Started 22nd June 2012
I had a bag of last year's plums in the freezer, so thought it was best to get these turned into wine. The plums are a mix of Czar, Victoria and cherry plums. Local trees are full of cherry plums, so will be making loads more plum wine very soon.
Plums have a high sugar content so we don't need to use as much sugar as with other wines. Unfortunately I started this wine without realising how much sugar to use, so it started with a very high sugar content.
Plums also have a high pectin content which seems to cause a pectin haze. There seem to be various ways to prevent the pectin haze. One is to use extra pectolase before the yeast is added to the bucket. Another (apparently) is to start the wine with cold water, rather than boiling water.
Whichever methods we choose, mixing the ingredients makes wine. I like dissolving the sugar in warm water before adding it to the fruit pulp, so I've done that again, but waited until the sugar water had cooled before adding it to the bucket.
NOTE - I started this wine before considering the quantities of ingredients. The recipe is "wrong" so needs adjusting as I go along. I will make more plum wines
Plum Wine 1
Ingredients: *
3lbs plums (after stones removed)
3lbs sugar
5 pints water
2 teaspoons pectolase
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon Youngs wine yeast
* This was just a "random" start - there is too much sugar and not enough liquid in this - it was enough to fill the small bucket to the 1 gallon / 4.5 litre mark - adjustments will be made during the various steps.
Step 1:
Stone the plums and put in bucket
Dissolve 3lbs sugar in 5 pints water and allow to cool
When cool, add to bucket
Add pectolase to bucket
Stir well, cover, leave for 24 hours
Step 2:
Add yeast nutrient and yeast to bucket
Stir well, leave for 6 days
Step 3:
Strain liquid into clean, sterilised demijohn
Measure SG
Saturday 23 June 2012
Sunday 10 June 2012
Elderflower Cordial
Started 9th June 2012
Ok, so it's not a wine, but it's another drink we're making using ingredients from home, so I'm adding it here.
We looked at several recipes for elderflower cordial. They were all very similar, but with different quantities of water and sugar. The one thing we weren't sure of was how many elderflowers we needed. Each recipe said how many elderflower heads to use, but not what size the elderflower heads should be - a large head could be twice the size of a medium or smaller one.
In the end we gave up trying to find out, and just made the cordial. We had enough elderflower heads for 2 batches of cordial.
Elderflower Cordial
Ingredients:
25-30 elderflower heads (don't worry about the size!)
3 pints water
2.2lbs sugar
2 lemons
2 oranges
2oz citric acid
Step 1:
Put elderflower heads in the bucket
Put sugar and water in pan and bring to the boil
While this is coming to the boil, zest the oranges and lemons, slice them, add the zest and slices to the bucket
Pour the boiling sugared water into the bucket
Add the citric acid and stir
Cover and leave for 24 hours
Step 2:
Strain through muslin or J-cloth into clean plastic bottles.
The bottles can be kept in the freezer until ready to use. Apparently the citric acid should help it keep longer if stored in a cool dark cupboard, but we have a big chest freezer so we'll use that instead. The cordial can be served diluted with water, still or sparkling and slices of lemon etc.
Verdict:
Lovely! Even my 15yo son, who is extremely wary of anything new or home made, really enjoyed it. He brought his girlfriend round just to try it too. We did have to label it "squash" for him though .....
Now all we need is for some nice warm sunny weather to really enjoy it, instead of the cold wet miserable weather we still have ....
Ok, so it's not a wine, but it's another drink we're making using ingredients from home, so I'm adding it here.
We looked at several recipes for elderflower cordial. They were all very similar, but with different quantities of water and sugar. The one thing we weren't sure of was how many elderflowers we needed. Each recipe said how many elderflower heads to use, but not what size the elderflower heads should be - a large head could be twice the size of a medium or smaller one.
In the end we gave up trying to find out, and just made the cordial. We had enough elderflower heads for 2 batches of cordial.
Elderflower Cordial
Ingredients:
25-30 elderflower heads (don't worry about the size!)
3 pints water
2.2lbs sugar
2 lemons
2 oranges
2oz citric acid
Step 1:
Put elderflower heads in the bucket
Put sugar and water in pan and bring to the boil
While this is coming to the boil, zest the oranges and lemons, slice them, add the zest and slices to the bucket
Pour the boiling sugared water into the bucket
Add the citric acid and stir
Cover and leave for 24 hours
Step 2:
Strain through muslin or J-cloth into clean plastic bottles.
