Brynn, and Gwyllion - again

Very unhappy day yesterday as several of the Brynn bottles decided they didn't like it in the bottle and pushed out corks. Even one that was already in the fridge! I lost about a litre and a half in total, salvaged about 500 ml that I'm probably going to drink, and opened a few others before they popped corks. Was. Not. Happy. Messy to clean up too. I'm mourning for quite a bit of what promised to become very nice mead. The remaining bottles are standing on the kitchen counter, loosely corked so they can breathe off, and until I stop being pissed off about it and start dealing with it.

Gwyllion is more hopeful. Had a slight brainwave and realised that with a different wine with a similar problem, I'd be looking to add fruit juice or concentrate to fix the thin-ness problem. The hippie food shop sells elderberry juice, so I went and got some, and did a little test with some of the thin, too sweet port. About 1:8 juice:port balances it out very nicely - counteracts the sweetness, gets rid of the thin-ness. Yum. I took out 0.7l to make space, and then added juice - originally 660ml, but reduced to about 0.5l.
I didn't stop there, because that would make sense - I added the yeast starter I've been putting through Alcohol Tolerance Bootcamp over the past week. It's more wine now (14%) and I still hope it'll become a proper heavy port. No idea how that's going to work out, but we'll see.

It was 1040 (I think the previous readings were off - they were with a less precise hydrometre) & 14% just now.

So I have a demi full of Further Experiment, plus a bottle that with the addition of a bit of juice will make something to try at Christmas - I quite like it, we'll see what my visitors think :-)

Gwyllion - Elderberry wine

Gwy: 1035 and 14%

Well, Edmund was right..

Watering is often a mistake. In addition to introducing new issues of sterility and oxidation, watering cuts the balances of sugars and minerals in an unbalanced way; you'll end up with a drink that simultaneously tastes too sweet and too thin.

I tasted it and it does indeed taste thin and is still too sweet. Bugger. Shame I didn't know that before I did it, I didn't think half a litre of water could make that much difference! I bottled half a litre of the un-watered bottle and have set the rest of that aside to add to the new start I've made - I got in a 'killer' yeast that should go to 16%, and I'm going to try making a starter and very slowly introducing the wine to ease the yeast up to the alcohol percentage. Then I'll pitch and see how it goes.

Rackings

Alexis: super dry and starting to fall clear (added bentonite last time). I'm thinking about keeping this one to correct too sweet mead with.
SG: 0.995
Alc. 15%

Halle: Just ticking along - I think it's mostly fermented out now though. This one is going to be a pain to get clear.
SG: 1.015
alc. 15.5%

Imre: I had hoped this would hang on to some of the apple scent, but sadly not. Very ciderish. I added a syrup of 100gr demerera sugar to hopefully sweeten it some.
SG 1.000 (before I added sugar, didn't measure after. 'cause I'm smart like that)
alc. 14.5%

Bottlings and measurments

Alexis: very dry. Starting to fall clear (though unfortunately I stirred up some of the sediment in racking).
SG: 1000
Alc 15%

Brynn: smells great, tastes nice - I have hopes for this one. bottled at
SG: 1020
Alc 14.5%

Fennah: has been completely still - topped out due to max alc reached, but is not falling clear. I watered it down slightly in the hope this might encourage the yeasties to have another go. Racked.
SG: 1032 diluted to about 1030
Alc 16% diluted to about 14.5%

Gwyllion: this smells and tastes pretty good! It's too sweet though, even for port. Must have miscalculated the sugar. Watered down slightly + small amount of yeast activator in the hope that the yeasties will eat a few points of the sugar. With that oversweet edge off I think this could be great.
SG: 1042
Alc: 16%

Halle & Imre

Halle was racked and measured:
SG 1032
Alc 12%

As expected, Imre dropped massive amounts of sediment in the first few days (it's that cloudy apple juice) and I also wanted the sultana's out of there to stop them from overpowering the apple.
SG 1045
Alc 9%
Racking lost a fair amount of volume (as expected) so I topped up with the good apple juice (about 750ml) and added about 150gr sugar. No idea about the new SG because I didn't dissolve the sugar, just poured it in - if previous experience are anything to go by, it will simply be eaten from its layer on the bottom.

Brynn is ready to bottle, I think. Will do that sometime this week.

