Wine and beer making.

[sewerrat]

Anyone in wine and beer making?

Bout 8 years ago used to make wine for my wife , I hate wine but it gave me something to do.
Now she wants to get back into it since everything is getting so expensive, just to save some money.

And for me I want to try to make some beer.

What are your favorite beers?

[KC1]

Originally Posted by sewerrat

Anyone in wine and beer making?

Bout 8 years ago used to make wine for my wife , I hate wine but it gave me something to do.
Now she wants to get back into it since everything is getting so expensive, just to save some money.

And for me I want to try to make some beer.

What are your favorite beers?

Heineken
Grolsch

[fordtruckin]

In the words of one of my best friends, “whatever is free”! Bahahaha

[Twisted Canuck]

I've been making wine for about 20 years now, I quite enjoy it, as does my wife. Sns2 says it's pretty good for cooking with too.

[Unregistered user]

If you want to save money and make great beer, go all grain. Use an electric all in one like a Brewzilla and do a lot of googling for info and maybe join your local home brew club.

[Off in the Bushes]

If it’s been awhile look for a place like this as they supply all the equipment I think.
http://winebrewandyou.ca/

[Grumpy Old Man]

I make wine for my wife and its pretty good. If anyone is looking for some equipment PM me as I have a bunch extra I would like to get rid if cheap.

[Reeves1]

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Man

I make wine for my wife and its pretty good. If anyone is looking for some equipment PM me as I have a bunch extra I would like to get rid if cheap.

Me Too !
I cannot make anything here. Water is not good enough.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck

I've been making wine for about 20 years now, I quite enjoy it, as does my wife. Sns2 says it's pretty good for cooking with too.

Twisted Canuck makes very good wine. Wife says his reds and whites are delicious. And, this old ex-boozer makes wonderful use of TC's nectar of the vine to pair with game meat. Nothing like it.

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[catnthehat]

I have been making wine for about 6 years now, i make it , my wife drinks it
I use one of those fast ferment deals, looks and works exactly like a PSV in the oil refinery business!.
Lots if fun to make , i use distilled water from the grocery store.
Cat

[elkhunter11]

After a bumper berry crop two years ago, I decided to try wine making last year, and guess what, no plums, and hardly any cherries on my trees last year. So I am hoping to give it a try this year, if we get a normal berry crop

[Savage Bacon]

Beer

I like a more bitter and hoppier beer. I brew a lot of IPAs.

My next beer is going to be a witbier.

Some of the hops I have on hand right now are El Dorado, Cascade, Mosaic, Lemondrop, Simcoe, Galaxy, and Citra.

I purchased a new freezer that I converted to a keezer. I think it's in my homebrew thread. It holds 4 kegs and I use co2 bottles to pressurize everything.

Wine

The boss likes a blend so we make her Cabernet Syrah Zinfandel mix.

I like a bit more of a bite so for me we make an Amarone with extra oak.

The inlaws grow their own grapes and have been into making wine since the beginning of time. When the FIL was younger, he had plumbed in wine on tap in his living room. He's my kind of guy.

Here's a wine rack I made for the boss for Xmas.

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[fordtruckin]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

After a bumper berry crop two years ago, I decided to try wine making last year, and guess what, no plums, and hardly any cherries on my trees last year. So I am hoping to give it a try this year, if we get a normal berry crop

Can you make wine with saskatoon berries?

[Unregistered user]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

Can you make wine with saskatoon berries?

I made a batch last fall as it was a great crop in this area. it is aging for a year, it tasted a bit acidic on bottling, a guy may want to check/ adjust ph at crush time.

[Reeves1]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

Can you make wine with saskatoon berries?

Yes ! I have a good recipe if you want. Not sure where I put my book though.....

[fordtruckin]

Originally Posted by Reeves1

Yes ! I have a good recipe if you want. Not sure where I put my book though.....

I don’t make wine but thanks for the offer. I more or less was just wondering as i love saskatoons.

[EZM]

Growing up, and coming from a long tradition from our roots in Europe, we made wine every year (4-5 barrels I'm guessing a total of 500-800 liters) every year. My dad would give most of it away as we couldn't possibly drink that much ourselves but I think he did it out of love for the craft.

His white wine won many awards and using traditional methods and heirloom oak barrels the quality of it was quite a bit different compared to mass produced wines.

We had 20-30 barrels in our cold room aging from years past and it was amazing to see the differences from one crop year to the next .... quite cool to see and compare.

As far as saving money, I'm not sure if that is possible or not - unles you are doing larger batches - but it sure is rewarding.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Man

If anyone is looking for some equipment PM me as I have a bunch extra I would like to get rid if cheap.

Same here! We used to make our own wine but we really don't drink that much anymore.

[Mistagin]

Originally Posted by Reeves1

Me Too !
I cannot make anything here. Water is not good enough.

I've been making wine for about 5 years. It started when she-who-must-be listened-to-and-obeyed said, "I'd like to make wine." So I bought her everything needed to do so. So guess who makes the wine? Yup --> me! I think she meant to say, "I'd like you to make me some wine so I have it to drink."
We get the Costco double kits, Chardonnay for white wine (her favorite) and either Malbec or Pinot Noir for red, both of which are good and work well for cooking too.

We've got decent city water and the wine turns out pretty good but then my wife picked up a big jug from the water store and we used it and the wine was even better!
So now we use that water whenever it is time for a new batch.

