Recipe: Green Tea & Ginger Wine

Well I resolved to brew a lot this month, and so far i'm keeping up. I started this wine last night and pitched the yeast tonight. It's an old favourite, but with a twist. As much as the previous versions we're all delicious i reckon it can still be improved. I know it doesn't have to be perfect to be excellent, so i'm doing anything radically different, just tweaks. You can see previous versions on my index page here my brew list (and there's also a link on the right if you're new here and need a pointer).

Recipe, 5 Gallons

5 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
5 Litres Apple Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3.45 kg Sugar
200g Green Tea (Sencha)
200g Root Ginger
Zest of 3 Lemons and 2 Limes
5 Teaspoons Citric Acid
5 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme (pectolase)
4 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (tronozymol)
Yeast (Gervin 11, GV11, formerly known as GV D)

OG 1064 (see method section below)

Couple of ingredients piccies,
first the green tea (yup splashed out on the posh stuff!)

... and second the zest, lemons and limes, the knife evidence of removing the pith that the potato peeler left behind. painstaking work, but worth it.

Method:

Put a pan of water on the stove, a gallon sized pan or bigger. Add the sugar and dissolve it on the heat. While that's on the go put 100g of green tea in each of two muslin bags and tie them up. Use 2 bags rather than one to give the leaves plenty of room. Tip the hot sugar solution into your primary fermenting bin, then cover it. Now refill the pan, put it back on the hot stove, get it good and hot and then chuck in the muslin bags of green tea. Bring to the boil then turn off heat.

While the tea is coming to the boil add the 10 litres of fruit juices.  Now add the tea, but keep the muslin tea-bags in the pan. Re-cover the brew to be. Refill the pan with water and make another brew on the stove. Rinse out the cartons and add rinsings to the fermenting bin. Then add the second batch of tea, including the tea-bags.

This will all be very warm, even hot. So don't even think about adding the yeast. Cover it up. Next day add the pectolase, citric acid (or lemon juice) and yeast nutrient. Stir sloshily to get plenty of air into the must, yeast needs oxygen to multiply (bud) and that's the most important thing for it to do initially. It'll form a good sized colony quickly and help to ensure it's the dominant yeast. Measure the gravity and adjust with sugar solution or water to make it up to 5 gallons and your desired strength. And then and the yeast.

My gravity was 1064 but not quite 5 gallons. I decided to go ahead with pitching the yeast anyway. When i transfer to secondary fermentation i'll make the volume up to 5 gallons with a number of sugar solution additions. I'll be aiming to up the gravity by about 20 points (equivalent to an OG of about 1084) which will produce a wine of 12-12.5% ABV.

After a few days finely chop or grate the root ginger, and zest the citrus. Add both zest and ginger to another muslin bag and drop them into your secondary fermentation vessel. transfer the happily fizzing must to secondary fermentation under airlock. And proceed as usual from here. i.e. racking, degassing, stabilising at the appropriate times.

Discussion:

I've decided that i want a pretty robust and full flavoured wine with texture. But i don't want a sweet strong wine. The late addition of ginger should ensure a proper unmistakable ginger kick. And the zest should give a slight oily liquer-like texture as well as flavour. I'm using lemon and lime because i think they'll enhance the ginger, and the mix will hopefully add to the flavour mix. I do want this complex, but not confusing, and clean but complex is something i'm very interested in achieving. You could try other zests, if i were to try another it would be grapefruit. I think orange would be confusing, but that's just personal. Ginger and orange do go well together as flavours. I splashed out on some expensive green tea because i want to capture a little more flavour.

Tannin or oak chips? hmmm, good question. This will be a wine that can take either, but probably not both unless you halve the usual quantity of each. I think i'd steer clear of doing both tho, it'll be complex enough. Both will add astringency, the straight tannin more so. I think i'll add some oak chips, cos i have an open packet. It's not a 5 gallon dose, but that suits me, adding a subtle little extra will be just about right. I don't anticipate drinking this for 2 years.

The yeast is chosen because it's acid reducing. This refers to malic acid that will be in the apple juice. It's a harsh tasting acid and while the ginger may mask it i don't want to chance it. Gervin 11 (GV11 for short) is the yeast of choice. It used to be known as Gervin D (GV D), but has undergone a name change. Muntons (the supplier in the UK) assures me that it's the same yeast, even tho it doesn't say "acid reducing" on the sachet. It's also a thoroughly reliable yeast, quick starter, and low foaming.

