In message > , Ray Calvert
> writes
>Not the first time someone has disagreed with me and your points are
>well taken. His books are dated and I love them for thier clasic
>nature as well as Berries practical, casual approach. The British
>units are a challenge, more so to some I guess. I can see where some
>may not care for it but I feel they are good books for any winemakers
>library and they do not insist that you run out and spend hundreds of
>dollars on equipment before you can make a decent wine to see if you
>like the hoby. Berry also helps us see where our hobby came from. I
>would credit him as a kind of father to the modern winemaking hoby. He
>helped bring it to respectability.

I agree completely. As someone explained to me when I first started
posting here, if one of Berry's recipes says 'sweet', you can be sure it
really *is* sweet. And his recipes for Island Magic, Irish cream, and
"Whisky and Ginger Ale" are buttock-clenchingly awful.

That said, the book is full of useful facts and rules-of-thumb, and the
table of SG, sugar and potential alcohol I refer to every time I make a
batch of wine. One of the most useful features is the calendar of what
to make in each month of the year - obviously it's done from a British
perspective, but it should hold roughly true.

I generally look on the book as a source of ideas, rather than a rigid
collection of recipes; I'll find a recipe in it, then go and look up
what Jack K recommends, and maybe try something half-way between,
according to what ingredients I've got. Works for me...

cheers,
robin
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