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1:57 pm
Enthusiast
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Wed 19-Jan-11
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used this recipe:-
Elderberry Wine Recipe
Ingredients:
· 2½ lb 1.13398kilos elderberries
· Campden tablets
· 2½, 2¾ or 3 lb sugar
· Wine yeast
· Nutrient
· Water
Method:
1. Strip the elderberries from the stalks and wash well.
2. Put into a fermenting bin and crush. Pour on 4 pints of water. Add 1 campden tablet, crushed and dissolved in a little warm water.
3. Boil half of the sugar in 2 pints of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, mix into the pulp.
4. Add the yeast and nutrient and cover and allow to ferment for 5 days, stirring daily.
5. Strain and press and return to a clean fermenting bin.
6. Boil the rest of the sugar in 1 pint of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, add to the rest.
7. Cover again and leave for 3 or 4 days.
8. Pour carefully into a gallon jar, leaving as much deposit behind as possible.
9. Fill up the jar with cooled, boiled water to where the neck begins.
10. Fit a fermentation lock and leave until fermentation has finished.
11. Rack, as necessary, and add 1 Campden tablet after the first racking.
12. Syphon into bottles
At stage 8 (It was 4 gallons in a bucket initially). I expect I had waited 6 days not 3-4. The fermentation had fully stopped?? when checked the gravity was 0.990 with a taste to match. I had added yeast again after about the 7th day as the fermentation had stopped.
I have put it in demijohns and added 100 grams of sugar per demijohn but no more yeast. I have bought a port yeast but it did not arrive till I had started so used bog standard young's wine yeast on both occasions.
First can I still add the port yeast? Is there enough sugar in there? And why did it ferment so quick and so far??
AND I did not at any point up until putting it into the demijohns ever check the gravity? so no point asking me that!
At the moment it has not started fermenting again but I only put it in the demijohns an hour ago. Need to know all the latter as have left a fair bit of room in the demijohns to add sugar if needed before topping up with water. Thank you for your time JB
2:53 pm
Supreme Being
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Mon 3-Oct-11
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When I have had a stuck ferment like that before, I have taken some of the liquid in to a seperate demi-john, added more yeast and probably some more sugar and waited until there was good yeast action, lots of bubbles in the liquid and then poured in to this second demi-john a litle more of the the liquid- left a day to make sure the ferment was still going and repeated until I had all the liquid transferred and then topped it up with water to fill the demi-john.
I had that happen with a citrus liquid once and it recovered it and fermented right out.
I hope that helps?
Edit after reading post bagain.
I realised you have four gallons so I'm assuming four demi johns, so you may have to do them in rotation unless you have four more spare demi-johns
Are we having fun yet? I am!
10:52 am
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Wed 19-Jan-11
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The added sugar got them started again with no extra yeast. BUT is it normall for the fermentation of elderberry wine to fully ferment out in 10 days ie the hydrometer reading 0.990? And can I use the port yeast after all the other yeast or should a wait till it stops fermenting on the weaker yeast and then use the port yeast. everything I have read does not mention the speed of fermenting?
11:05 am
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Wed 19-Jan-11
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I have plenty of spare demijohns
9:50 pm
Improver
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Sat 20-Feb-10
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I have always found elderberry to give a very vigorous fermentation at the start of the process. What I am not sure about from what you have said is how many gallons of wine you have made - your recipe looks to be a fairly standard 1 gallon recipe so if you have made 3 or 4 gallons of juice from it and have divided the amount of sugar stated between those then you might well have used up all the sugar very quickly - it is normal to have 2.5 or 3 pounds per gallon.
Personally I would not bother about the port yeast - if the other yeast is in and has done the majority of the fermentation then adding the port yeast will not affect the flavour very much. A port yeast may not produce a higher alcohol wine in any event and whilst you can buy yeasts which supposedly can get to a higher alcohol level the normal all purpose yeast isn't necessarily weak.
The time of fermentation is something which is difficult to quote as yeasts are living organisms and so it will depend on the conditions they have, factors like temperature and how much food they have will affect the rate.
Elderberry is a wine which benefits from being kept, make as much as you can so you can stick a demijohn away somewhere and leave to mature. I would normally keep the first fermentation going for some months and after racking would try to leave it more months if not a year or two before bottling. This may sound like a long time but patience will be well rewarded.
2:53 pm
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Wed 19-Jan-11
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Have been adding a bit of sugar every now again to keep fermentation going. the sugar added was correct for 4 gallons, so OK there. Will keep it going for while until I am happy with taste ie not to dry. Should I use a Camden at the end? Will leave in demijohn for 6 months (ordinary stopper nor airlock) and bottle then as short of space is that OK. JB
9:39 pm
Improver
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Sat 20-Feb-10
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If you are going to use a stopper not an airlock then definitely use a Camden tablet to end the fermentation process. As for when you bottle and drink, very much up to you - there can never be enough elderberry wine !
Good luck
1:53 am
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Wed 19-Jan-11
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Still adding a spoon or 2 of sugar every now and again to keep the fermentation going. Tastings rather on the strong side! I wonder what strength it will go to?
9:41 am
Supreme Being
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Mon 3-Oct-11
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If you are lucky, with modern yeasts, you could get up to 20% alcohol, more likely 10 to 15% in reality. I have made a 20% alcohol brew- it was just yeast, sugar and water mixed, as I wanted a neutral base for adding other things to later. Modern yeast for high alcohol fermentation have been selected for tolerance to hgher alcohol levels, so it is possible to get high alcohol end products.
Are we having fun yet? I am!
8:38 pm
Councillor
Wed 30-Dec-09
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I've made a couple of 20-22% wines. If you're not careful they just end up tasting of alcohol though - you do need a really full bodied wine, which you can get with elderberries if they aren't too juicy and dilute. I think I did use a high alcohol yeast for these.
I regularly end up with 14-15% wines using proper wine yeasts and I've had around 13-14% with bakers yeast (possibly higher but some of my wines don't say which yeast I used)
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