Selfsufficientish.com

MKG wrote:Well - look at all the activity while I've been busy!

When I say busy, I've actually been scouring the surrounding countryside looking for a foraging site for mountain paw-paw. No luck yet, though. I'll keep trying - maybe I'll find some next to the local kiwi fruit farm

Mike

Bottled the tea and raisin on Wednesday night and drank some last night: very nice although I did wake up feeling like I'd been drinking 'builder's tea' all night.
Sarah

Worried about my elderberry wine again, now smells, well
A bit vomity. Is this ok? Also has a bit of a film on it. Hmmm.

4 demijohns on the go now, one greengage, one elderberry and 2 blackberry. Looking forward to christmas now!

While I was rummaging trough a kitchen cupboard I found a jar of Greek honey that had long passed it's sell-by date.
(I don't think it can go off if you keep it sealed properly,but I saw a nice opportunity.)

Decided to give it a go and started up a small batch of mead-ish wine.
I dissolved the honey along with some sugar in about 3 litres of water,added some tea and the juice of one absolutely sour tasting mandarin.
I added a handful of chopped raisins and added the yeast when it had cooled down enough.
While I'm typing this I notice that the yeast seems active already.

The elderberry wine is still bubbling along.
I kinda anticipated this as I used a yeast-strain that promised a slow fermentation.
Still,I'm having a sort of gut-feeling that it's about ready.
I have a pot of sulphite powder,but has anyone got a clue about how much I should add to 9 litres of wine?
Or should I wait for the fermentation to come to a natural end?

noodles wrote:Worried about my elderberry wine again, now smells, well
A bit vomity. Is this ok? Also has a bit of a film on it. Hmmm.

Vomity? I'm trying to imagine that. Tell us what you did, noodles, and I'll have a go at helping. You did add yeast? How long has it been going? Have you racked yet? And anything else you can think of. Oh, the bit of a film is probably just that - nothing to worry about unless it starts getting furry.

Mike


EDIT: @scrap - yes, wait for it to finish (although you can chance a little sip now to see how it's doing - but it won't be very clear yet). When it's finished, add 10 mg of metabisulphite (that's 5 mg per gallon - 10 mg is about a quarter of a very small level teaspoon) and stick it somewhere cool. After about 24 hours you should be able to rack it.

Hi mike,

I am using the recipe from the ish bible, and I am up to stage 5.
I now realise I have left the stuff in the bucket longer than the 3-5 days
Recommended, more like 8 days now. Should I now go ahead and strain
The must or abandon the project?

Thanks.

Decided to chuck the wine. Checked it this morning and it
Had lumps in it and smelled rank.

What a shame - but probably a good idea if it was smelling that bad. You can cheer yourself up a bit, though - after eight days on the pulp, it would have been so full of tannin that you would have had to keep it for about three years before it got anywhere near drinkable. Four days is about right.

Normally, elderberry makes a gorgeous wine - given time. For future reference, you can use any elderberry recipe but with half the amount of elderberries and making up the weight with blackberries. That reduces the time needed for maturing and you still end up with a gorgeous wine.

Mike

Thanks mike. Now moving on, I have some frozen rhubarb in the freezer. Recipe suggestions welcome please. Cheers.

How much frozen rhubarb?

Thanks for your advise,MKG, much appreciated.
I'll keep an eye on it,as the bubbling seems to diminish a lot lately.

The special yeast-strain that I added to my mead-ish project is eating honey like there's no tomorrow.

I started a gallon of Rosehip yesterday and made rosehip syrup too while i was at it

just started some rhubarb wine , with last stalks from down my allotment. also got grape wine on the go from big garden that were cuttings from the great vine at hampton court palace which is just across the thames from where they were grown
Also again 5 gallons of pear cider, that were growing on a huge pear tree in a field at the end of my garden.
My wife saw the farmer and asked if it was ok to take some for cider. he said "blimey its nice to be asked", help your self. so i did
Got two marrows to start for my marrow rum and a bag from next door of quinces for some quince wine.
Also tonight racked allotment grape wine and blackberry which i started in august.
Tony

Blimey, Chilitony, are you planning a party with all your brewing? It is amazing all this lovely alcohol you are making. We have 5 gallons of apple cider brewing at the moment, but that is all, no room for anything else We will be doing the sloe-gin soon though as we put that in preserve jars and not demi-johns...