The Cottage Smallholder

Toffeeapple said:

dantom said:

Have just opened one of our bottles of Elderlower champagne and washed virtually the whole kitchen with its sticky goodness

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Oh dear, who gets to clean that mess?         

 

Aren't you supposed to ferment it in a demi-john with an air lock?  Or am I thinking of something else?

That's the way I do my fizzy wines and ciders (the demijohn way, not the coating the kitchen way). I ferment to dryness, let it settle for a bit, then bottle in plastic bottles, usually 1 litre fizzy drink bottles.

I add the wine, about 1 tsp of sugar, and a few drops of an active yeast starter, to each bottle. Within a few days the pressure's usually building up and there isn't too much sugar so it doesn't reach explosive levels.

I started making wine a few years ago. It's good fun but the results have been a bit hit or miss. There are so many blackberries and elderberries growing locally, it would be a shame to let them go to waste