Juices ... you could use grape juice alone, but make sure to use 10 litres. The juice content needs to be 10 litres in 5 gallons. If you do then your wine will be very similar. It may even clear a little faster. It'll probably be a little cleaner tasting, the apple juice adds some other flavour to the finished wine. The results are barely distinguishable, but i slightly favour the flavour of the one with both apple and grape juice. It's very marginal tho and if this is your first stab at the wine you'll probably not notice anyway. This wine is different, but delicious, and that will be your lingering first impression. Especially if you drink it with spicy food. This is a must try, especially anything with both chilli and ginger in it. It is the perfect drink for this sort of food. Try it and see, i reckon it's better than beer with a curry. But if you can get your hands on some Blandford Fly (a real ale) then you have to try that too!

Recipe: Cherry Quickie

... and so my late dash to up my volume of brews for the year continues. This is one i haven't tried before, Cherry Quickie. I have made a cherry wine kit (Youngs) and found it pleasant easy drinking. And i've made wines with cherries as part of a mix of various fruits, and that was delicious. So it's time to try a cherry quickie.

Recipe, 3 Gallons:

3 Litres Red Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3 Litres Cherry Juice Drink (Cherry Good)
2 Kg Sugar
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
2 Teaspoons Pectolase
2 Teaspoons yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
Yeast (GV1, lees from previous brew, passion fruit quickie)

OG

Method:

Just like every other quickie wine. Have a rummage about on my index page (click > "my brew list") and find a quickie wine from the list for details).

Discussion:

I chose citric acid cos i'm low on tartaric acid. Citric acid should work well tho, it's a safe bet. It may add a bit of lemon flavour but that's not a bad thing.

This Cherry Good juice also has some elderberry concentrate in it. i had a mouthful to see how strong that flavour was, and barely noticed it. My experience of elderberries (as a small proportion of fruits) in red wine brews is positive. So i think this will only improve the wine.

Cheeky ...

This little button, here on the right, "donate" >>>>>>

it's way cool. you get to click it, do the paypal or credit/debit card thing, and buy me a virtual drink to say "thanks for the great blog, you saved me a fortune and i get to drink delicious wine too!" So click away. It's simple and it works, it's been tested.

If you can't afford to buy me a drink then i comprehend that, being somewhat used to that situation myself. Don't worry, you'll always be welcome here. If you can afford to then i'd really appreciate it just now. And you're "doing very well thank you" then you can donate as much as like. Isn't that brilliant! just when i need a salary you could give me one!

And now, back to talking brewing. I've been updating, so there's plenty to read.

Something to be Aware of

Yeast talk: GV D is now GV11

A few months ago i tried to buy Gervin D yeast (GV D). This is the acid reducing yeast that i'm very fond of. The label has changed, but i'm assured the yeast has not. It's now known as Gervin 11 (GV11). However it no longer says that it's malic acid reducing on the label. I guess that means we can all look like we have the uber smarts if we have this little nugget of unpublicised information. How exciting! OK, that's very homebrew geekery! Muntons assure me (by email) that all their other Gervin yeasts have the same labels as before. I'll try to update my "index" page, but i may miss one or two.

Recipe: Passion Fruit Quickie

First of all humble apologies. I've had a very busy year, so not only have i neglected my blogging duties but i've also slacked with the brewing! True, i had a very promising June with 20 gallons of Elderflower quickie versions (and i've written the last two up now ... here and here, and written a comparison of the 4 different brews). Since then i've brewed nothing until a week ago. And i realised that if i wanted to do my usual 50 gallons a year then i need to step on it and set up a production line. So i made a plan. The previous brew (blueberry and cranberry) was the start of the plan, this is step 2.

Trying Something New

Recipe (3 Gallons):

3 Litres Passion Fruit Juice Drink (Sainsbury's)
2 Litres White Grape Juice
1 Litre Red Grape Juice
2 Kg Sugar
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
2 Teaspoons Pectolase
Nutrient (2 teaspoons Tronozymol)
Yeast (GV1 Lees from previous brew)

OG 1075

Method:

It's another quickie, so check out the last brew for the summary method or find an old "quickie" wine recipe and method here in my "index" for details.

Discussion:

Not much to say really, this wine is always a winner. I used a mix of red and white grape juices for no good reason. You can use either or a combo yourself. The only difference will be the colour of the wine.

