OH.

So a couple of days ago I racked the Elderberry, the 2nd run pyment, and the grape part deux into gallon jugs and some aging. After doing this for all three I ended up with alot of extra wine and not enough airlocks to put the remaining into bottles for topping up later. So in a moment of madness I just dumped all the wines into a bucket...the pyment and the elderberry went in with the grape part deux. I popped a bit of sanitized towel into the hole and decided to see what happened.

I checked on the wine this morning and saw a layer of yeast on top. It was a yeast steel cage match and I'm not sure which one won. All of the wines had a different yeast: EC-1118, Montrachet, and Red Pastuer.

I'm planning on racking it into a carboy and taking the airlock on the braggot and capping the braggot with a solid cap until I move it or bottle it.

Elderberry is done fermenting

DANG! That's FAST!

I posted the picture of the elderberry on Thursday and I had just pitched the yeast. I checked it last night (Sunday) and it had fermented to dry. I am a little surprised by how quickly that happened. I'm heading home after work to add more honey to the must and up the gravity. I figure I could get the alcohol up to 16-18% percent with gradual feeding.

The 2nd run pyment is fermenting nicely and I'll be adding more honey to that one for sure. The recipe I had called for 2.5 pounds of honey and I only put in 2 pounds. At first I was a little uneasy about whether or not the color would be the sickly greenish it looked when I put it together, but it's not. Now it's a slightly lighter rose color than the grape wine part deux that's fermenting next to it.

Pinot Blanc has slowed down I hope to rack it into a new carboy by Thursday.

Cranberry-Raspberry will get degassed and stabilized today and finally racked into bottles next week. I"m going to add glycerine to this one because it has a very weak body.

Elderberry Must

Here is the elderberry with the montrachet yeast. OG is around 1.080. I think I might be happy with just letting this go because i've never made elderberry wine before and I don't want to try and do something new until I've had a chance to see what a unadulterated recipe looks like.

Elderberry Wine or Port?

I couldn't resist. I came home and immediately rushed into the kitchen and started pulling out stuff in order to start up a batch of elderberry wine. I cracked open the dried berries I had bought and prepped them for yeast innoculation tomorrow.

I'm happy with a medium or light bodied wine since I didn't use the full 8oz of dried berries. It makes a serious purple color. I might decided to port it later but I have time. It' s only a gallon.

Recipe:

60z of dried elderberries
2oz golden raisins
2lbs of sugar
1 gallon of water
1tsp acid blend
1tsp pectic enzyme
1 campden tablet (KMeta)

i'll probably need to add more but since I'm going to gradually feed the wine to up the alcohol, I'm not worried about having so few raisins. Actually I don't like raisins.

Well I have one empty Secondary

I added the yeast last night to the grape must. I checked it out this morning because I couldn't see any noticable airlock activity. Opening the lid I saw a layer of foam on the top, so the yeast is going at it. The last time I made this, it had to sit for close to 3 weeks in the primary. Well I have to push down the ferment bag at some point.

The problem is that I wanted to start the elderberry wine from the dried elderberries I bought yesterday, but I don't have a free gallon fermenter until I bottle the passion or the first batch of grape wine, neither have cleared yet. Both are still as yet unnamed.

New Recipe

I picked up a few items from northern brewer this afternoon and got some information about homewine making clubs in the area.

8oz of dried elderberries
Unhopped malt 60 wheat/40 barley
Yeasts
airlocks

I have an idea for a different batch of braggot. This one with more honey and using a wine yeast instead of an ale yeast. No hops this time. I'm shooting for a lighter mead than the braggot.

I definitely want to start a batch of elderberry wine.

I started another grape wine with the last remaining four pounds of grapes I had in the freezer. This time I got wise and decided to put the grapes into the nylon bag instead of leaving them to float free. The last time I made this wine and tried to rack from the loose the grapes floating i had to stop so many times to try and clear the seeds and pulp that was clogging the tube.

This picture is of the must. It's too hot to add the pectic enzyme and the campden tablet so I put it into the fridge to cool it down. then tomorrow I pitch the yeast. I need to make a run to northern brewer and pick up a few more airlocks and maybe a different yeast. I have EC-1118 and Pastuer champagne and the EC would work but I may see about grabbing a montrachet.

recipe:

4lbs red and black grapes
2lbs of sugar
1 gallon of water
1tsp acid blend
1tsp tannin
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp pectic enzyme
1 campden tablet
Pasteur red yeast

Brix reading of 21, roughly 11.75% PA.

I racked one of the braggots off of its lees in hopes of stimulating ferment by getting just a smidge of air in. It looks like it's working. Airlock is bubbling. This was a really successful rack, only the lees were left, about an inch.

I"m drawing a (Pinot) Blanc

Vitner's Reserve's Pinot Blanc is on deck and bubbling away. This was the first time I've made a white wine and I was taken back by having to add bentonite in the very beginning. I asked the wine experts on my online forum and it turns out by adding it in the beginning the wine will clear faster and will be drinkable sooner. Which I guess is a good thing and one of the reasons why people buy kits. I did this kit with my friend Aimee so she could get the feel of making wine without having to cough up a few hundred dollars in start up. Besides she's willing to let me store bottles in her cellar, with its constant temperature and easy access.

The OG was 1.070 with the corresponding brix reading of 16, giving me a PA of about 9%. I'm torn between adding about 2lbs of sugar or just letting it be. I suppose if I'm going to make that addition I should do it now while it's fermenting really well.

We're due to rack it to the secondary on Monday but if the reading haven't gone down I'm not sure if that wise.

Successful Bottling

I finally bottled the Joe's Ancient Orange mead today. I was only able to get 4 bottles, due to sediment and floating oranges. It's really sweet though. The FG was 1.030. I think I might do this again without the whole orange and just use fresh squeezed OJ.

This one is a quick drinker and with age it'll taste better but I don't plan on letting it sit too long. I want to do another one maybe not with the bread yeast though.

Love this hobby.

Taste Update

Ok so after racking the Passionfruit to a gallon jug and setting it aside in a cabinet with the grape, I took a few pipet samples of the braggot and passionfruit to taste and measure the SG.

I'm totally impressed with the flavors I can already taste in the braggot. It's very hoppy at first but settles to a nice carmel sweet and the end note is slightly bitter, like the hop flavor is trying to make its way back. The end result will probably be sweet, which would be best, I think. I decided to bulk age this ( I can spare a few jugs) because I didn't want to chance uneven aging by bottling too soon. So hopefully by the end of summer I will bottle. The passionfruit on the other hand will end up being sweet are fermentation. Both batches are slowing down so I suspect that after a couple months I should check it again.

i wish i had taken pics of the passionfruit must after I had racked. SG dropped but didn't ferment to dry. I'm not even sure it will.

Home

Well I'm back in the Twin Cities after going home for a week.

Lots of updates on the wine front:

To the right is the grape wine I racked into a gallon jug and it's sitting in a nice dark cabinet in my kitchen. I still have about 4 pounds of grapes and a 1/2 pound of ripe bananas in my freezer. I suppose I should get started with those but I don't have any empty secondaries at the moment, or dry yeast at the moment.

Passionfruit- cleared and looks beautiful. I will be racking that into a gallon jug later today. It looks a lot like this grape wine but rosier in color and not as deep.

Braggot- That's the beauty pictured on the side, still looks fantastic. I haven't the courage to taste it though. I'll probably do that today as well after I take care of the other wines. It'll eventually need to be racked again but I want to wait until I've practiced the art of creating a siphon, without the auto-siphon.

Cran-raspberry- that 3 gallons has been sitting for over a month and I should check it to see how it's doing.