The bottles can be kept in the freezer until ready to use. Apparently the citric acid should help it keep longer if stored in a cool dark cupboard, but we have a big chest freezer so we'll use that instead. The cordial can be served diluted with water, still or sparkling and slices of lemon etc.
Verdict:
Lovely! Even my 15yo son, who is extremely wary of anything new or home made, really enjoyed it. He brought his girlfriend round just to try it too. We did have to label it "squash" for him though .....
Now all we need is for some nice warm sunny weather to really enjoy it, instead of the cold wet miserable weather we still have ....
Elderflower Wine 1
Started 9th June 2012
The trees are covered in elderflower at the moment. Elderflowers should be picked on a warm, dry sunny day when the flowers are all open. We've had some pretty cold, wet miserable weather recently, but the sun shone today so we picked the best part of a full carrier bag.
We want elderflower wine and elderflower cordial, so we started just the one gallon of wine today and used the rest of the elderflowers for cordial.
We've seen numerous recipes for elderflower wine, some using pineapple juice or grape juice. For this batch, we've chosen to to go with a very basic recipe for elderflower wine - it'll be good to have a normal elderflower wine before we start experimenting with different fruit juices in it.
Elderflower Wine 1
Ingredients:
3oz fresh elderflowers (snipped from stalks)
3.5lbs sugar
6 pints water
0.5lbs sultanas
6 tablespoons lemon juice
Grape tannin *
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon yeast
* We don't have any tannin, so we used 1/2 cup of strong black tea
Step 1:
Snip elderflowers off stalks and put in bucket
Disolve 3.5lbs sugar in 4 pints water and bring to the boil then add to bucket (straight from the boil)
Put sultanas in a pan with 2 pints water and bring to the boil, simmer 20 mins, add to bucket (straight from the boil)
Add lemon juice to bucket
Cover bucket and leave overnight to cool
Step 2:
When cool, add tannin, yeast nutrient and yeast
Stir, cover, leave to ferment in a warm place for 5 days
Step 3:
Strain through a muslin bag or J-cloth into a demijohn
Top up with cold water
Fit bung and airlock, leave to ferment
Step 4:
When the wine has cleared, syphon into a new demijohn, leaving the sediment behind
Fit bung and airlock, leave for 2 months
Step 5:
Syphon off into bottles
The trees are covered in elderflower at the moment. Elderflowers should be picked on a warm, dry sunny day when the flowers are all open. We've had some pretty cold, wet miserable weather recently, but the sun shone today so we picked the best part of a full carrier bag.
We want elderflower wine and elderflower cordial, so we started just the one gallon of wine today and used the rest of the elderflowers for cordial.
We've seen numerous recipes for elderflower wine, some using pineapple juice or grape juice. For this batch, we've chosen to to go with a very basic recipe for elderflower wine - it'll be good to have a normal elderflower wine before we start experimenting with different fruit juices in it.
Elderflower Wine 1
Ingredients:
3oz fresh elderflowers (snipped from stalks)
3.5lbs sugar
6 pints water
0.5lbs sultanas
6 tablespoons lemon juice
Grape tannin *
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon yeast
* We don't have any tannin, so we used 1/2 cup of strong black tea
Step 1:
Snip elderflowers off stalks and put in bucket
Disolve 3.5lbs sugar in 4 pints water and bring to the boil then add to bucket (straight from the boil)
Put sultanas in a pan with 2 pints water and bring to the boil, simmer 20 mins, add to bucket (straight from the boil)
Add lemon juice to bucket
Cover bucket and leave overnight to cool
Step 2:
When cool, add tannin, yeast nutrient and yeast
Stir, cover, leave to ferment in a warm place for 5 days
Step 3:
Strain through a muslin bag or J-cloth into a demijohn
Top up with cold water
Fit bung and airlock, leave to ferment
Step 4:
When the wine has cleared, syphon into a new demijohn, leaving the sediment behind
Fit bung and airlock, leave for 2 months
Step 5:
Syphon off into bottles
Monday 4 June 2012
28 Gallons
We now have about 28 gallons of wine in various stages, demijohns and buckets all over the place.