NB: when buying a "juice drink" check the ingredients. Often they have added artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners or preservatives. You may not care, but then again you may. These juices from Sainsbury's were all natural. The two biggies to watch out for are ...

• 
  
• Preservatives because they may well make it hell to get your wine started. The preservatives could mess with the yeast you add.
• Artificial sweeteners. To my mind these are one to avoid always. There's plenty of people talking about how dangerous they are, linking them to all sorts of things including cancer. However from a purely brewing perspective avoid them. They won't ferment, they'll be utterly unchanged, so your wine will end up being way sweeter than you're used to.

Recipe: Cranberry and Blueberry Quickie

Getting Reacquainted with and Old Friend ....

This wine remains one of Mrs Critter Wines' favourites. So before the year is out it'd be smart of me to make a batch. Last years has all gone! This is a simple easy-drinking, light and fruity table wine. In fact it's quite lethal, not because it's strong, it isn't, but because it's so easy to drink. So it gets glugged.

Recipe (5 gallons)

3 Litres Cranberry Juice Drink (Sainsbury's)
2 Litres Blueberry Juice Drink (Sainsbury's)
3.4 Kg Sugar
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
2 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
4 Teaspoons Pectolase
Nutrient (4 Teaspoons, tronozymol)
Yeast (GV1)

OG 1078

NB: when buying a "juice drink" check the ingredients. Often they have added artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners or preservatives. You may not care, but then again you may. These juices from Sainsbury's were all natural. The two biggies to watch out for are ...

• Preservatives because they may well make it hell to get your wine started. The preservatives could mess with the yeast you add.
• Artificial sweeteners. To my mind these are one to avoid always. There's plenty of people talking about how dangerous they are, linking them to all sorts of things including cancer. However form a purely brewing perspective avoid them. They won't ferment, they'll be utterly unchanged, so your wine will end up being way sweeter than you're used to.

Method.

I think you know the quickie wine method by now. If not then find an old recipe on my "index" page. If you know what you're doing then here's a quick reminder ... just in case.

Clean all your gear properly, i use a bespoke steriliser, the kind of thing all homebrew shops have.
Rinse your equipment after sterilising. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water. All solution to cool. Add all ingredients (bar yeast) to your fermenting bin. Stir vigorously to get plenty of air dissolved. Add yeast, cover and so on. Stir daily for a few days, move to secondary fermentation until fermentation stops. rack of sediment and then do your usual thing of degassing, stabilising and so on. It'll be ready to drink in 6-8 weeks, and it'll be delicious.

Comparing Elderflower Quickie Wines

Comparing Elderflower Quickie Wines

Well all that blog slacking means that I get to write up a comparison on this year's Elderflower Quickie Wines. If you remember i did 4 variations

Apple juice and white grape juice base. (FG 990, 11.8% ABV).
Apple juice and red grape juice base. (FG 990, 12.2% ABV).
White and red grape juices as base (FG 990, 12.4% ABV).
White grape juice as base (FG 992, 11.5% ABV).

The Results: Nice and simple.

The wines made with apple juice didn't clear properly. They left a haze. It's noticeable in the demi-john, barely perceptible in a bottle, and you just won't see it in a glass. However it does taste wonderful. So flavour wise they are my favourites.

The wines made with grape juice only cleared fast and totally. They are also delicious, crisp and clean. If you like your white wines uncomplicated then you'll probably prefer this version. And if clarity is essential to you then this recipe is a safer route to achieve that aim.

Discussion

Why didn't the wine clear? The haze is almost certainly pectin, most likely because my pectolase was beyond it's best. I can only think of one other reason. It doesn't bother me to be honest, i'm not that fussy and i have a reputation already. People know my elderflower wine is the business so they simply tuck in and enjoy. If i was fussy then i'd take a couple of extra steps. But i'm jumping the gun a little here, i missed something out and i'll explain ....

You may or may not have guessed that I lean towards eating (and drinking!) naturally. In recent years i've been experimenting with not adding campden tablets or potassium sorbate to my finished wines. You run a little risk in doing this. You must be very clean when racking and bottling. You must also be absolutely sure the fermentation is finished. If not then it could restart in the bottle and that'll be messy and potentially dangerous, exploding glass bottles are not nice, especially when you're near them.

