Next post is a combined Rose / White wine post. (two separate brews, or whatever you call it for wine)
Didn't mean to make white wine but a mix up in the order meant I ended up with more than expected.

Again I'll start with the ingredients:
Australian Blend Merlot Blush Rose
Australian Blend White Table Wine

Brew day:
Cant fully remember the details of the brews, but they seemed pretty straight forward.
Followed the instructions with one exception. Only filled the white to 19lt for a few reasons.

Dont have the measurements at hand here, but the Rose worked out to be about 9%, with the white a little higher 10-11%.

The only other adjustment made was the addition of glycerol (I think that's what its called) to the rose, to try to add a bit more body / stickiness to it. I'm not sure if it made much of a difference, but it certainly didn't hurt it.

Learnings:
Australian blend wine kits will not win you awards. They are fine for bulking up your wine store, but I wouldn't be serving them at to guests. Also, they are a bit on the light side, so aim to be making about 17-18lt to get more flavour and alcohol into each bottle.

Improvements:
Buy better wine kits?

 

Rose Label

White label

On a retasting of the Rose a few months on, and its quite mellow fruity flavour. I'd recommend serving it room temp, rather than chilled.

Brew 2: Coopers Irish Stout Kit

So again this post is just from memory, as this was brewed before Christmas.

Again I'll start with the ingredients:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-brewmaster-irish-stout-17kg-446-p.asp
Rich and dark with coffee, chocolate and licorice aromas. To think of all that silky, smooth, malted, roasty-ness without licking your lips is impossible.
Ingredients Bundle Recommended By HomeBrewWest (the only exception): Coopers Malt Extract Light 1.5kg, Carbonation Drops (use just 1 Kg of the Malt Extract).

I went with:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-malt-extract-dark-15kg-231-p.asp

Brew day:
So I went against HBW better knowledge and went for the dark malt extract, and used the full 1.5kg along with the coopers brewmaster Irish stout kit. Used the kit yeast and fermentation happened quickly and was finished within a few days. Nothing major to report, after a little while, racket to bottling bucket with 100g of glucose dissolved in water. Bottled no problem!

OG: 1.058
FG: cant remember, less than 1.020
ABV: ~5%

This being my first beer, I found it hard to leave condition for long. Drank about half the batch before it was properly conditioned in hindsight.
Loads of flavour in this one. Heavy, nearly creamy beer. Carbonation was a bit of an issue, but this seems to be an issue with stouts. First half of the pint was lovely, but the heaviness of the beer and the lack of carbonation near the end, means you wouldn't drink many of them.
The last of these were drank on Paddys day with my soon to be bro-in-law, which was the best way to finish a fairly successful first attempt at brewing.
Gave alot of this one away, and others didn't seem to be as fond of it as I was, so I won't make the same mistake with my next stout planned.
And however many times you hear, 'its no Guinness', its always annoying. Non-brewing 'muggles' have got to stop comparing every beer to the regular pint down the pub.

Learnings:
Don't reinvent the wheel. When HBW go out of their way to post an alternative recipe for this stout heed their advice. My stout was way too heavy, a lighter malt, and less of it would have done the job just fine.
Stouts need conditioning. Have a brew ready for drinking and lock the stout away until its well conditioned, it'll be worth it.

Improvements:
Follow the instructions. This is a solid kit, don't mess with the formula and you'll get a lovely beer.

 

And Zombie Hopocalypse was born. A beautiful stout label if I do say so myself. 

 

Finished product, now just try to tell me 'its no Guinness'

Brew 1: Australian Blend - Red Wine Kit

So I've decided to keep a brew diary, albeit 5 months too late. The first few posts will be me trying to remember last years brews. So where better than to start with my Australian red wine kit. As a lover of 'fine' red wine, and by fine I mean cheap, this was a no brainer. My regular tipple would be far from exquisite, so for comparison purposes, it didn't have much competition. None the less, there was a fair bit of learning with this kit, and with a bit of experience, you could make a nice light table wine from this.

So here is the kit:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/australian-blend-red-table-wine-1327-p.asp
"Makes a dark ruby red wine, full bodied with rich tannins.

Well balanced acidity and with a taste of the new world Shiraz grape.
All ingredients except water are included in the box and this kit makes 23 litres of delicious Australian style red table wine."

To brew day. 
Borrowed equipment off a mate, who called over to oversee my attempt. All went to plan, very simple kit, dump your gallon of grape juice into the fermenter, add water to 23 litres, pitch the yeast and wait for a few days.
The wine bubbled away fair quickly and by day three or four had calmed down in a big way.  Stir bubbles out of wine.
Racked to secondary, and added finings / stabilizers. Next days added the second packet of finings (all included in kit), rack to bottling bucket and bottle. Thank God for screw tops.

So basically followed the instructions, no extras or anything.
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.000
Alcohol content of around 8% mark.

So the result was a sweet, easy to drink, light bodied, red table wine with a bit of a fuzzy feeling to it.
Drinkable definitely, so result for a first attempt.

Learnings:
Alcohol content was too low, and the proof of the pudding is in the drinking, very light on alcohol.
Body was a bit thin.
Few small bubbles giving it a fuzzy feeling. This probably would have improved over time, but I rushed the bottling, and the drinking so we will never know.

Improvements:
If I was doing it again, and I plan to here are a few additions:
Stir alot more after rackings. The bubbles leave it in no mans land between flat and carbonated wine, not pleasant. I'd stir all bubbles out at both rackings.
Camden tablets, with all this exposure to the air, I'd be adding camden tablets at each racking, reduces the chances of oxidation.
Add oak chips, or some other flavour. It was a bit lacking in flavour and body, something like oakchips could take the edge off the sweetness and give it a more interesting flavour.
Glycerol, this can be found in the baking department of your local supermarket. stirred into your fermenter, it should give it a slightly stickier feel, giving your wine legs on a glass.
Also I'd only top up to 18-19 litres to give my wine a higher alcohol content and more full bodied flavour. Alternatively add more grape juice if you can get your hands on it. I've been advised not to add extra sugar, as it will only raise the alcohol content, without giving the wine more body and flavour.

 My Label. The Lofty Bush has become the symbol of my wine

This was the two label styles. The one on the left won out!