Various Little Updates

One post without piccies, and then more piccies ...

I've racked the Apple and Grape Juice Wine. The one made with apples collected from the community orchard and pressed by your's truly, with the help of friends. Also racked and degassed the Apple wine, same source for apples.

The former was meant to be a quickie, ready to drink in about 8 weeks. Alas, it is an uncharacteristic quickie wine, it may be ready to drink by xmas. But right now it's a complex mess that needs time.

The latter, the one I thought would take about year to come good, well it taste's amazing! And will be ready to drink at xmas. Tho I don't want to tell people because it's so promising that it deserves a year and could become a very special wine indeed. It is medium, possibly medium sweet. I can't see that changing much. Oozes apple flavour, nice body. That's all I could notice from a single sip. But I think acidity and astringency are in balance. I wonder what it'll turn out like? A subtle Apfelkorn would be wonderful.

Also racked this year's Blackberry wine, and that is tasting very good too. Big body for blackberry and you can tell it's Blackberry, delicious flavour. Tempting to tuck in but really, no matter how good it tastes now, it will taste so much better in a six months.

Did Someone Say Elderberries?

I heard that, and I want to give you all pictures cos I feel bad for not posting for ages.

So here is something totally unremarkable (but i'll soon be posting on Ginger and Lemon Grass wine, and that is remarkable). A picture of 3kg of Elderberries that myself and my better half picked. all washed, plucked from their stems, and bagged up and frozen.

Not sure what I'll do with them. I don't think i'll do pure elderberry cos i missed so many blackberries this year a nice home-made red will be a rarity next year. So I think I'll probably go to the farm shop and buy some frozen blackberries, or maybe a big mix of berries, and make a berry wine with less than 50% elderberries by weight. This should mean it's ready in a year.

Sloe Imbibements

I've done it again, got all busy and left no time to post here. So tonight we have a bumper edition. and piccies.

Here we go,
On the 11th of September I opened the crammed freezer's door and finally had enough. Not enough space in the freezer for elderberries which I hoped to pick imminently. A problem neededing a solution fast. What's that I see, a couple of kilo's of sloes generously given to me. Time to make the Sloe Imbibements then. 3 versions, all very simple.

Recipes

Sloe Rum
150g Raw Cane Sugar
600ml Dark Rum (Sainsbury's Basics, Cheers Jon W, nice tip)
500ml Washed frozen and defrosted Sloes.

Sloe Vodka

125g Caster Sugar
300ml Vodka (Sainsbury's basics)
400ml Sloes (as above)

Sloe Gin 1

125g White Sugar
350ml Dry Gin (Sainsbury's London)
350ml Sloes (as above)

Sloe Gin2

125g Raw Cane Sugar
350ml Dry Gin (Sainsbury's London)
350ml Sloes (as above)

Method

Dead simple, wash, freeze and thaw the sloes. Now you don't need to prick them all individually. Pour them into an empty bottle. Add the sugar. Now fill up with your chosen spirit. Shake to dissolve the sugar, tyhen for the next 1-2 weeks shake daily. After that once a week for a couple or 3 weeks. Then leave it alone 'til xmas and enjoy. If you can leave it for a year it'll be worth it. If you forget you ever had it and find it after 7-10 years then lucky you!

2 weeks of silence

Just to let you brewers know that I haven't given up on the blog. I've been staycationing for a couple of weeks ... and jolly good it was too! Normal brewing related content will resume soon. It seems that my 2 weeks away have caused me to miss my annual blackberry forage for a few more gallons of delicious wine. A bit sad but I'm sure I'll still find a way to fill up my fermenting vessels, even if it means visiting the local farm shop to buy up a heap of frozen berries!

On returning from being away I found the apple wine has thrown a nice sediment, tho it still has some way to go before clearing. The apple and grape-juice wine likewise. The blackberry wine ... can't say cos I don't want to pop the lid until I have some spare demi-johns to rack it into. These things will likely take up the content of the next post or two.

Recipe; Blackberry Wine 2011

So yesterday I started the first of this year's blackberry wines. Hopefully there will still be a heap of berries around in 3 weeks so I can make some more. I'd been hogging half of our tiny wee freezer for long enough .. with blackberries alone, so it felt right to get on with it. And we're going to need the freezer space soon because we're starting our hols with a little bit of camping (a festival). This is something we do in a semi self-catering style, taking some frozen home cooked curries packed into a wool-lined cardboard box with a heap of ice/cool packs. Anyway, enough of the small talk ... you want to know about the wine.

Recipe/Ingredients 2 Gallons

• 3.5 Kg Blackberries
• 500g Elderberries
• 2 Kg Sugar
• 1 Teaspoons Citric Acid
• 1.25 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
• 2 Teaspoons Pectolase
• 1 Teaspoon Nutrient (Brupak, Nutrivin)
• 2 Campden Tablets
• Sauternes Yeast

OG 1080

Method:

I used frozen berries because I was picking them a little at a time until I had enough to get 2+ gallons on the go. So the brew started 2 nights ago really when i got the berries out of the freezer. Next day I mashed them to a pulp with a potato masher, put them in my fermenting bin, added the pectolase and crushed Campden tablets, stirred to mix and then covered tightly. Next day I added all the other ingredients except the yeast, and used a egg whisk to get plenty of air into the mix. The yeast needs dissolved to multiply into a viable colony. Then the yeast was added.