Anyway, these all turned out fine, as have a number of other brews. Whether you try to brew the same way is entirely up to you. If you're a novice i would advise against it. First get familiar with all the processes that happen, and the lengths of time they take. Wait until you're used to brewing, almost second nature. i.e. you may use recipes but you certainly know the methods without looking them up. You will then probably have settled in unhurried brewing, this will help to ensure that you don't bottle too soon. However you should still check the gravity over a number of days, when it's steady and low then bottling is safe. And degassing will not do any harm unless you enjoy a little frizz on your lips. I do.

So, this may also account for the fine haze in the apple juice and grape juice versions. Without the extra step of adding campden and sorbate i got a little forgetful. I didn't degas the wine. Degassing helps the wine to clear. Why the grape juice cleared is probably simply because it had no pectin in it.

Next Year's Wines:

"Ah" i hear you asking "what elderflower will you make next year?"

Great question and i don't know to be honest. Mrs Critter Wines will have some input tho, perhaps decisively so. Maybe i'll just go with whatever juice fits my budget. There really isn't much in it at all. They were all ready to drink very quickly, all taste delicious, and are all still great now - a few months on.

Recipe; Elderflower Quickie Wine, White Grape Juice only.

And this is pretty much an exact copy of the previous wine, but this time the only white grape juice is used.

Recipe: 5 Gallons

10 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)

3 Kg Sugar

5 Teaspoons Pectolase

3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)

3 Teaspoons Citric Acid

3 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid

Yeast (GV5, lees from previous must)

2 Loosely Packed Bags of Defrosted Elderflowers.

OG 1077

Method:

As previous wine.

Discussion:

The only things to say about this wine are -

The gravity was a little lower than the previous brew.

I reverted back to the ratio of acids used for the first two batches of this year's elderflower wine. 

Again, I used defrosted elderflowers.

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.

Recipe. Elderflower Blush Quick (white and red grape juices)

This is pretty much an exact copy of the previous wine, only this time the only grape juice is used. It's fermented on the lees of the previous brew. So saving you a sachet of yeast and washing up.

Recipe: 5 Gallons

5 Litres Red Grape Juice (Vitafit)

5 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)

3 Kg Sugar

5 Teaspoons Pectolase

3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)

4.5 Teaspoons Citric Acid

1.5 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid

Yeast (GV5, lees from previous must)

2 Loosely Packed Bags of Defrosted Elderflowers.

OG 1081

Method:

As previous wine.

Discussion:

The only things to say about this wine are -

The gravity was a little higher than the previous brews, so it will come out stronger.

As only grape juice was used i changed the ratio of acids. The main acid in grapes is tartaric, so i upped the proportion of citric acid a little to add a little lemon like flavour.

I picked enough flowers for 3 batches of wine last time i went elderflower foraging. And froze 2 batches worth. I've never tried it before, but couldn't see why it shouldn't work. I bagged them up in muslin straight from the freezer cos i didn't know if they would become a soggy mess if i let them defrost before bagging. Then waited a while for them to come up to room temperature before adding them to the secondary fermentation vessel.

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.

Elderflower Quickie Blush 2013 (apple & red grape juice)

So the elderflower quickie wine making continues. This time the variation is a blush. Half red grape juice and half apple juice. I thought that the only difference would be the colour really, but it turns out the red juice has more sugar in it than the white juice. Not a huge amount, but enough to make my original gravity higher, and so make the wine a little stronger. I only noticed the different sugar content because I couldn't immediately see why the gravity should be a little higher, and so checked cartons.

Recipe - 5 Gallons

5 Litres Red Grape Juice (Vitafit)
5 Litres Apple Juice (Simply)
3.5 Kg Sugar
5 Teaspoons Pectolase
3 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
Yeast GV5 (Lees from previous batch)
Water to 5 gallons
OG 1080
Elderflowers, 2 small muslin bags, loosely packed

And the usual piccie of ingredients (tho there are some other pics coming later)

Method

So this is a quickie wine, and there's heaps of methods for them elsewhere on this blog. It's also a late addition wine (more on that later). And it's also fermented on the lees of a previous batch. I'll skim over the details of making quickie wines, and focus on the late addition and lees. 

