unsure what i have made....(elderberry disaster?)

[chrig]

I had a bit of a freezer disaster yesterday when I came home to find it bleeding....

My elderberrys had defrosted as had some blackberrys, it looked horrific. So I quickly racked my wine kit, forgetting campden or stabilizing. And washed the yeast to save in a bottle.

15kg of elderberrys (with stalks) where removed from the freezer and stalks removed, campden tablets were added and left to fully defrost.

This morning I removed the rest of the stalks, boiling water up to 23L and once cooled added the yeast. I made up a bit of a starter using the washed yeast and some of the must an hour or so before this.

I also threw in roughly 3kg of of blackberrys..

I'm out of pectolase but I could order some to arrive on Tuesday... Would this be too late?

It all seems far from ideal,, but i would like to save it from the drain.... any advice would be excellent.... What should my next steps be?

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Sounds like a decent salvage job to me! Pectolase on Tuesday will be fine.

 

[oldbloke]

Next step is to carry on as if you'd meant to do it, as you've basically just done what you would've anyway

What did you rack that wine kit into? If it's still got live yeast you don't need to worry about Campden so much, and likewise if it's not quite done you don't want to stabilise yet anyway

 

[Francois]

Very good salvage job I'd say! Incidentally... 15 bloody kg of elderberries?! Even including stalk weight that's some good work, how long did it take you?

But on the matter in hand, that big fat tannin/pectin content isn't going anywhere, such is the enormous joy of elders. So just add pectolase etc when you have them and they'll get on with it I'm sure. Sounds ace. :

 

[chrig]

the kit was a white wine kit which went in to sterilised demo johns, it was finished and due to racking so im not too worried about that. It was maybe 2 weeks in, maybe 3 if i check my previous threads.

My main concern is that the fv which i was using to sort out the elderberrys was not propperly sterilised, it just had a good clean.... And this morning, before adding yeast, i could see it bubbling a bit. I think I'll just have to play that one by ear!

So pectolase Tuesday, any acids to buy at the same time?

I would expect that I have about 13kg of elderberrys and 3kg of blackberrys and water up to 23L mark. Should this be strained in to dj's and topped up with water or kept undiluted(for want of a better word) it looked like a hell of a lot of fruit... And the last time i freeze them with stalks on, it took me hours to pick them out!

I also need to add sugar and I was thinking raisens
... Maybe tomorrow if its fermenting?

 

[oldbloke]

My main concern is that the fv which i was using to sort out the elderberrys was not propperly sterilised, it just had a good clean.... And this morning, before adding yeast, i could see it bubbling a bit. I think I'll just have to play that one by ear!

bubbling is OK, it's mould that's bad. Looks like you may have a wild yeast in there. Your yeast may take over, or you may get a fascinating mix. Or it may not be wild it may be a trace of whatever you had in it before, some of that will have been floating about in the air if not actually left in the FV. The Belgians get away with it, and so do many cider makers.

 

[alanywiseman.]

All sounds good to me. What may have been an easier method would have been to defrost the fruit in a pan then bring it up to a gentle simmer for a few minutes rather than go the campden route. Then you could add to FV, allow to cool and pitch yeast :thumb:

 

[Boatbrewer]

You will need sugar.

I work by the rule that foraged fruit is 10% sugar by weight.

So, (fag packet calculation) 15kg total fruit = 1500g sugar
5 kg sugar needed to brew 23 litres to 12%

You need to add 3.5kg sugar!

Hope this helps and well done for turning a disaster into wine. :thumb:

 

[chrig]

I came home from university to find the berets and foam pushing the lid off the bucket. I've given it a store with a sterile spoon and added 2.5kg of sugar (all I have). And added three chopped lemons and 500g of mashed raisens to 2L of boiling water.... And realised it obviously won't fit! Its been cooled and sealed so can go in the fridge for a while.

Maybe when I give it another stir to submerge to fruit (now back at the top... I don't think they were mashed very well) then there may be enough room for it. mayne I'll just add it to my 15L carboy and rack on to it.

Its attracting the fruit flys at the moment

Well and truely winging it

Edit: its been causing such a mess by pushing the lid clean off that I have had to remove a couple of litres in to a DJ. Its roughly half full which should be fine at this early stage.

The colour is fantastic now I can see it in glass, the syphon tube* reminded me of giving blood :lol:

*most will already know that trying to syphon at this stage would result in a failure, too much co2 I think....hence the half full DJ.

 

[chrig]

Thank you all so far... its looking good!


More questions i'm afraid....

I've strained it off and now i have 4gallons worth... should I top this up to 5 gallons after i add another 1Kg of sugar or should i just put it in to demi johns and a carboy as it is? Or alternatively part fill all the vessles then top up in a few days?

Secondly i have kept the mushed fruit and plan to ferment it again with 5Kg of blackberrys.... i've got no more yeast but i do have half a dj of the fermenting must i strained off the night before last. to get this going should i add it to the next smiliar to a big starter??

 

[chrig]

after adding a further 1kg sugar in my bottling bucket I racked 'elder and blackberry'#1 in to two demijohns and a 15L water cooler. I'll top up one DJ with apple juice, one with water and the larger one with red grape juice or perhaps concentrate and water.

the second Blackberry & elder wine using the elderberry pulp is fermenting away:
5kg blackberry
Elderberry pulp
1kg sugar
1 lemon

I may add 1kg raisins and another couple of kg of sugar should do......

number of demo johns free..... Zero.

 

[chrig]

I'm not quite sure where i am at with this one, its so long since i looked in my brewing cupboard (under the stairs) that i have forgoten what i was doing... :-/

The DJ's looked quite horrific, so i've had to rack it and hope for the best, i may have just been yeast that had dropped out on the sides in the cold, but it dosn't look at all good!

this is what i found when i had a look:





I'm all out of DJ's and low on sanitiser so i had to combine the 1galon DJ with a 3gal water cooler in to an office water cooler i recently found.



Its fermented right out just below 1.000 and I added stabaliser and water right up to the top. Taste is really not good, but very fruity in the background.. its tastes quite similar to the elderberrys off the bush.



Its back under the stairs now, with a single bottle which i took off just for curiosity sake. I plan to drink that when i bottle this batch, 1-2years i think ?

Just to see how they taste in comparison.

there are still one and a half DJ's under the stairs to be racked.. but with no sanitiser and only one DJ i can't swap and wash them.