I just read about bottles maybe exploding in another topic...what to do with rhubarb...
A few years back I made ginger beer and put it into plastic bottles in the tackroom. In the night I thought the oil tank was exploding and went to investigate...it was the ginger beer. There was one football shaped bottle left so I put it in the garden and went to bed. The next morning I let the dog out and was horrified to see her go and play with the new football. I couldn't work out which was worse.....bathing a sticky terrified dog, cleaning up an extensive tack room full of harness (alot of leather) or losing the entire stock of ginger beer.
Does anybody have a foolproof method of knowing When the bottles are safe to stop purging without losing all of the fizz?
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I have no idea SandyC, but as someone who just this morning "purged" a 2 litre lemonade bottle filled with what will hopefully be elderflower champagne, I am very interested in watching this thread.
I've been feeling the bottles each morning since I bottled them last Sunday. They have been getting increasingly hard to the touch, and this morning one of them wobbled as the base of the bottle had ballooned out somewhat.
So I opened it a teeny crack, very cautiously and whilst holding the bottle in the sink. It hissed enough to make the cat run, and a good head of bubbles formed on the surface.
Now I'm worried I've let out all the fizz and it'll be flat and nasty come tasting time.
I don't think so Shereen, we used to let the gas out of ours if we were worried about it and they still tasted fine to me
dantom said:
Have just opened one of our bottles of Elderlower champagne and washed virtually the whole kitchen with its sticky goodness
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?
I'll try that again!
That might not be a bad idea but the elderflower is supposed to have a bit of fizz, unfortunately the fizz varies hence the problems.
Toffeeapple said:
dantom said:
Have just opened one of our bottles of Elderlower champagne and washed virtually the whole kitchen with its sticky goodness
Oh dear, who gets to clean that mess?
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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.
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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
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I agree with that sentiment. Many years ago my last husband made some blackberry wine which tasted more like Ribena but several years later he found one bottle that had escaped detection and that was excellent. Perhaps the secret is to keep the wine longer? But then., who wants to wait?
I'll try that again!
Hello there
Well, we opened the chilled bottle when we got home tonight. There was a massive amount of fizz, but it calmed down enough to let me pour it.
It looks like cloudy lemonade, smells of floral and lemons with a hint of yeast that I'm not keen on. It tastes sweeter than I expected, you get the floral citrus taste nicely and then a dry after taste with a hint of what I think might be lemon pith - you know that taste?
So, on the whole I'm impressed with the end result, but the recipe needs tweaking. I know many of the recipes recommend you pick the flowers on a warm, sunny afternoon and ours were picked at tea time. Also I think I'll try less sugar next time, and see how that turns out.
Still, I'm on the second glass and I'm not dead yet! Not bad for a first attempt.
Great tip Bobquail I will have to try that method, Agree with you about the blackberrys and elderberries but I am with ToffeeApple on the waiting thing one year is all I managed but it stil tasted great we also have a wild thicket of gages which made a great golden coloured wine. once again thanks for the tip and I will try that on my latest batch
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