You've just racked your previous brew into secondary fermentation vessels. Paying extra attention to keeping lots of the yeasty sediment in the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel. This is full of live yeast, in a good sized colony, and raring to go. So save yourself all that sanitising effort, the bin is fine, your last lot of wine just came out of it and all was good. Cover it up tho. You also save some loose change on a new packet of yeast. Just don't forget that you have live yeast in your fermenting bin, don't kill it. Dissolve the sugar in hot water (boiled). Leave to cool, it may take a few hours but if you don't let it cool then the yeast probably won't enjoy the heat, and if you add it to your lees before the other ingredients (at room temperature) then you'll almost certainly kill the yeast.

Put all your other ingredients in the fermenting bin, except the flowers, we'll add them days later. When the sugar solution is cool add it to the fermenting bin too. Give everything a good stir to ensure it's mixed. You probably don't need to do the sloshy stir tho. The yeast colony should be plenty big and healthy enough. But if you can be bothered it won't do any harm to give it a sloshy stir. Measure and record the original gravity. Cover. Make notes of the ingredients, quantities, and your method. With dates.

A few days later you'll want to pick your flowers. Put them all in a plastic bag, tie it.

Haul of elderflower sprays ready to tie up for the night.

Next day shake the bag for 10 minutes or so. (It's a great use of ad break time if you're watching a film on TV!). All the flowers drop off the stems. Put the flowers into muslin bags, and tie them. This year i had excess flowers so at this point i froze some to use another time. I'll tell you if it works out when i drink it ... in about 8 weeks i reckon. 

Drop the flowers into a secondary fermentation vessel, under airlock. Rack the must ontop of them. Fit the airlock. After a few days remove the flowers and rack again. Fit the airlock(s) and then follow the usual procedures. Racking, degassing, stabilising. It should clear in a few weeks and be ready to bottle and drink 6-8 weeks from when you started it.

Discussion.

When collecting flowers choose a dry day. Smell the flowers on each tree, some smell great - pick them - and some smell unpleasant (like cat's pee is how some people describe it). Leave those of course. You may have to get about a bit to find the best flowers. I enjoy that part, i have a particular favourite tree and always go there. The best smell and lots of flowers. But i also enjoy visiting the smaller trees that have grown noticeably since i first noticed them. And finding new trees is always a good thing. The colour of flowers varies from creamy to quite brilliant white. I don't think it makes any difference, the smell is what matters.

This year while i was exploring i ended up in a car park by the side of the river. A little too far out of town to be useful, so it was quiet. Which probably explains the graffiti ... that i enjoyed looking at. So here's a piccie of some.

Late addition; the main bonus of the late addition of flowers, which are essentially your flavourings, is that you need considerably less. Primary fermentation is vigorous and will blow lots of the delicate flavours out into the air. Secondary fermentation is much gentler, so more flavours will stay in the must. Additionally I think the alcohol will help to extract more flavour from the flavours.

Quickie Wine; This is formulated to be ready to drink quickly. It's very important that you don't try to make it higher ABV, or bigger bodied. If you do then the wine will no longer be a quickie, it'll need months to condition before being ready to drink. Quickie wine is table wine quality (the kind of quality you pay £5 for in the supermarket). It won't improve with age beyond about 3 months. It's a quaffing wine. Something to drink while your other wines get the time they need to condition. You're still looking at a wine around 11% ABV. Where you can experiment is with the fruit juices. Always ensure that half is grape juice, the other half can be whatever you like, including more grape juice. Apple is great too. I hear great things about lychee juice and it sounds like a good match for elderflowers but i've never tried it.

Muslin bags; i strongly encourage you to use these. They make it a breeze removing any solids you add to your must. They cost loose change. And you can re-use them many times. Just wash them well after each use. I put mine through the washing machine (tied in a sock) and then rinse them before using them. Nylon mesh bags are also fine for the job.

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.

I'm for Hire

After my Aussie travel adventures, especially after doing a workshop on brewing, I have been encouraged to take action towards a desired end. I've long fancied doing short courses, workshops or tutoring of home-made wine making. So I've started.

... So I'm going to "plug" myself for the first time. I won't do it again, instead I'll add a static page for those who are interested. But it's time I did something rather than waiting to get my words, prices etc perfect. This is that something.

If you're in the Essex area (U.K) then Chelmsford should be within reach. On the 20th and 27th of this month I'll be at The Ideas Hub 2, from 6.00 til 8.00 pm. I'll be hosting a very informal gathering for people want to start brewing or are keen to improve. It's a beginners and improvers thing. The cost is £10.00 pp for non members of the hub, and £8.00 for members.

