Brewing wine

What is needed:

• 23 liter or larger fermentation bucket with lid
• Airlock
• BelVino wine kit
• 4kg brewing sugar
• Washing up liquid
• Soft washing brush
• Large plastic spoon
• Sterilization fluid

The contents of the wine kit

This kit comes with dried fruit, I was surprised there was no liquid in the box whatsoever.

Dried fruit

I scrubbed the fermenter with washing up liquid and rinsed it thoroughly to ensure there was no residue. I used Milton to sterilize the fermenter and left it sitting for about 20 minutes to work it's magic.



Rinsed the fermenter once again to ensure the sterilizing fluid was gone.

Added the bag of dry fruit and 4kg of brewing sugar.

Dried fruit in the fermentation bucket

Mixed it up with 3 liters of boiling water from the kettle

1kg of brewing sugar, 4 bags are needed

I added the small sachet of enzyme and mixed it up a little further. I put it aside to cool down for 30 minutes.

I then filled the fermenter to 23 liters and added the citric acid sachet and mixed it up.

I added the wine yeast and bentonite to the top and left to sit for 15 minutes. I then mixed everything in together and sealed up the lid and added the airlock.

The mixture before putting the lid on

It says leave for 5 - 6 days to ferment, it is a little colder here so I might leave it for 10 days and check back.

Brewing cider

What is needed:

• 23 liter or larger fermentation bucket with lid
• Airlock
• Mangrove jacks lime and elderflower cider kit
• 1kg brewing sugar
• Washing up liquid
• Soft washing brush
• Large plastic spoon
• Sterilization fluid

Before starting, the fermentation bucket and anything that will be used in the cider needs to be washed and sterilized.

I washed the bucket using a small bit of washing up liquid scrubbing the inside and outside using a soft brush (avoid using something hard when scrubbing as it is easy to damage the plastic). I rinsed the bucket well ensuring all of the residue is completely removed, this is important as it might contaminate the cider and make it taste like washing up liquid.

I filled the bucket half way with warm water from the tap and put 5 cap fulls of sterilization fluid and mixed it up (I used Milton sterilization fluid). I put the airlock and spoon into the fermenter and left it for 30 minutes, every now and then spreading the fluid over everything to make sure it is all covered.

Front of the mangrove jacks kit

Information on front of the pack

Back of the mangroves jack kit

I cut open the pack and took out the sachets on one half and emptied the contents of the wet half into the fermenter. Using hot water from the kettle I rinsed out the bag into the fermenter and added the 1kg bag of brewing sugar.

View of the open mangrove jacks kit

Included sachets

I boiled 2 liters of water and mixed it into the fermenter then topped it up to 21 liters using cold tap water mixing all the time.

I added the silver sachet and yeast and mixed it up, when the yeast was mixed up I added the large teabag.  

The flavoring sachet should not be added at this point.

The pack comes with a large instruction page outlining the steps

I sealed up the bucket and placed the airlock on top, it has a tap on the bottom so I can easily draw some cider to test the gravity.

Getting the starting gravity

The starting gravity is 1058 which should make just over 6% cider. The instructions say leave the cider fermenting for 7 days and check the gravity once more.

The cider should be fermented at 22 degrees, if the temperature is less the fermentation may take longer, it is colder than 22 degrees here so I may check back on this in 10 days and post an update.