Elderflower Wine Help

[sj010]

Hello. My brain is porridge after reading lots of different things about making Elderflower Wine. I am on day 4 in the fermentation bin and it is bubbling away quietly with the ingredients sat on the top which I stir as the recipe says. My friend said that it should have all fizzed up but it hasn't really changed very much apart from the layer on the top. The liquid colour looks quite dark aswell (or darker than I expected) I wonder if that is the raisins? The smell has changed and it actually smells quite nice so I'm hoping this is a good sign. It is my first batch!

[MKG]

Ah - never mind what anyone else says (including me). You say that it's bubbling away quietly - that's perfect. The dark colour IS the raisins - and that's perfect, too. And it smells nice - how much more perfect do you want it to be? When it's finished its quiet bubbling, it may or may not taste nice - but if it doesn't, it will improve with each passing month.

For a first batch, this sounds very successful. Enjoy!

Mike

[frozenthunderbolt]

Top work! My first and only elderflower wine attempt started foul but now 3 years on is really quite good. If you have achieved even goodish of the bat definitely don't complain! :-)

[sj010]

Thanks! Fingers crossed... Did yours rise during the bucket ferment?

[MKG]

Fermentations are a moveable feast - some are very vigorous and others are very gentle. If you get a very vigorous ferment, then absolutely everything will rise to the top, buoyed up on the rapid production of a high volume of carbon dioxide. With a gentle ferment, the CO2 bubbles tend to separate from the solids more easily and less stuff (or none) rises to the surface. It's no indicator of anything - certainly no cause for any kind of worry.

General opinion at the moment is that the best wines are produced by long, slow fermentations. This is a subjective judgement, but there are a few good chemical reasons to believe that it's true. But, unless you're prepared to go to extremes of temperature control, you can't guarantee a long, slow fermentation - so if you get one, be happy. The important point is that a fermentation is happening at all - that provides all the anti-microscopic-nasty protection needed.

Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - DON'T PANIC.

Mike

[sj010]

Thanks Mike, I have now strained it off and put into a demijohn. It looks like fresh pineapple juice and at first was bubbling away but within a minute or so it seemed to stop bubbling. Odd, but I guess it's just adjusting to its new home? I've stuck some water in the airlock and a piece of cotton wool and will now leave it to do its thing. It tastes palatable and pretty strong so, so far so good!

[MKG]

Yep - that all sounds healthy too .

When you transfer your wine from the first vessel to a demijohn, it usually gets splashed around a bit and so ends up with an extra dose of dissolved oxygen. OK - think back to when you first started off your wine. There was a lot of dissolved oxygen in that too. Yeast cells use that oxygen to divide (called the aerobic phase), increasing the population but not producing an awful lot of CO2. That's why you don't see much activity right away. When the oxygen has been used up, the yeast goes over to its anaerobic phase, producing lots of CO2 and making your airlock go plop. However, the yeast can easily go back into the aerobic phase if you give it more oxygen - which you have. Very soon, the new oxygen will have been used up and everything will return to plopping normality.

Mike