BTW: If you want something to do, I can recommend buying a home wine-making kit.
Simon, great idea.
I actually used to brew beer a lot when in lived north of New York City. It is not that difficult and you can practice with different malts, hops and yeasts and come up with some very good tasting beer. Even I do drink the watery stuff when I am thirsty (Bud, Coors, Molson), I much prefer a beer with some body and flavor. When you homebrew, you get beer comparable or better than even some of the craft brews and get it for a fraction of the price.
Regarding wine, I was friends with an old Italian brother in the next congregation near to us and he was quite the wine-maker. The only problem was that the grapes that were grown closer to us in New York State are much cheaper (Finger Lakes region) but tend to be very sweet. I'm not into sweet wine at all. I did once get a few cases of grapes from California but the shipping cost was quite high at the time. But as you say, the kits they have today are a lot easier to use.
As an aside, I once tried making a couple of cases of "Guinness Stout." It was fine and tasted great after the main fermentation. When ready to bottle, you pour the beer into each bottle and add just a pinch of sugar prior to sealing the cap on. This secondary fermentation is what creates pressure and CO2 in the bottle after a few days so that you get the nice head on the beer.
Anyway, I guess my "pinch" of sugar was more than a pinch. I went into our garage about a week later to check on it and most of the caps had blown off due to the pressure and "Guiness" was everywhere. You can only image what the cleanup was like trying get the stains off the concrete blocks on the sides and floor of the garage.
We live and learn.
Rub a Dub
