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!