Brewing

[novembeRain]

Here's a question for you home brewers then;

I made elderflower wine last year, it took a lot of sugar! Sat fermenting for a little longer than three weeks iirc.

I've filtered it and bottled it, tastes ok and obviously alcoholic but not heart warmingly strong. BUT - it's far too sweet, so much so that it's un-drinkable!

Can I warm it and put it back in the demijon with more yeast and a valve to lose some of the sweetness and strengthen it up a bit?

 

[gregorach]

That should work. How much sugar did you add to start with?

 

[Grooveski]

This is very important for getting clarity and especially for avoiding chill haze - you should see the amount of break material that precipitates out.

When you pitch the yeast and stir it in doesn't that kick it all back up again?

....or is that ok - because it's precipitated those particles are big enough that they'll just sink again anyway.

 

[gregorach]

I chill in the boiler and then drain it out through the hop bed, so most of it stays in the boiler (and the nitrogen content makes the spent hops a great compost starter). Some will make it into the fermenter, but it just settles out with the rest of the trub.

 

[Grooveski]

Boiler - right.
That's a luxury I don't have. I'm boiling on the stove in a 3 gallon jelly pan, takes two boils per batch, each gets muslin strained into a bin where all the other ingredients(apart from the yeast) have been dumped.

Presuming I was cooling in a bin, do you think it'd be worth doing a rough rack into another at that stage? I have a monster siphon tube(20-odd mill I/D).

Starting to think there's more to this brewing lark than the sugar & malt soup than I've been making all these years.

 

[gregorach]

Man, just buy a boiler with a hop stainer - it's worth it for reduced hassle alone, and you'll probably make the costs back in reduced energy costs eventually. Don't worry about getting one with a thermostat - I ended up ripping the thermostat off mine. Fifty quid, tops.

Racking after cooling won't hurt, but it's probably not that necessary. I've cooled in the bin before and had OK results. Once the cold break comes out of solution, it's not too keen on going back in unless you heat it up again.

 

[novembeRain]

That should work. How much sugar did you add to start with?

To be honest, I can't remember but it was quite a lot. I'll give it a go though, it's un-drinkable as it is so nothing to lose