Sometimes I think about maybe tackling making beer, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[walker1]

Brewing beer for 6 plus years now. I do all grain. It is a process but there is lots of good info out there and some good shops here in Calgary. I brewed a double batch of oatmeal stout on saturday past . Started around 8 am and was done about 1:30. Two 5.5 gallon fermonsters bubbling away under the stairs in the basement. I have a heater in there to control the temp. Will give it 3 weeks then keg. I built a 4 tap keezer from a freezer. It is a great hobby and the beer has turned out great.
This will be a great beer for St. Patricks!!!! I only brew ales.

[slabm7]

I've been doing wine and beer for a few years now. For wine I just use kits. I find the costco kits the best bang for the buck. You get about 60 bottles of wine for $100 and it is as good of wine as any $150 for 30 bottles kits I have made. Look for the equipment on kijiji and get friends to start saving wine bottles!

As for beer I use extract kits. An IPA is pretty easy to have success with if you follow the directions on the kit. You can make pretty good IPA for about $1/bottle. I've always struggled with lagers, they can be hit and miss and take a bit more climate control and a cool environment to ferment in.

Full grain takes a lot of time, knowledge and commitment. I have a few friends that do it and a batch of beer is a full day event but you can make some amazing beers. The equipment is expensive and can take up a lot of space.

I would also recommend going the keg route vs bottles. Bottling beer, cleaning bottles and carbonization can be a pain in the ass with bottles. Kegs are a lot easier to clean, maintain and store. The only downside is setting up the system. My only warning is when you have ice cold delicious beer readily available on tap consumption seems to go up drastically! But who doesn't love the idea of a beer tap in the garage/basement!

[Etownpaul]

I’ve been doing wine kits for nearly 20 years now. Winning wines plus is my go to for regular kits and brew 4 less is where I go for all juice kits in the fall. I only do a couple wine kits a year these days. I like to let them age about a year before drinking.

I got heavy into all grain beer brewing just before CoVid. I had done all grain before but with these new all in one electric brew systems it’s easy as pie to make great beer. I’ve usually got 3-5 kegs full of something at any given time. I brew mostly ales during the summer, lagers and specialty beers during the winter. All grain is definitely the way to go if you want to have total control over your recipes. I’m always tweaking things and rarely brew the same beer twice.

I’m probably into the hobby for around $1200 in equipment, but now that I’ve got the process down I can crank out a 5 gallon batch in 4-4 1/2 hours at a cost of $1.25/L for a standard 5% ale or lager.

Unfortunately my favourite beer is all of them. I brew all the beer nerd favourites, but there is something about a perfectly crisp euro style Pilsner that can’t be beat.

[Dewey Cox]

I have all but given up on brewing beer.
Having 10 or 15 gallons on tap wasn't good for the waistline...
I only did extract kits, but would boil them and add hops to tune them up. You don't need to boil an extract kit, but it does improve the finished product greatly. (My big pot is now relegated to scalding chickens)
Since I'm cheap, I would stock up on the kits when they went on sale at save on foods (usually 2 or 3 times a year) When I moved away from the city, that wasn't an option anymore. (And my beer was never as good again either. I had great luck with Edmonton tap water)

[EZM]

Originally Posted by Etownpaul

I’ve been doing wine kits for nearly 20 years now. Winning wines plus is my go to for regular kits and brew 4 less is where I go for all juice kits in the fall. I only do a couple wine kits a year these days. I like to let them age about a year before drinking.

I got heavy into all grain beer brewing just before CoVid. I had done all grain before but with these new all in one electric brew systems it’s easy as pie to make great beer. I’ve usually got 3-5 kegs full of something at any given time. I brew mostly ales during the summer, lagers and specialty beers during the winter. All grain is definitely the way to go if you want to have total control over your recipes. I’m always tweaking things and rarely brew the same beer twice.

I’m probably into the hobby for around $1200 in equipment, but now that I’ve got the process down I can crank out a 5 gallon batch in 4-4 1/2 hours at a cost of $1.25/L for a standard 5% ale or lager.

Unfortunately my favourite beer is all of them. I brew all the beer nerd favourites, but there is something about a perfectly crisp euro style Pilsner that can’t be beat.

best quote of the day !!!!!!!!! lol

[Stinky Buffalo]

Savage Bacon - that's a really nice wine rack! Great work there.

[vanadium]

Originally Posted by sewerrat

Anyone in wine and beer making?

Bout 8 years ago used to make wine for my wife , I hate wine but it gave me something to do.
Now she wants to get back into it since everything is getting so expensive, just to save some money.

And for me I want to try to make some beer.

What are your favorite beers?

Heineken and any other free beer

[Unregistered user]

An added benefit to making your own beverages is not paying the exorbitant liquor taxes which go up by 6.3% in April, thank a lieberal.

[FillinTheFreezer]

I started making beer from the kits 3 yrs ago. On a break right now cuz I'm moving, but the varieties and cost are incredible.

86 Days (A pilsner) is my favourite of the Cooper's Kits.

[Savage Bacon]

Originally Posted by Stinky Buffalo

Savage Bacon - that's a really nice wine rack! Great work there.

Thanks! I think it holds 99 bottles. We have a batch on the go that should be ready in about a month. I thought it would be better than just stacking the cases in the spare bedroom.

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