Our Carafe 21 Kits will be ready this weekend. They're supposed to be ready in 21 days, providing a temperature of 25C is maintained. It's been a fair bit lower, so the wine has taken longer. The SG is now below 1000, so we added the fermentation stopper yesterday. We need to stir it for a couple of days, then syphon it off and add the finings in 2 days time. The wine should be drinkable by Saturday so we'll need to get 60 bottles ready.
The next wines that should be ready are the first 2 raspberry wines. They've been in demijohns for 6 weeks now and we're still seeing the occasional blip in the airlocks. Again, temperatures have been lower than ideal, so it's taken longer. On the plus side, as we have the Carafe 21 Kits we're not in any major hurry. However, the sooner they're ready, the sooner we'll have more demijohns and airlocks ready for the next batch.
The elderflower tree at the bottom of the garden has over 100 bunches of flowers so we'll pick some today. We spotted a few elderflower / elderberry bushes / trees on the common yesterday, but it really was only a few. The mother-in-law has a big elderberry tree in her garden, so we'll have some flowers or berries off that too. Ideally we want to get the flowers wherever we find them and get the berries from our garden.
We still have some plums and gooseberries from last year in the freezer. We'll turn these into wine when we get a chance. It's only a case of space for the buckets and getting the old demijohns cleaned out properly - many are still filthy inside and not coming clean easily.
The gooseberries in the garden are packed with fruit so we'll have loads more to turn into wine. From what I've read, gooseberry wine should stay in the demijohns for several months. If they're being used for one type of wine, they can't be used for other types. Luckily we have about 36 demijohns, so hopefully we won't run out of demijohns.
Raspberries and loganberries in the garden are doing well too. Should have a pretty good haul from these. Our new blackcurrant bush has some fruit, the red and white currants are growing, but not fruiting. Our first grape vine has started growing.
We've found loads of cherry plum trees out in the local streets, including our own street. We should get a massive haul of free fruit from these this year. I must look up to find out if they're good for wine - fingers crossed that they are!
We've been on the lookout for other free fruits and berries to pick from the common, in particular we'd like to find sloes. There are loads of brambles and a few elderberry trees, but no luck on the sloes or anything else.
I'd better get cracking on other things now ....
Our Carafe 21 Kits will be ready this weekend. They're supposed to be ready in 21 days, providing a temperature of 25C is maintained. It's been a fair bit lower, so the wine has taken longer. The SG is now below 1000, so we added the fermentation stopper yesterday. We need to stir it for a couple of days, then syphon it off and add the finings in 2 days time. The wine should be drinkable by Saturday so we'll need to get 60 bottles ready.
The next wines that should be ready are the first 2 raspberry wines. They've been in demijohns for 6 weeks now and we're still seeing the occasional blip in the airlocks. Again, temperatures have been lower than ideal, so it's taken longer. On the plus side, as we have the Carafe 21 Kits we're not in any major hurry. However, the sooner they're ready, the sooner we'll have more demijohns and airlocks ready for the next batch.
The elderflower tree at the bottom of the garden has over 100 bunches of flowers so we'll pick some today. We spotted a few elderflower / elderberry bushes / trees on the common yesterday, but it really was only a few. The mother-in-law has a big elderberry tree in her garden, so we'll have some flowers or berries off that too. Ideally we want to get the flowers wherever we find them and get the berries from our garden.
We still have some plums and gooseberries from last year in the freezer. We'll turn these into wine when we get a chance. It's only a case of space for the buckets and getting the old demijohns cleaned out properly - many are still filthy inside and not coming clean easily.
The gooseberries in the garden are packed with fruit so we'll have loads more to turn into wine. From what I've read, gooseberry wine should stay in the demijohns for several months. If they're being used for one type of wine, they can't be used for other types. Luckily we have about 36 demijohns, so hopefully we won't run out of demijohns.
Raspberries and loganberries in the garden are doing well too. Should have a pretty good haul from these. Our new blackcurrant bush has some fruit, the red and white currants are growing, but not fruiting. Our first grape vine has started growing.
We've found loads of cherry plum trees out in the local streets, including our own street. We should get a massive haul of free fruit from these this year. I must look up to find out if they're good for wine - fingers crossed that they are!