Imre

Oh dear, I just couldn't resist the sight of the two empty demijohns in the windowsill, so I filled one of them..
I'd been reading about making cider and apple wine and thought it sounded pretty interesting. I'm not a huge fan of cider, but apple wine.. hmm.

IMRE is:

• 3 litres of very nice cloudy orchard apple juice. This stuff tastes amazing, not at all like the processed juice from concentrate. It's been pasteurised, but nothing else. Tastes like real apple, liquid form.
• 1.5 litres cheaper 'normal' apple juice (I had decided the total cost should be under 5 euro)
• 500 gr demerera sugar
• 150 gr sultanas
• some lemon peel
• doux yeast

It looks kinda unpleasant right now - the sugar gave it a brownish colour and the cloudiness of the juice makes it look, well, brown and murky right now. With the sultanas in there it doesn't look inviting. It's slowly started bubbling though, and we will see how it all turns out. It should be relatively fast (compared to the meads) to drinkability - I'm hoping to have this drinkable by christmas. One can hope.
Starting gravity was 1070. Depending on how it progresses I will probably add more sugar later.

Bottled!

I bottled Caelan. Basically decided that it was pissing me off, I had champagne bottles so it's not likely to become another bottle bomb, and I will pull one open in a year to see what's it turned out like.

Oh! and I have at last turned on comment notification, so I won't miss comments to older posts. (sorry Vicky!)

Halle

I got 1.5 litres of quince juice and decided it'd probably be best to use it ASAP. This involved using my last free 5L demi (I like to keep one free to rack into) so I need to either bottle something in the next few weeks, or buy an extra. I used the blender to mix the juice with the honey, as this honey is very 'heavy' and is almost impossible to stir in by hand.

Halle
1.5 litre freshly made quince juice
1.5 kilo Bulgarian flower honey (same stuff as Fennah and Ehle)
Half a teaspoon yeast starter/activator
half a teaspoon Doux yeast

SG: 1.100
That's very high, so it remains to be seen if it'll actually start. I asked the Internets for help about if I should dilute (which would necessitate some fuss with demi's) and someone said that there are people who start all their mead from such a high SG, so I should just see what happens.

The quince juice smells amazing, there's a bit of a honey scent there already, and has a pretty pink blush - the combination will hopefully work well. I have high hopes for this one.

The Mass Measuring Returns

Alexis: something weird going on here. SG went down compared to last measuring (as expected, it's been bubbling slowly) but the Alc level did not go up. Huh?
Grav: 1.002
Alc: 15.5%

Brynn: I keep hoping that this is finally ready for bottling! Specific gravity still dropped a little bit though, and when the bottle is handled there are some bubbles out the airlock. Hmm.
Grav: 1014
alc: 14%

Caelan: Racked. This batch hates me. It won't stabilise and the colour has changed more toward the orange spectrum - it's lost the pretty pink/purple hue. I really have no frame of reference for the taste, but it's not good - I'm just not sure if it's the sort of not good that won't age out. I'm starting to think about dumping it! It's still very carbonated. If I had champagne bottles (or a cheap& easy way to get them) I might just put it in there and stash it away somewhere, but.. *sigh*
Grav: from 1.025 to about 1.055
Alc: 14%

Gwyllion: I actually have some hope for this one. The scent is wine(ish), the taste is not good but in the sort of way that suggests it might become good. (again, no frame of reference!) It's fermented a little more, though I'm not sure if it's topped out now - port yeast might take it a little higher still.
Grav: 1.042
Alc: 17%

Gwy

Took that SG reading this morning before it wouldn't be a reasonable starting reading anymore

SG was 1042

It's not moved since yesterday, no fizzing, no bubbles. In fact I was a little worried that the sudden added gravity had bogged things down, so I added just a touch of yeast activator (only to the demi, not the overflow bottle). It didn't foam as expected. Not sure what's going on, but I'll just sit on my hands and leave it alone for a month I guess...

To the right a photo of the stopper kludge I made. Not sure if it's not airtight and therefore not building up pressure, or if there's just no pressure because the wine is still. Hmm.