The Idea's Hub 2 is in High Chelmer shopping Centre, opposite Greggs. If you live in Essex, especially Chelmsford, and you like my blog, then you'll like the Idea's Hub. And you can find out more about them here if you're on facebook. I'll try to find another link for those who are allergic to facebook.

So, these sessions will be very informal and chatty. Something like 2 hours of Q&A and discussion. I'll bring some wines to sample, tho be warned it is only a sample. What you're paying for is my time and the Hub's facilities. It's illegal to sell homebrew without a licence, I don't have a licence and I don't sell it. I also know that HMRC know all the tricks like bartering, raffling, selling novelty bottles with free contents. I just don't go there, it's not worth it, I like brewing too much to needlessly break the law. You're more than welcome to bring along your own creations of course!

I will absolutely be spilling the beans on everything I know that you ask me about. You know I don't hold back on my blog. If I know a tip, trip, simplification etc then I share it. I reckon I'll also be able to drop a little wonder on you, and raise a chuckle from time to time.

If you read my blog and haven't met me then I reckon I'd enjoy meeting you. Which takes me onto the next thing. I'm also happy to travel to your place and give a tutorial or workshop. I need to earn a living wage and cover my expenses so you my want to gather a group together to share the cost. I'm based in Essex (UK) so you can work out if it's reasonable for me to require overnight accommodation. If you read my blog and think "I must do that one day" but haven't then this may be what it takes. I'll buy in all the kit you need, and ingredients to get started. I'll charge you cost price + expenses for that, so no profit for me. You'll only pay for my workshop/tutorial on getting your first brew started. And if I have a friend nearby, and some good surf, then I'll probably be able to do a special deal to return a few days later.

As for my fee, well this is a new thing for me. Let's haggle, and barter too if you like. There's loads of things I need if you have skills but no cash. Leave a message below this post, with your email address. I won't publish it but will contact you.

It may not come over in my blog, but I empathise with those who want to brew naturally and achieve quality. So if this is you then I'm sure we can get you making great wine in your style. It may take a little more trial and error, but I'd love the experience ... you could barter with strength if this is you!

Elderflower Quickie (Apple & Grape Juices). Recipe etc

A few days after starting my first Elderflower wine of the year I'm sticking with my intentions of doing 20 gallons. Today I started the second of four 5 gallon batches, on the lees of the first batch. My aim is to make the same wine as the first batch, with one major difference. This one will be 50/50 apple juice and white grape juice. I hope that a comparison will reveal some useful stuff. But more on that in the discussion after the recipe etc.

Elderflower Quickie (Apple & Grape Juice)

Recipe (5 Gallons)

5 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
5 Litres Apple Juice (Simply)
3.5 Kg Sugar
5 Teaspoons Pectolase
3 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
Water to 5 gallons
Yeast (Lees from last brew, GV 5)
Elderflowers

OG 1077

Method

When the previous brew (Elderflower Quickie) was moved from primary to secondary fermentation I was careful to leave the lees behind in the primary fermentation bin. This has a healthy colony of yeast in it which is perfect for brewing with. I had to leave the lees overnight before starting the brew. So I snapped the lid on the fermenting bin at the first opportunity. This delay is not necessary, infact it's a liability, but the sugar solution I had prepared to start the next batch with was not cooling down as fast as I anticipated. If I had added it then it may have killed the yeast in the lees. I just had to wait.

Next day, when the sugar solution was cool, I added all the ingredients to the lees in the fermenting bin. I added them sloshily, and then stirred and whisked the must for all the reasons mentioned in the last post. And then covered the bin.

Another Gratuitous Picture. Ingredients.

From here on the method will be the same as the previous brew.

Discussion

One thing I'm very curious about in this brew is the role of malic acid (the main acid in apples) on the resulting wine flavour. It will probably be a subtle thing to discern. The flavour of apples may be the stronger effect by far. But malic acid is harsh tasting, so even tho it's a quickie wine (hence the ratio of apple juice to total volume is much reduced compared to a traditional brew) I hope I can perceive this. If I can't then I'll know I won't be turning in a wine ponce any time soon. But if I can then I'll have to be on the watch for ponceyness!

The yeast I normally use with apple juice is an acid reducing yeast. This means that it metabolises some malic acid, and produces lactic acid from it which not harsh. However, this time I didn't use such a yeast. So I reckon that I'll stand more chance of noticing the effect of malic acid. As much as I hope to learn something about this I definitely don't want to end up with wine that I don't like. I'm not that desperate to learn.

