First Steps in Winemaking

This is an excellent short book which covers a lot for anyone investigating or exploring Winemaking, the greater part of the book is a selection of recipes, some of which sound very, very interesting or intriguing and would not exactly be what you may expect when creating wines if you have little experience beyond red, white, rosie, sparkling (as I did prior to reading this).Good picture illustrations accompany the text, it is clear, understandable and concise in delivery, the writing style and pace are good too. The narrative does not suffer from becoming dull or an uneven pace of delivery, at one point interesting, at another difficult to understand or repetitive or unnecessarily long winded. It might be possible to discover a lot of similar content online for free, although I doubt it would prove as interesting a read and this is arranged and assembled and presented very well as a single source.I would say that the reading experience is a good one, whether you plan to put into practice the content or directions or not. I would suggest however that if you are buying this you really should think about it as a guide or manual since such a portion of it is recipes and directions. It is not so much a connoisseurs guide, tasters notes or anything of that kind. It is also "first steps" in wine making, I suspect there are much more in depth or long winded guides to fermentation which would have much expanded content on the science or various techniques, this is a very good place to begin though.I have another guide by the author which relates to beers, ales and porters, if I remember properly, and I look forward to reading it now, possibly trying out some of its ideas, given how pleasing this read has turned out to be.

This book is very interesting, I Cannot wait to make my wine which I have never made before, Good value for money can recommend this book, I can also recommend this seller

I wanted to start making my own country wine and, like everybody else who's walked into a winemaking shop in search of essentials, I walked out with this book in amongst the demijohns and steriliser.There's a reason why everybody starts with this book - it does the job brilliantly. Here is a man with vast knowledge and experience, distilling it all into a small, easy to read paperback.The introductory sections are at first bewildering but having gone through the process with the first few gallons it's clear they hold vital information. Re-reading them with some experience under my belt they made a lot more sense.There are some great recipes here too, with suggestions for wines from every month of the year. With these as templates and a foundation of guidance from the introductory chapters I've been experimenting happily - I'll let you know in a few months how they've turned out!There are problems - not all the recipes follow the same pattern so can be confusing to read at first. Sometimes every step is explained in painful detail, for others you are simply given the basics. I suspect some mistakes too, pectolase instead of amylase for example in the parsnip wine. Also, use the hydrometer as guidance for sugar amounts instead of following the recipes - some of my wine has been way too sweet and others like rocket fuel! I've found I use far less sugar when aiming for 13-14% abv.(I didn't know what a hydrometer was before reading this book by the way, now I'm using it without a problem)There is much more to know - the differences in clearing agents and when to use them for example - but I don't think that belongs in a book entitled 'first steps'. Here is the sum of what you need to know at the beginning, and you will make perfectly good wine with only this book as a guide.I love the pictures too, I can only imagine what the author's wife thought of every available space in the house covered with demijohns!

My father bought this book about 30 years ago when he entered into wine making from scratch and I do recollect gathering dandelions and other ingredients with him and my sister, watching the process and reading the book so when I took my first steps into wine making some years ago with kits I did look for the little recipe book with no success. Then I gave up the hobbyChristmas I bought some mead and it had to be the most disgusting drink I have ever bought and it brought back memories of my grandfather's home made mead....silky smooth and delicious. So I went on the net and hunted for the recipe for mead and found the book I'd been looking for for years.On its arrival I looked through the recipes and just reading them brought back memories, the wine made from Ribena, raisin, rice, elderberry, elderflower champagne and more oh and of course that dandelion.Its quite a comprehensive guide in the first steps of wine making from base ingredients and I am looking forward to trying the recipes out.

good clean book

I bought this book because I owned an earlier version of it over twenty years ago, since when I stopped making wine, only to now fancy giving it another go. It was a good book then, and still is, but is SOOOOOO dated, e.g prices are as at 1995. Come on, it can't be THAT difficult to update, surely?So, I reckon it is now just OK, and lacks reference to recent ideas and preferences. I am still glad I bought it, but it isn't the 'Bible' that it once was.

A very informative paper back full of all the information required, for wine making as a hobby. I decided to get back into wine making after a long absence and could not find my old books. I bought this one and it covers every thing in easy to understand language. Lot's of ideas and recipes in this book. Great buy