We've been on the lookout for other free fruits and berries to pick from the common, in particular we'd like to find sloes. There are loads of brambles and a few elderberry trees, but no luck on the sloes or anything else.
I'd better get cracking on other things now ....
Dried Elderberry Wine 2
Started 3rd June 2012
We're using the pulp from the first (3 gallon) batch of elderberry wine to make a second batch. There was a LOT of fruit in the first batch and the berries still look whole, so we've decided to try and make 2 gallons in the second batch. This time we'll crush the fruit with a potato masher in the bucket to try and extract more juice and flavour.
We're still beginners so this is still an experiment. We're not sure if we need to add any yeast or if it'll have enough yeast left over in the fruit pulp, so we're going to give it a go without adding yeast for now, just to see what happens. Likewise we're not sure if we need new yeast nutrient or other chemicals.
Dried Elderberry Wine
Ingredients:
Fruit pulp from previous batch of elderberry wine
5lbs sugar
2 gallons water
2 teaspoons citric acid
1 teaspoons pectolase
2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Step 1:
Put fruit pulp in bucket, mash with potato masher
Add 8 pints (1 gallon) water
Add 2 teaspoons citric acid
Add 1 teaspoon pectolase
Add 2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Disolve 5lbs sugar in 8 pints water (do this in smaller batches), bring to the boil for a couple of minutes, allow to cool, then add to bucket
Cover, leave for 7 days, stirring once a day
Step 2:
Strain liquid into demijohns, add bungs and airlocks, leave to ferment until clear.
SCRAPPED - 13th June 2012
When we strained out into the demijohns, the liquid was a dirty brown colour and had a horrible smell that I can only describe as "sweet sewage". The fruit pulp was dripping a liquid that looked like strong tea with a drop of milk. We decided that we would never drink it - we were put off by the colour and smell. But we did pour it into demijohns for a day or so just to see if it was fermenting, and yes, it was bubbling furiously. We poured it down the sink today.
Apparently this is normal from a second ferment when using elderberries. Apparently the milky liquid coming off the pulp was due to yeast in suspension. Apparently we could have let it ferment the same as any other wine, but let it mature for a year. However, the colour and smell was too much for us. We have loads of other fruit growing which produce a lovely smelling wine with really good colours. Can't imagine wanting smelly brown liquid turning into something drinkable!
We're using the pulp from the first (3 gallon) batch of elderberry wine to make a second batch. There was a LOT of fruit in the first batch and the berries still look whole, so we've decided to try and make 2 gallons in the second batch. This time we'll crush the fruit with a potato masher in the bucket to try and extract more juice and flavour.
We're still beginners so this is still an experiment. We're not sure if we need to add any yeast or if it'll have enough yeast left over in the fruit pulp, so we're going to give it a go without adding yeast for now, just to see what happens. Likewise we're not sure if we need new yeast nutrient or other chemicals.
Dried Elderberry Wine
Ingredients:
Fruit pulp from previous batch of elderberry wine
5lbs sugar
2 gallons water
2 teaspoons citric acid
1 teaspoons pectolase
2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Step 1:
Put fruit pulp in bucket, mash with potato masher
Add 8 pints (1 gallon) water
Add 2 teaspoons citric acid
Add 1 teaspoon pectolase
Add 2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Disolve 5lbs sugar in 8 pints water (do this in smaller batches), bring to the boil for a couple of minutes, allow to cool, then add to bucket
Cover, leave for 7 days, stirring once a day
Step 2:
Strain liquid into demijohns, add bungs and airlocks, leave to ferment until clear.
SCRAPPED - 13th June 2012
When we strained out into the demijohns, the liquid was a dirty brown colour and had a horrible smell that I can only describe as "sweet sewage". The fruit pulp was dripping a liquid that looked like strong tea with a drop of milk. We decided that we would never drink it - we were put off by the colour and smell. But we did pour it into demijohns for a day or so just to see if it was fermenting, and yes, it was bubbling furiously. We poured it down the sink today.
Apparently this is normal from a second ferment when using elderberries. Apparently the milky liquid coming off the pulp was due to yeast in suspension. Apparently we could have let it ferment the same as any other wine, but let it mature for a year. However, the colour and smell was too much for us. We have loads of other fruit growing which produce a lovely smelling wine with really good colours. Can't imagine wanting smelly brown liquid turning into something drinkable!
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