Stir daily for a few days, or use an egg whisk, to keep dissolving air into the mix. After a few days (in this case 3, see discussion below) transfer to secondary fermentation - under airlock - after removing the pulp. Simply pouring through a sieve should do this, passing it through a colander first may speed up the process. When it stops fermenting do the usual routine. Rack, degas, stabilise and leave alone to clear. It'll probably clear all on its own pretty quickly, but if not winter will do it if you place it somewhere cool. In the unlikely event that it doesn't clear add finings. I use two part finings, chitin/chitosan based mostly. When its clear rack off the sediment and bottle when you're ready to drink it. If you need to rack again (more sediment drops) then add another crushed Campden tablet.

Discussion

This is a similar wine to last years brews either this or this. However there are differences:

• The weight of fruit/gallon is up on last year. No reason except I had a bit more fruit and figured that I would probably only be adding a little body. 
• It's about 15% Elderberries, just 'cos I had them, and again it'll add a bit of body. Hopefully it won't result in a wine that takes an age to ... erm .... age! This is something to be mindful of if using Elderberries.

Using frozen berries will do your wine no harm at all, some say it'll make your wine better. Reason being that the freezing breaks up the fruit and so releases more juice. This is also good news for your arms cos you don't need to do as much mashing! Oh and don't put it through a juicer if you want to follow my recipe. That'll mash up the seeds too, and the skins, and your wine will be more astringent due to more tannin from the skins. The pulverised seeds won't do it any favours tho and may give you some unwanted bitterness. I'll never use a juicer if I can't remove the pips or seeds from the fruit first. Anyway, make sure that you wash your berries before freezing, and pack them well so that they are sealed from the freezer atmosphere. Never know what may taint the berries' flavour. Let them defrost before mashing simply cos it's way easier that way! But also because the pectic enzyme doesn't work in the cold. Room temperature is fine tho.

I'm using Sauternes yeast because ever since first trying it I've been delighted with it. It's robust and trust worthy, is a quick starter, and this wine won't get the usual length of time for the primary fermentation on the pulp. In this case it'll only be 3 days as we go away around then, and it needs to be put under airlock before I go. This means it won't have as much stirring either. So I want to pick a yeast that I'm confident with, something that will simply get on with the job. And it won't do any harm that Sauternes also drops a small compact sediment, 'cos it may be sitting on the lees a while before the first racking.

Happy brewing ... and a big thanks to all of you who watch my How to make Blackberry wine vid. I'm getting an average of over 40 views a day now. So it won't be long before 4000 views is reached.

Recipe; Apple Wine

So yesterday I wrote about collecting apples and the process of getting juice from them. Today you get the recipes. Now the Apple wine recipe.

Recipe: 1 gallon

• Freshly Pressed Apple Juice  (OG 1050)
• 600 Grams Sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
• 2 Teaspoons Pectolase
• Yeast Nutrient (Brupak, Nutrivin)
• 1 Campden Tablet
• 3/4 Teaspoon Tartaric Acid
• 3/4 Teaspoon Citric Acid
• Gervin D Yeast

OG 1091

Method

Because my fermenting bin is full i'm starting this in a 1 gallon demi-john, so the method needs a little planning. Dissolve a crushed campden tablet and 2 teaspoons of pectolase in something like 4 litres of apple juice. Cover and leave overnight. Next day dissolve the sugar in the apple juice and all the other ingredients except the yeast, stir well to mix. Remove about 500 ml and put it in a plastic bottle in the freezer. stir the remaining juice sloshily to get some air into the mix. Then add the yeast.

Stir sloshily daily for a few minutes for a few days. When the ferment starts to quieten down (probably a few days) defrost the frozen juice, no hurry so just leave it out at room temperature. Then add it to the Demi-john. When the ferment stops rack off the sediment, degas, stabilise and leave  to clear. You may need to use finings for this, or leave it somewhere cold, or just wait with plenty of patience. Chances are that this wine won't be worth drinking anytime soon, 6 months at the earliest, more likely 1 year.

Discussion:

The OG for this wine is not low. I'm not making a quickie wine and the body of the apple juice was superb. The tannin addition will hopefully give the wine an edge. There is plenty of acidity too. So i think it will handle being 12-13% ABV. I used GervinD as it's an acid reducing yeast. It'll metabolise a significant chunk of malic acid, this is the harsh acid so reducing it will help to soften the wine. The citric acid added will give a little citrus fruitiness.

I put some juice in the freezer because this leaves a big airgap in the demijohn, which i'll appreciate if the initial fermentation is vigorous. This would result in a very messy airlock and carpet.

I've never made a pure apple wine, but the resulting haul of juice from Saturday meant that i didn't have capacity make only quickie wine. Most of my Demi-johns are full already! So rather than 10 gallons of quickie wine i made 5 and 1 gallon pure apple wine. I really have no idea what to expect of apple wine. I can't see why it shouldn't work, i guess you don't hear of it because apple juice is used for cider here in the uk.