More measuring

Alexis: Started actually bubbling again over the past few weeks, and indeed there is significant change.
SG: 1016
Alc: 15.5%

Brynn: Completely still except when the demi is moved. I want to bottle it but am a bit hesitant after the problems with Caelan. It smells goooood
SG: 1016
Alc: 14.5%

Caelan: still very fizzy when drawn up. The measuring stickything won't really get stable, so the SG says less-than-nothing. I'm still hesitant to re-bottle it.
SG: 1024 going up to 1040 (that's what I mean. wtf)
Alc: 15%

Fennah: Seems to have come to a complete stop - makes sense given the killer alc level! It smells a little green. Distinct mint leaves scent - what I intended, but I'm not sure if I like it!
SG: 1032
alc: 17.5%

Gwyllion: I added some more sugar once or twice over the past weeks, but was hampered by the demi being really full (and not wanting to throw any of it away!). It had come to a slow bubbling. It no longer puts out a scent - it's been inside for about 10 days now, as it was getting too cold at night outside. The wine itself really does smell of red wine now.
SG: 1008 (loooot of sugar eaten!)
alc: 15% (not good enough for port. If I can get 17% out of doux yeast... this ought to be able to get at least that)
Today I added a litre sugar syrup (about 700 ml sugar) and ended up having to create an 'overflow' bottle because the volume is now about 6.5 litres. I have no plugs or yeast caps that fit a litre bottle so had to improvise a seal out of plastic foil. Not too happy with that, but we'll see how it goes.
Sadly I was way too hungry to take an after-sweetening SG measurement. 'Cause that would have been useful. Hum. Maybe tomorrow.

Mass Measuring

Alexis: Still cloudy, and fizzy when agitated. Needs a lot more time.
SG: 1028
Alc: 13.5%

Brynn: Smells good! Very sweet, with a clear honey and vanilla aroma. Yum. It's completely still. It tastes promising too, not good but like it might become good.
SG: 1018
Alc: 15%

Caelan: Still slightly fizzy. It's done a bit of fermenting after I fed it some honey last time.
SG: 1022
Alc: 15%

Fennah: still fizzy, but has slowed down quite a lot. Nearing time to make a decision about what I want to add - citrus fruit or mint leaves. It's still pretty sweet and given the alc level unlikely to burn much more sugar.
SG: 1034
Alc: 17% (whoa)

Gwyllion: still living outside and fermenting very heavily.
SG: 1060 (I think. The meter thing still sinks and rises in the measuring glass. Hmm.)
Alc: 15% (lower than last time. Weirdness. It was hard to measure though because fermentation bubbles are actually affecting the meter thingy)

Gwy

Gwy has been going so fast (a bubble every second or even slightly faster) that it stank up the room. Clear difference with the meads there, since even at its most vigorous mead only put out a very mild scent. Since it doesn't really get very cold at night yet I put it out on the balcony to get over that first mad fermentation stage. Added side effect is that the cooler temp has slowed it down a tick.

I've fed it some more sugar, but might not give it more because it's almost impossible to get specific gravity off of it. The measure thing keeps sinking deeper or floating higher. Really weird. Alcohol percentage is 16-17, if that measurement is accurate. It seems high for still being in the middle of primary fermentation, but we'll see. Maybe I'm just getting elderberry rocket fuel.

Holy fermentation, Batman!

That's Gwyllion going like a bat outta hell. I added a cup of sugar water today and will probably do that every few days until it has the full amount of sugar the recipe suggests.

Gwyllion - Elderberry wine

I had promised myself not to start anything new until I had some confidence in the drinkability of my first batches, just because I'm a little worried about pouring time and money into making a lot of mediocre brew.
However - the elderberries are ripe. I spotted a bush down the street that yielded half a kilo. I am reliably advised that elderberry wine (rather than elderberry mead) is well worth making, and figured that without the cost of the honey, this is practically a free experiment. Why the hell not. I got port yeast with my last brewery supplies, and it seems like an interesting combination.

Of course, I had not counted on the foraging on the floodlands and cleaning/juicing taking up an entire day!

Gwyllion
- about 2 kg elderberries
- 1.5 kg sugar
- port yeast
- teaspoon yeast energiser (because I'm too lazy to make a starter)
- water

Boiled the berries to make juice and let it boil gently for about 30 minutes (according to some reports this removes some kind of unpleasantness from it). Once strained, I dissolved half of the sugar. Let it cool and poured into a 5l demijohn. Filled up to 4 litres with water. Mixed in the energiser, then pitched the yeast. The other half of the sugar is going to be added in a few days, once fermentation is well and truly underway.

grav. 1.072, watered down to 1.064 the next day

Elderberries are fairly acidic and I may need to think of something to tone it down further along the way. One recipe suggested bananas, but that sounds just weird.