff I used for baking. I'm guessing in 1940 the average joe would have had baking not brewinf yeast. But what different effects should I expect from baking yeast? Will the alcohol content be lower and fermentation end sooner than expected?

 

Also, with the paleo theme I'm planning a batch of emmer wheat, barely and sourdough. Also a gruit batch for some Saxon reenactment friends (exact flavour to be decided) both will be chanced on wild yeast :-D 

[Niccolo]

From my experience, using baking yeast is not ideal, but works well for first brews.  The flavor will be a bit different than you'd expect if you used wine-specific yeast.  Also, it may not go after all of the sugars and fully digest them into alcohol.  Nothing bad, but may not end up exactly as the recipe ordered.

 

One thing to watch out for is, as I mentioned above, you may not get a full fermentation because the mixture may have too little nutrients in it.  If the yeast doesn't have enough nutrients, they can start to cannibalize the dead yeast, which can create a soapy flavor.  Many wine fermentations need to add yeast nutrients in order to ensure that the little buggers don't start eating each other.

 

I'd recommend going to a homebrew store (if your local regulations allow them) and picking up some wine yeast (looks like white wine yeast and yeast nutrient would work well from a recipe I found) from them next time.  Also, the owners of the stores are super knowledgeable and super helpful, so spending some time picking their brains could help out.  If you don't have stores, you can probably find the yeast and nutrients online somewhere.

 

Either way, good luck and have fun!  Oh, I also found out that gorse is an invasive species where I live.  Could you share the recipe?  If I can do my part for the environment and help control this species by making it into wine, I will consider it my civic duty!

[Frost of the Gloaming]

Be prepared for lots of trial and error. I made a few good batches and a few OMG this smells like rotten eggs (which by the way is normal if you brewing a lager)

[Estrix]

19 hours ago, Niccolo said:

From my experience, using baking yeast is not ideal, but works well for first brews.  The flavor will be a bit different than you'd expect if you used wine-specific yeast.  Also, it may not go after all of the sugars and fully digest them into alcohol.  Nothing bad, but may not end up exactly as the recipe ordered.

 

One thing to watch out for is, as I mentioned above, you may not get a full fermentation because the mixture may have too little nutrients in it.  If the yeast doesn't have enough nutrients, they can start to cannibalize the dead yeast, which can create a soapy flavor.  Many wine fermentations need to add yeast nutrients in order to ensure that the little buggers don't start eating each other.

 

I'd recommend going to a homebrew store (if your local regulations allow them) and picking up some wine yeast (looks like white wine yeast and yeast nutrient would work well from a recipe I found) from them next time.  Also, the owners of the stores are super knowledgeable and super helpful, so spending some time picking their brains could help out.  If you don't have stores, you can probably find the yeast and nutrients online somewhere.

 

Either way, good luck and have fun!  Oh, I also found out that gorse is an invasive species where I live.  Could you share the recipe?  If I can do my part for the environment and help control this species by making it into wine, I will consider it my civic duty!

I'm in the UK so it's not invasive :-D sadly the recipe doesn't call for it's death I'm afraid but I've included it all the same.

 

It's from a book called "They Can't Ration These" first published in 1940. I'll type it up exactly with my comments after.

 

Simmer for 20 minutes 1 pint of whin flowers, freshly picked off the gorse bushes, in 8 pints of water and turn into an earthenwear jar containing 3 sliced lemons. Add 3.5lb of loaf sugar or 2lb of honey, stir well, and when dissolved put in half a pint of raisins cut in half. Allow to cool, then add half a pound of poultry barley and sprinkle half an ounce of yeast on top.

Let this ferment for 21 days, then skim the top and strain the wine carefully without passing the deposit collected at the bottom of the jar. Pass through a cloth, stand for 8 days, pass again through a cloth, put in bottles, and fasten the corks tightly with wire.

This wine has a beautiful golden colour, and if allowed 3 months' bottling will taste like champagne.

 

Whin is just an old name for the flowers of gorse, or the plant. So is furze.

I used 2 pints of flowers in line with more modern recipes.

Loaf sugar is a reference to the old loaf shape it was sold in. Granulated is fine.

If using dried yeast I worked out it's only about a teaspoon you want (but feel free to double check lol!)

And finally gorse is crazy spikey lmao! But smells like pina colada :-D 

 

 

[Niccolo]

Awesome! I'll see if I can find some to try this out! Here's hoping yours ends up well.

 

 

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[Estrix]

Still about 17 or 18 days til straining so I'll post when I get to that stage. Might try dandelion and something gruit with wild yeast in the fermenting bucket then as well.

[Niccolo]

Fascinating!  I want to try some of these.  Gotta start harvesting dandelions now.  

[Estrix]

On 13/04/2017 at 8:30 PM, Niccolo said:

Fascinating!  I want to try some of these.  Gotta start harvesting dandelions now.  

Do you want me to post the dandelion wine recipe as well? Dandelion and burdock is also popular but usually only fermented to about 0.5% although I see no reason you couldn't go further.

 

Other interesting (pre hop) english ingredients include stuff like nettles, bog myrtle, sage and rosemary (both of which may have a similar preservative effect to hops). Oh and parsnips which is apparently pretty good! My mother in law has tried parsnip wine. 

 

I've also heard you can (in the US) add sassafras(sp?) like with rootbeer to get a beer with the same flavour.

[Niccolo]

Do you want me to post the dandelion wine recipe as well? Dandelion and burdock is also popular but usually only fermented to about 0.5% although I see no reason you couldn't go further.

 

Other interesting (pre hop) english ingredients include stuff like nettles, bog myrtle, sage and rosemary (both of which may have a similar preservative effect to hops). Oh and parsnips which is apparently pretty good! My mother in law has tried parsnip wine. 

 

I've also heard you can (in the US) add sassafras(sp?) like with rootbeer to get a beer with the same flavour.

I found several recipes for dandelion wine online, but I would love to see yours too.

 

I've never thought to make herb wines before, but I definitely want to try those.

 

Sassafras isn't native to my part of the country (northwest), but I may be able to track some down. It would be interesting to brew with.

 

 

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