[scentedstock]

This year I was thinking about getting into homebrew - is there something I can start off with that's easy? What's the easiest thing to produce? I'll even go and get the plants now.

[mushroom]

I started off on wine made with a can of concentrated juice, fermented in a demijohn with a water lock in the bung.

[seadart]

Just remember to sterilise everything that comes in contact with what ever you decide to brew and you should be fine.   Have a look at the Homebrew websites or ask at your local homebrew shop for advice, most of them brew too so will be willing to give you any help the can. My advice keep it simple.

[GrannieAnnie]

I started off on wine made with a can of concentrated juice, fermented in a demijohn with a water lock in the bung.

Me too, but now I use mostly rice or carrots!!

[David.]

This is my best, easy recipe that I continually make 6 gallon batches of. There are no preservatives in the juices so no boiling is required, nor messing around with fermenting fruit in buckets, waiting years for bushes to bear fruit, etc.
 
Quantities for ONE GALLON are:
 
0.37 Litres (half a 0.74 Litre bottle) of Rocks Organic Blackcurrant Squash (£1.60 in Asda, £1.86 in Sainsburys, £1.60 in Tescos and much, much more in health food shops). If only making 1 gall the remainder only keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge so freeze it if keeping longer.

0.67 Litres of carton blueberry juice drink 88p in Tescos or 99p in Morrisons. You can freeze any surplus for the next batch.

1 Litre carton cranberry juice drink (I buy Ocean Spray when on BOGOFF for approx. 50p as it has the highest - 25% - juice content). BOGOF at Lidl last week.
 
One 2 Litre bottle of Morrisons' chilled "Summerfruits" drink:[img][http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/DavidsWine/Summerfruits.jpg/img]  (
(99p for a 2 litre PET bottles - red cap - and contains apple, strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant juice - it may taste good enough to make wine out of on it's own, but lots of the flavour is lost during fermentation and the extra blackcurrant & blueberry juice is essential).

If you're going for a bigger batch and they don’t have enough you can freeze it until you have sufficient – but don’t be tempted to use their Blackcurrant & Apple - black cap - instead as strawberry and raspberry are essential ingredients). N.B. as chilled allow to warm to room temp before pitching yeast.
 
+500g of sugar added to the above juices will get it to about 13% ABV (there is approx. 630g of sugar in the juices).
+Yeast Nutrient  
+GP yeast  
+Pectalase
 
Although I have never has this foam up, I always save a little of the juice in the fridge for topping up after several days.
 
It will have hardly any sediment and be ready to drink as soon as it clears in about 2 months. It’s a really delicious, light, fruity red wine that has been described as both bl**dy lovely and bl**dy gorgeous and when fermented right out is so fruity it doesn't need sweetening. Deceptively strong and very easy to drink lots of it (or "dangerous" as my wife said after trying 1st time).