Dried elderberry port

[ChrisT]

Well, I'm chuffed with my port and hope yours turns out well. 18% is nice, you are unlikely to ever get to 21%. Mine was started on 12th March and racked off on 5th April at 1.009.

I don't know why but I was expecting this to take longer to ferment out? My recollection (which isn't so good at my age!) is that higher alcohol wines took MUCH longer to ferment? You got yours out in 4 weeks and I'm in my 4th week so I should be near the end, I'll check tomorrow.


Chris

 

[johncrobinson]

Hi Chris
I do these sorts of experiments as well,My latest is a 1ltr batch of mead using bakers yeast.
Fermented to about 11% in just under a week.
Tastes a bit yeasty though.!!!!

As regards the elderberry,They seem very fermentable,So i am not too supprised it went quick.
Kelpers "port" seemed to turn out very well.

As for timing i have also noticed my ferments go much quicker than the old textbooks indicate,Personally i think its down to a combination of modern heating + nutrient and pitching rates.

 

[ChrisT]

SG is just short of 1040, still bubbling about every 10 seconds. Has a good flavour I think, but doesn't taste sweet. For the first time I've topped up with some water, just short of 1 gallon now and the lees are settling so things are definietly slowing down.

Cold night last night and it was at 18.5C at 7AM, got it back up to 22 now and bubbling every 5 seconds. Should I leave on the lees or rack it and top it up? My temptation is to rack it and top it up with some grape juice, or am I best to leave it alone until it finishes?


Chris

 

[kelper]

Wait until SG is steady for two days

 

[ChrisT]

If I wanted to get the highest possible alcohol and get this more "porty", should I keep adding sugar (or grape juice)? If so, how much how often?

Or do I run the risk of spoiling what at the moment apears to be a nice wine?


Chris

 

[kelper]

I keep telling you! Check the SG! If it's steady at 1.000 its unlikely adding sugar will make it stronger. The yeast can only tolerate so much alcohol. If your SG is 1.040 it has plenty of sugar available already. Beer kits start at that level! It must be quite sweet? To know the strength you need the OG and then you need the SG before and after adding sugar. Each drop in SG will tell you the alcohol produced and you need to add each step's ABV increase.

 

[ChrisT]

I keep telling you! Check the SG! If it's steady at 1.000 its unlikely adding sugar will make it stronger. The yeast can only tolerate so much alcohol. If your SG is 1.040 it has plenty of sugar available already. Beer kits start at that level! It must be quite sweet? To know the strength you need the OG and then you need the SG before and after adding sugar. Each drop in SG will tell you the alcohol produced and you need to add each step's ABV increase.

Sorry, didn't ask those questions very well, asking general principles rather than what should I do in these conditions. Please excuse ramblings of an old foggie trying to relive youth, well going back 30 years to days before kids, that have finally left home. I do appreciate the advice offered.

It's still fermenting away nicely at the moment, so I'll leave it to do its stuff, checking SG periodically.


Chris

 

[kelper]

My fruit wines finish at 0.995 and are dry. But my turbo yeast gave up at 18% with an FG of 1.009 which was steady for two days.
Please update us when it's finished. If you have cash available, I recommend a Tilt Hydrometer!

 

[ChrisT]

I've built myself a couple of iSpindles, but I only have 1 large fermentation vessel big enough for it to fit into. After initial fermention on the fruit I strained this straight into a 1 gallon glass demijohn. I was thinking of getting some plastic 1 gallon FV, as these look like they've got a big enough opening for the iSpindle?

Sorry going off topic.

 

[kelper]

The plastic (PET) demijohns are cheap and will admit an iSpindle. They are tough and light. I don't know how old you are but there are many old farts on this forum so you will fit right in - welcome.

 

[ChrisT]

Old fart indeed!

 

[ChrisT]

I thought I'd report in on my little experiment. Very interesting excercise and one well worth repeating! I kept on feeding when the SG got down to 1000 or thereabouts with 50g dextrose. When the SG didn't fall anymore after adding the sugar, I stoped, added stabiliser, finings etc. When clear, bottled into half wine bottles. Knowing when it was clear was a problem though, it's so dark that I had to use a very bright torch! It looks realy good in the glass!

For my taste, it tastes a bit too much of elderberry, I like elderberry but I feel this is a bit too much. SWMBO likes it but wants even more sweetener than me, so I'm only sweetening at point of use. When sweetened it has a really good mouthfeel and I'm really glad I bottled in half bottles or we'd have to drink more each time.

A receipe well worth repeating on the whole. I think I'd reduce the Elderberries to half and now that I've settled back into the whole wine making process, I'll be "logging" the SG more. This is the joy of homebrew, try it, learn something new, and so far make some really nice stuff!

 

[kelper]

What was your recipe? ABV%?

 

[ChrisT]

@kelper As I didn't take the OG (yes lesson learned) I can't be precise, but my best estimate a total sugar of around 1300g, so ABV around 14%.