Nbak
New Member
Hi all,
As the title suggests I am making an Elderflower and Rhubarb wine, and I have never made country wine before in my life so I want it to go right but I don't know what to expect. I am doing my research and I thought it would be helpful to create a thread here to get conversations and knowledge going on to help me and others in my position out. Please read what I did below, and then I have some questions about what I am doing, done, and please add any thoughts.
I started to make an Elderflower cordial. I collected around 200 heads and added them to 4.5litres boiled and cooled water along with 5 lemons grated and squeezed + one large orange cut in two, with 3tsp of citric acid, let it steep for 48hrs. It tasted too bitter like lemon peel so I removed all the citrus and blooms with gloved hands and put another 80 heads in, steeped for 24hrs, still tasted a bit peely like lemon peel, so I put another 80 heads in with about 3.5 tsp citric acid and the juice from one lemon with another 500ml of water, then let it all steep for another 24hrs. . . . . then I took the lid off and at this point it was foamy and fizzing when I stirred it. It tasted like it was fermenting but there was no sugar at this point so I decided to take the blooms out, and being as our rhubarb was loving life to add, 2-3lb of raw bashed up rhubarb, 1.3kg granulated sugar, 2tsp of wine yeast to a make wine instead. When I added the sugar, it was in a syrup form, because I had melted it with a little of the steep juice on the hob. It started fizzing and foaming almost as soon as I added the sugar. It was alive!! . . . I left this with a semi air-tight lid for about seven days, giving a daily stir. I noticed on day seven that it was, I felt, a good day to transfer to demijohns as all livelyness ie fizzing and noise was much less than before, almost settled. At this point I took all fruit and left over debris out and sieved through a collander and sterile muslin. There was a lot of pollen and thunderflies on the muslin but it did sieve well. I filled one demijohn and a third of another, and I used my hydrometer. It was at +1.000 for 'reading upper meniscus'. The mixture is now very cloudy but with no debris, inside demijohns with bubble airlocks. This was two days ago.
I can see the bubbles going through the airlocks fine, they are not rapid they are every few minutes or so. The flavour before putting in the demijohns was dry and winey. lastly every piece of equipment I used was sterilised with bleach and the muslin boiled.
(1) My questions are - the transfer to demijohns was two days ago. I can still see bubbles through the airlock at every few mins or so. On the surface of both mixtures there are a few white bubbly looking spots, they are no bigger than a centimetre wide and I can see there is activity on them as a few were at the edge and they had strings of active bubbly formations dropping to the bottom. The liquid is still so cloudy. Is all of this normal/to be expected?
(2) I'm wondering how long it all takes to clear, or to notice that it is clearing? I am aware there was a lot of pollen in this mixture. I am also wondering/hoping this is not too early to notice bacteria that I don't want? I didn't use a campden tablet its just been a process straight to fermenting.
(3) I have no idea what the reading from my hydrometer means. Like I said the flavour on transferring to demijohns was dry and winey, but then I don't know what to be looking for or tasting for, so should I add more sugar at all? I can see that the airlocks have gas going through it every few minutes, but on day two is that normal or does my yest need more sugar? I prefer dry over sweeter flavour, and of course I would like a 12%.
Thanks in advance, I'm a right newb!!
As the title suggests I am making an Elderflower and Rhubarb wine, and I have never made country wine before in my life so I want it to go right but I don't know what to expect. I am doing my research and I thought it would be helpful to create a thread here to get conversations and knowledge going on to help me and others in my position out. Please read what I did below, and then I have some questions about what I am doing, done, and please add any thoughts.
I started to make an Elderflower cordial. I collected around 200 heads and added them to 4.5litres boiled and cooled water along with 5 lemons grated and squeezed + one large orange cut in two, with 3tsp of citric acid, let it steep for 48hrs. It tasted too bitter like lemon peel so I removed all the citrus and blooms with gloved hands and put another 80 heads in, steeped for 24hrs, still tasted a bit peely like lemon peel, so I put another 80 heads in with about 3.5 tsp citric acid and the juice from one lemon with another 500ml of water, then let it all steep for another 24hrs. . . . . then I took the lid off and at this point it was foamy and fizzing when I stirred it. It tasted like it was fermenting but there was no sugar at this point so I decided to take the blooms out, and being as our rhubarb was loving life to add, 2-3lb of raw bashed up rhubarb, 1.3kg granulated sugar, 2tsp of wine yeast to a make wine instead. When I added the sugar, it was in a syrup form, because I had melted it with a little of the steep juice on the hob. It started fizzing and foaming almost as soon as I added the sugar. It was alive!! . . . I left this with a semi air-tight lid for about seven days, giving a daily stir. I noticed on day seven that it was, I felt, a good day to transfer to demijohns as all livelyness ie fizzing and noise was much less than before, almost settled. At this point I took all fruit and left over debris out and sieved through a collander and sterile muslin. There was a lot of pollen and thunderflies on the muslin but it did sieve well. I filled one demijohn and a third of another, and I used my hydrometer. It was at +1.000 for 'reading upper meniscus'. The mixture is now very cloudy but with no debris, inside demijohns with bubble airlocks. This was two days ago.
I can see the bubbles going through the airlocks fine, they are not rapid they are every few minutes or so. The flavour before putting in the demijohns was dry and winey. lastly every piece of equipment I used was sterilised with bleach and the muslin boiled.
(1) My questions are - the transfer to demijohns was two days ago. I can still see bubbles through the airlock at every few mins or so. On the surface of both mixtures there are a few white bubbly looking spots, they are no bigger than a centimetre wide and I can see there is activity on them as a few were at the edge and they had strings of active bubbly formations dropping to the bottom. The liquid is still so cloudy. Is all of this normal/to be expected?
(2) I'm wondering how long it all takes to clear, or to notice that it is clearing? I am aware there was a lot of pollen in this mixture. I am also wondering/hoping this is not too early to notice bacteria that I don't want? I didn't use a campden tablet its just been a process straight to fermenting.
(3) I have no idea what the reading from my hydrometer means. Like I said the flavour on transferring to demijohns was dry and winey, but then I don't know what to be looking for or tasting for, so should I add more sugar at all? I can see that the airlocks have gas going through it every few minutes, but on day two is that normal or does my yest need more sugar? I prefer dry over sweeter flavour, and of course I would like a 12%.
Thanks in advance, I'm a right newb!!
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