The other thing I'm curious about is the difference between a grape juice quickie compared to a 50/50 grape and apple juice quickie. I have no idea which I'm likely to enjoy more. Perhaps there will be no favourite, it'll depend on other factors, food, weather etc.

There will be, almost certainly, complicating factors that make a comparison a little uncontrolled. That no campden tablets were used for this brew is one. They don't only stun wild yeast, they also play a part in ester formation. Esters are intensely flavoured molecules, the stuff that flavours pear drops, pineapple chunks, and also gives some glues a distinct fruity smell. Some taste wonderful, some taste gross. I think this difference will be very small, probably imperceptible.

Another factor will be using the lees. I have never had any perceptible faults in my wines when i've fermented on the lees. However it may happen, especially because I had to leave it overnight. Unlikely but possible.

Oh yes, getting the OG the same for both batches, a fluke. I expected to be close when guesstimating the amount of sugar to use, but bang on well what can I say ... "the more I practice the luckier I get".

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.

Elderflower Quickie 2013. Recipe etc.

After returning from our travels it took me time to start brewing. Yet again I missed the small window of opportunity for having my first crack at Silver Birch wine. A wine I have wanted to make since first reading a homebrew book. And yet again I didn't make dandelion wine. Worse still I didn't even make a quickie wine. So, when Elderflower season approached, and the year was into middle age, there was only one thing to do. Commit to my biggest Elderflower wine brewing ever. The plan is 20 gallons, in four different 5 gallon batches, this is the first batch. It should set me on course for making 50 gallons this year.

Elderflower Quickie. Grape juice only.

Recipe (5 gallons)

10 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3 Kg Sugar
5 Teaspoons Pectolase
3 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
3 Camden Tablets (crushed)
Water to 5 gallons.
Yeast, Gervin 5 (GV5).
2 carrier bags, loosely packed elderflower sprays.

OG 1077

Method

As per usual really. Got all my kit sterilised and rinsed, especially important after a long break. After that i dissolved the sugar in water as it boiled. Added that to the fermenting bin, put the lid on, and let the heat and steam ensure the sterilisation was full and complete. Then added all the other ingredients starting with grape juice, then water, then the dry stuff excepting the yeast and flowers.

Ha! Gratuitous piccie time!

I gave the whole lot a long stir to ensure it was well mixed. This is important because there is a chance that the super dense and sweet sugary solution will sit at the bottom of the fermenting bin if it's not done. You can't get an accurate OG reading when that happens. (Also, if yeast was added to a layered brew then it probably wouldn't be able to do anything with that sweet dense layer). Then I measured the gravity, and then put the lid on. I waited with adding the yeast because of adding crushed campden tablets. Just ensures that any wild yeasts will not get going on my delicious nutritious broth.

Next day the must got a long session with an egg whisk, this is to put plenty of dissolved oxygen into the must. (It will also drive off some of the sulphites from the Campden tablets). Yeast needs oxygen this to bud (reproduce) and so form a healthy sized colony for a timely brew. Then I pitched the yeast and covered.

For 4 days, once a day, I stirred the must with a whisk for the same reason given above. On day 5 the sun came out so off I went to collect Elderflowers. It's still a little early for them so I had to cycle about 10 miles to gather enough. I then put them in a large plastic bag, tied it up, and left them overnight. Next day shook the bag for about 10 minutes (in advert breaks during a good movie!). Most of the flowers dropped off the sprays, the loose flowers were put into a muslin bag. The rest (about 1/4 - 1/3 of the total) were put back into the plastic bag for another night.

The must (Gravity 1030) was transferred to secondary fermentation - under airlock - by a combination of siphoning initially, and then decanting when the fermenting bin was light enough to handle with ease. The decanting was done with extra care because I want to keep the lees for starting the next brew.

The flowers in the muslin bag were then added to the secondary container, and the airlock fitted. Next day the flowers in the plastic bag were shaken off their sprays, put into a muslin bag, and added to the must in the secondary fermentation container.

From here on it will be the usual routine, racking to demi-johns in a few days, stabilising if required, degassing if preferred, racking after clearing.

Discussion

The bagging and shaking of elderflowers will save you a massive amount of time and tedium with a fork. It's the best wine tip I've learned in the last couple of years, but we do like Elderflower wine!

