The plum wine we made at the end of summer won’t be ready for drinking for six months at least, and if we want it to be at its best we need to leave it a full ten to twelve months to mature in the bottles out in the outhouse. So we’re making some quicker-brewing wine alongside it that should be ready by Christmas.

It’s a bit of a cheat, really, as we’re using a kit, but it’s still a good money saver as it works out much cheaper to make your wine this way than to buy it from the supermarket. The particular kit we’re using cost £15.99 and makes 30 bottles within 21 days. That works out at 53p a bottle (or maybe closer to 56p as you have to add 3kg of sugar yourself).

We’re at stage one now. We’ve dissolved our first 2kg of sugar, added the fruit concentrate, the yeast and the nutrient and put it all in the fermenter to – well, ferment. You have to keep it between 21 and 25 degrees Celsius, so the old oil-filled radiator has come into play, making the kitchen nice and toasty warm as a happy by-product.

I’m surprised how quickly it’s set to work. We only started it off yesterday and already there is a good head of yeasty foam forming and the air lock is happily burbling to itself. Christmas wine, here we come.

Related posts:

1. Home-brewed wine
2. Bottling the wine
3. Drinking the home brewed wine