Red and White currant.

[Bill W]

I picked 3 1/4 lbs of redcurrants and whitecurrants from our bushes this evening, about 70% red and 30% white. Stripped them off their twiggy things and poured a gallon of boiling water over them in a fermenting bucket.
The recipe says leave the bucket in a cool place for a week and don't worry if there is mould on top of the must. Now I don't like the sond of mould, so I've crushed up a campden tablet and stirred it in. Hopefully, that will keep mould at bay.

 

[trummy]

Set 12lb of red currant soaking on Sunday -Have had some great success with R/C wine. Even gave a bottle as a wedding present once!
Do you freeze the currants first? Much easier to get the juice out.

 

[Bill W]

Set 12lb of red currant soaking on Sunday -Have had some great success with R/C wine. Even gave a bottle as a wedding present once!
Do you freeze the currants first? Much easier to get the juice out.

That's reassuring that you've had good success. If mine turns out good enough for a wedding present, I'll be well pleased.
I've not frozen the currants. The recipe just calls for boiling water, a stir and leave for a week. Coincidentally, just after I set them to soak, my neighbour told me to help myself to his currants too, so I might give freezing a go with the next batch. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Guzzie]

Picked 3kg of white and 3kg of red over the last week and put them in the freezer until September. I don't like the thought of mould so I pour boiling water over the fruit and leave to cool before adding a campden tablet and then 24hrs later add the yeast etc. Don't know about the red currant wine but the white currant wine takes time to mature. We have just started drinking last year's white currant wine.

 

[trummy]

Added the yeast today - its started bubbling. I always freeze first now - the fruit breaks down so much easier. The currants I have used are those from last year that didn't make it into a fruit pie. Started to load up the freezer with this years crop -been a good year.
I do find that the redcurrant does tend to lose its colour if kept too long so we start drinking it at about six months old

 

[Bill W]

I picked another 3 1/4lbs of redcurrants this evening and de-twigged them before putting them in the freezer. I don't have many demijohns, so I'll do them a gallon at a time. There's probably another couple of gallons-worth left out there to pick.

 

[Bill W]

Strained the juice off the currants this evening. No mould on top of the must, so adding the campden tablet has worked.
Had a bit of a faff straining it, as I only had the wife's jelly bag, which is smaller than my buckets and has a rigid circular rim at the top. First attempt resulted in currants jumping out the top when I tried to squeeze the last knockings out of the must. Take 2, the bag now had a coating of berry pulp, so it took ages for the juice to flow through. Got there in the end though, then added the sugar. Took the O.G. at 1.100. Added the pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient and pitched the yeast. I'm using the Brewbitz recipe, so It will get a stir daily for 3 days, then 4 more days in the bucket before syphoning off into the demijohn to finish fermenting.
Hopefully, my large straining bags will arrive before they are needed for the next batch.

 

[Bill W]

By way of an update, that first gallon was racked a while ago and has finished clearing to a beautiful deep rose colour. I'll be bottling it as soon as I can find some appropriate bottles. pictures will be forthcoming at that time.

Fast forward to today, I pulled 5x 3lbs bags of redcurrants out of the freezer and left them defrosting until this evening.

Then it was time to treat them to 5 gallons of boiling water, and give them a good stir up.

Due to the freezing, they are already giving up lots of their juice and colour. I'll now wait until the liquid has cooled a bit and chuck in a couple or three crushed Cambden tablets, snap the lid down and forget about it until next weekend, when it will get strained, sugared and yeast pitched.

 

[Bill W]

I was going to get this started fermenting this evening. I strained it through a mesh brewing bag and gave the remaining berries a good squeeze. Then, I remembered that I had forgotten to go and get a load of sugar for me to add 15lbs to get the party started for the yeast. Doh! No biggy, I crushed a couple of Cambden tablets and chucked them in. I'll get the sugar tomorrow and kick it off tomorrow evening.

 

[Bill W]

Today, I remembered to get the sugar! 15lbs of table sugar added and stirred well in until dissolved. OG taken at 1.110. 5 teaspoons each of pectolase and yeast nutrient and a couple of spoonfuls of general purpose wine yeast. On the heat mat and a nice steady 20-22 degrees C.
Now to spend the next 2-3 months collecting 30+ clear rose bottles from a local restaurant. They are screw cap, which isn't my preference, but beggars can't be choosers. I will get some of those Novatwist caps for them.

 

[Bill W]

Yesterday, my Novatwist bottle caps arrived, so today I was finally able to bottle my first gallon of redcurrant wine. There was just enough left from bottling for a small taster. For a country wine that was only started at end of July, it is exceptionally good IMHO. Beautifully cleared in its own time. Good body and mouth feel. It's a medium rose, I would say it is reminiscent of Mateus in sweetness/dryness balance. It's going to be a belter served very chilled, if it makes it as far as summer. Fortunately, the next 5 gallons is blooping away in a FV to take over when these six are just a memory.