Adding the flowers at the secondary fermentation stage means you need less flowers, for 2 reasons. First the fermentation has quietened down, when it's vigorous then lots of the delicate volatile flavours from the elderflowers get blown out of solution. At secondary stage this happens significantly less, so you get more of those yummy favours in your wine. Also, at secondary stage you have an alcoholic brew. It's about 5% or so, but nevertheless the alcohol adds to the flavour extraction. It will dissolve some things better than water alone. Oily type molecules especially, which also taste good.

There's nothing special about the unusual brand of sugar used. Usually I buy Silver spoon because it's made more or less locally. It seems madness to me to buy sugar that has come thousands of miles when, for the same price, you can get something local. One day the cost of fuel for moving such commodities so far will make it economic insanity, so supporting something local will help to ensure it's still available when those times come. Uh oh ... I got a bit "politically eco" then didn't I! This packaging didn't say anything about country of origin, neither did it say if the source was cane or beet. So there's a good chance that I shot myself in my eco foot. But it was the only sugar in the store.

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.

Brewing Wine Down-Under

So, I got very lucky for the winter of 2012/13 and ended up travelling to Australia. If you're returning to my blog then you'll know this already.

Me and Mrs Critter Wines had 3 months there. Flew into Sydney and spent a few days there, then headed south to Bowral for a few days, then headed to Northern New South Wales (Byron Bay area) for a few weeks. That was all visiting family of Mrs Critter Wines (Mrs CW). From there we flew west to Perth and made the area our base for 2 months (of course we spent time in Margaret River too). Just enough time to do a quickie wine. What made it extra special was that Mrs CW has a house in an intentional community in Fremantle. So I did a class on winemaking.

A few enthusiastic members of the community gathered for an informal workshop. As they welcomed us so warmly, and it was around Xmas, it was only fitting to buy in the gear and put on the workshop as a gift. It was great to find that home brewing is popular there, so finding a homebrew shop was a breeze.

We made 2 wines. One a straight up quickie wine from apple juice and grape juice. The other was a quickie wine base but with mulberries added during secondary fermentation. The mulberries came from the tree on the intentional community, which made it special. I was overly concerned that trying something new could produce disappointing results, so I pushed for doing the straight quickie wine first. The delight was that the experienced brewer got it wrong ... the straight forward quickie wine was a little disappointing. Tho it was bottled and sampled at the earliest opportunity and waiting two weeks longer would have probably made all the difference.

The smell of the mulberry wine, which was conditioning at the time, was simply delicious! How fitting that something so much a part of the community should be the better brew. How brilliant too - for the confidence of the potential future brewers - that they should trump the "teacher".

Sadly, I cannot remember the recipes and methods, and I've misplaced my notes, but nothing was very different to my usual stuff. Yeast, I do remember, for both brews it was Vintner's Harvest MA33. The mulberry wine was made on the lees of the first brew. The mulberries had been frozen and when added to the base brew at secondary fermentation stage after defrosting.

The two brews were each 3 gallons, and I'm definitely adding them to my total for 2012 brews. It still leaves me short of my target 50 gallons for that year, but I reckon all that time away is a good enough excuse.

All that remains to be said is a huge thanks to all who make Pinakarri the wonderful place that it is.

Well, where has the time gone?

Grief, I very much hope that you're all still out there. I've been neglecting my blog. The lengthy travels was one thing but getting back into a routine has been quite another. Infact the old routine has gone and I've been carving out a new one. I won't say anything about that because I want this blog to remain focused on brewing wine only ... and brewing wine is definitely still a significant part of my life.

I'm going to do some posts right away. One regarding home brewing adventures in Australia, and the others about this year's brews. I've been bad and only got active in the last week, but I'm keen to make up for lost time cos that 50 gallon a year target is important to me if I want to carry on being generous with my concoctions.

Talking brewing ... this is Little Creatures in Fremantle (Western Australia). It's a well established "pub" that brews it's own beers, yup beer as in ale not lager. So all those shiny vats are full of beer. Just before we arrived the business sold for - I believe - (Aus) $350 million.

Little Creatures wasn't the only Fremantle pub selling beers made on the premises, or locally. It seems that Australians are getting into the malty hoppy stuff.

Of course, since getting home I've been busy bottling and drinking wine ... well you have to empty those demi-johns otherwise there's no room for new stuff!