Homebrewers / Winemakers - a few questions about elderberry wine.

[British Red]

Have you recorded the pantone shifts in colour as well?

You may also like to titrate the solution to observe the relavent shifts in acidity.

(or just wait until you get less than one "blurp" in 30 seconds and you know its fermented out )

Seriously though, I get the fascination and have done similar myself, but in all reality "it will be what it will be". Whilst you can stop fermentation at a point, or make a wine sweeter after fermentation etc., I have found that its rarely a good idea (fermentation restarting or continuing in the bottle is plain old messy for example).

What is really useful is knowing exactly what you did - the precise recipe etc. so that when you get a really great batch, you can re-create it. I've never gone quite as far as Rich has with his elderberry varieties but things like apple varieties for making apple wine really vary the taste -imagine the difference in falvour between a Granny Smith and a russet and you can see why you get a different wine.

Its all good, cheap interesting fun though!

Red

 

[BigShot]

Panatone?
SOD IT!.... I knew I'd forgotten something!!!

If I was going to sweeten after fermenting, I'd intend to do it in a demijohn and leave it a while to be sure it wasn't going to fire up again in the bottle... I don't fancy the idea of one exploding, especially not after the exploding mead story I heard about a family friend a couple of weeks ago.

If going for a "it will be what it will be" approach does that mean you've either got to start off with a recipe that will either give you a dry wine of the right strength (say, 11%) or a strong one that's a bit sweeter (that'd be 16% in the case of the yeast I'm using)?

I'm not sure I see how I could get, say, an 11% medium wine without messing around somehow unless I get a yeast that wouldn't survive above 11%.

Cheap and interesting is dead right though. I'm having a great time - and with my 5 demijohns being free I just paid for the bucket and some assorted tat. Money well spent already and all I have so far is a bucket full of fizzy juice that's currently smelling uncannily like blackthorn cider that's been left overnight in a glass wash room at the first bar I worked in!

 

[British Red]

Panatone?
SOD IT!.... I knew I'd forgotten something!!!

If I was going to sweeten after fermenting, I'd intend to do it in a demijohn and leave it a while to be sure it wasn't going to fire up again in the bottle... I don't fancy the idea of one exploding, especially not after the exploding mead story I heard about a family friend a couple of weeks ago.

If going for a "it will be what it will be" approach does that mean you've either got to start off with a recipe that will either give you a dry wine of the right strength (say, 11%) or a strong one that's a bit sweeter (that'd be 16% in the case of the yeast I'm using)?

I'm not sure I see how I could get, say, an 11% medium wine without messing around somehow unless I get a yeast that wouldn't survive above 11%.

Cheap and interesting is dead right though. I'm having a great time - and with my 5 demijohns being free I just paid for the bucket and some assorted tat. Money well spent already and all I have so far is a bucket full of fizzy juice that's currently smelling uncannily like blackthorn cider that's been left overnight in a glass wash room at the first bar I worked in!

Spot on with the yeast - if you add more sugar than the yeast can consume before they die off, you get "sweetness". Different yeasts will die off at different points and convert different amounts in the process. To achieve I highly alcohlic sweet wine I would start with a champagne yeast and a boat load of sugar.

You can of course kill the yeast in the must using various additives but I dislike adding "gunk" to my wine

Red

 

[EdS]

bit late for this one but - if you use apple juice instead of grpae juice yiu get a nice fruity wine. Can be a bit potent though.


If I need to add more sugar to a wine at the begining I tend to use apple juice rather than sugar and water.

 

[BigShot]

EdS - yep, definitely a bit late there. The thing's going into a demijohn tomorrow!
I'll have a shot at that next time though.


Red - I'm inclined to agree on the "gunk" front too.
Maybe this batch will just be strong and then sweetened up a bit, I'll look for a slightly less alcohol tolerant yeast for the next lot.

Can anyone suggest a good yeast for things like elderberry wine that will go up to the 10% or 11% ABV?
I used Gervin #2 because I was told it was good for fruit wines, I might have looked for something else if I'd known it was a 16%er.

Also, recommendations for similar criteria but for floral wines like Elderflower would be handy too. Cheers.