I had a stroke of luck at lunchtime. Although charity shops don't often keep demijohns as they are big & fragile, it's worth asking when you go by, & today one of our local shops had three - two brown & a clear.
"I wish you'd take them all off my hands, blooming big wotsits," grumbled the assistant, but I only wanted the clear one really. I was glad of my decision when she charged me £1.99 for the one - well over the going rate in my view! That made me feel a bit mean - perhaps you shouldn't begrudge the money going to such a good cause. But the last ones were only 50p each.
Anyway, with that prize in my grasp, it does mean that I can get another batch of wine underway - I'm rushing though as many batches of apple wine as I can, as there's still quite a boxful in the garage & it would be such a shame for them to go off.
I set about Apple mkIII, chopping 6lb of apples & simmering in water for 15 mins then straining onto 2 1/2 lbs of sugar & the rind of a lemon. It's cooling now, & I'll add concentrate, lemon juice, yeast nutrient & yeast when it has cooled tomorrow.
There's about 4lb of apples left in the box, so maybe apple & redcurrant wine for the next experiment - then I think that is quite enough for the time being!
Cider ???
ReplyDeleteI thought about that, but pressing apples seemed to be inordinately hard work, with specialist equipment...
ReplyDelete1.99 for demijohn's isn't bad. Our market were selling them second hand for £1 each but they rarely have them now; she say's they aren't being made anymore so are difficult to get. Not sure if that's true or not but a few weeks ago we went to a car boot and a lady had 4 dirty ones on the floor. £4 each she wanted for them! I'm no good at haggling and walked away but shortly saw someone walking around with them. I'm sure they didn't pay 50p for them!
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