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Hi all,

Apologies if this has been answered before - please feel free to redirect me to the answer!

I'm about to set out on my first attempt at Elderberry Wine using the glut I have left after making the Blackberry and Elderberry Jam from the Ish Bible. I'm trying to follow the instructions in the Ish Bible for this as well but I'm getting confused with my Yeast instructions.

The book states that I should be mixing 1 tsp of Brewers Yeast with 1 tsp of sugar and 7 tbspns of warm water.

I have bought what I thought was the correct yeast i.e. Youngs' Wine Yeast Super Compound but the instructions on this state that I should be sprinkling the sachet contents (7g) onto the surface of the juice, waiting 15 minutes before stirring.

Can I add the Wine Yeast to sugar and water as per the book or should I buy some 'Brewers Yeast' to do this.
Alternatively, should I follow the pack instructions and just sprinkle without adding to sugar and water first.

Any advice greatly received - I'd hate to waste a glut of gorgeous elderberries!

Hi,

I'd follow the instructions on the sachet as those are the instructions for that type of yeast. I've both used "starters" (i.e. a solution to rehydrate and feed the yeast before pitching it into the must (the juice before it's fermented) and sprinkled directly into the must, both with excellent fermentation as results. Just keep the stuff at room temp, for fermentation will often be sluggish when it's too cool.

Happy brewing, Jandra

We've used exactly that brand of yeast just in the last few days. Packet says straight in - so i was happy to do that - OH thought 'hmm best to rehydrate first' - so we bunged it in a bit of water stirred it round a bit before adding and by the time we got up in the morning you could hear it bubbling away. TBH as long as your yeast isn't too old - i don't think you can go far wrong. We tried with some old yeast initially as we had it to hand but it didn't do anything so we went to the shops and chucked some fresh stuff in. So, i suppose, if you try one way and it doesn't work then try another - learn by trial and error - if one way doesn't work you havn't ruined the brew you just need to try again...

i think

You've bought exactly the right kind of yeast - wine yeast is always better for making wine, no matter what the recipe says. And you can start it in any way you like. Sprinkling the dry yeast onto the must means you have to wait a bit for it to build up a decent colony. Making up a starter with sugar and warmish water means that the colony will build before you add it to the must. Six and two threes, really. Making the starter gains you, maybe, six hours. On the other hand, the colony from the starter isn't accustomed to the conditions in the must, so the shock will probably slow it down a bit. Overall, I reckon it makes not the slightest bit of difference.

Mike