Solomon Grundy Bilberry wine

[porter]

Hello all in the wine & cider section.Still very new to the forum and not made owt for 20 years so very rusty and new stuff to learn.That and the fact that there weren't any tinternet back then .
Anyhows,just made a kit of the S.Grundy bilberry wine.Seems to be a lot of sachets in the kit,kieselsol,chitosan,to name but two i've never heard off.
On the advice of my local shop i under filled by a litre to allow for a very gassy first few days of fermentation,then top up to 4.6lts.
I don't know if anyone else has owt good or bad to say about these kits but it seemed like a decent/inexpensive point for a born again brewer like myself to start again.It claims to ferment in 7 days but i shall be keeping an eye on the airlock.

 

[porter]

Hi everyone,i looked at the wine after almost 3 days and the fermentation activity seemed quite mild so i topped it up as mentioned above.i was a bit worried to leave it more than 3 days.
the reasoning behind this is that if the wine ferments in 7 days or less then after 3 days i am diluting the alcohol already created by topping it up,no?
You'll have to forgive the dumb type of questions i'm more than likely to be asking you lot,i was the same when i joined a car detailing forum until things began to click into place and i slowly gained a bit more knowledge.
Well within an hour of topping up the fermenting went volcanic.Have i made a major schoolboy error? It's so lively now that every couple of hours the pink foam is creeping into the airlock and pushing the water out.
Did pouring the water in sort of re-mix the yeast and kick it off proper? It seemed to be fermenting ok before,if a little mild,slow bubbling not many per minute.
Any help or future tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mwestin]

was the water a bit warmer? or even has the weather got a bit warmer after three days and warmed your house up? could have been the reason.

No idea re the kit but let me know as i really like bilberry and would like to find an alternative to having to fly home to the parents, pick and make cordial and then fly home again!

I'm fairly new to this brewing stuff but it's good fun - one thing i have learned is put a tray under the DJ for a while in case it decides to go volcanic, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't quite so much or takes a little while. Also as far as i can tell from the forum, - never trust the times given on a kit. A lot of stuff takes longer than the 7 days it supposed to - so i guess don't do much until finished fermenting!

 

[porter]

Thanks for the reply.Good call on the tray,i've got it sat on an old towel at the minute but i'm looking for some kind of tray as well.
I can rule out the weather i think 'cos the wine is sat next to my Coopers fv which has a little stick on thermometer on it and it's been showing a steady 20-22'c.
It might just be the type of kit i've got,maybe i will split the batch 50/50 into 2 dj's next time to counter the lively fermenting and give the wine plenty of headspace?
It has now calmed down a bit now.Yesterday it was forcing the water out of the air lock every couple of hours,hopefully no nasties got in.
I am starting to think that all homebrew instructions are a bit of a loose guess when it comes to things like timeframes.
I have several other questions regarding this kit but im afraid they're all dumb newbie ones.
Any wine gurus care to help a novice out :wha:

 

[DrD]

Hi everyone,i looked at the wine after almost 3 days and the fermentation activity seemed quite mild so i topped it up as mentioned above.i was a bit worried to leave it more than 3 days.
the reasoning behind this is that if the wine ferments in 7 days or less then after 3 days i am diluting the alcohol already created by topping it up,no?
You'll have to forgive the dumb type of questions i'm more than likely to be asking you lot,i was the same when i joined a car detailing forum until things began to click into place and i slowly gained a bit more knowledge.
Well within an hour of topping up the fermenting went volcanic.Have i made a major schoolboy error? It's so lively now that every couple of hours the pink foam is creeping into the airlock and pushing the water out.
Did pouring the water in sort of re-mix the yeast and kick it off proper? It seemed to be fermenting ok before,if a little mild,slow bubbling not many per minute.
Any help or future tips would be greatly appreciated.

First off, forget the 7 day thing it is just marketing speak to sell more kits, if you want something nice it isn't going to happen. A month is far more realistic. Leave it until there is no activity (so no bubbles in the airlock or any bubbles at the neck of the demijohn (about 2 weeks)), then leave it another week. Without going detail crazy, if you leave it the extra week after fermenting then the yeast have chance to remove various substances they produce which cause killer headaches. Then, after that final week, add your stabiliser to kill the yeast and finings to get all the **** to settle out, leave this another week.

Reason for the slow initial ferment is probably too high a sugar conc in the must (due to reduced volume = more concentrated), adding more water diluted it and the yeast can then pick up the rate. Also, adding water agitates it all and gets it mixed up.

Don't worry about the foam coming out of the airlock, put the demijohn in a tray to catch the drips and clean the airlock out whenever it foams over. Doesn't affect the end product, just gets messy.

 

[porter]

Thanks for the reply.It makes sense now why it went crazy once i topped up.Would it be beneficial if i mixed the kit and water and split it 50/50 into two seperate dj's?
I dont mind the mess as such i am just worried about the airlock being empty at times.
Another question i have been wondering is,once all fermenting has done and i leave it to settle,would it help if i racked into another clean dj and then degassed/added finings etc ?
Or is that not necessary?

 

[DrD]

Thanks for the reply.It makes sense now why it went crazy once i topped up.Would it be beneficial if i mixed the kit and water and split it 50/50 into two seperate dj's?
I dont mind the mess as such i am just worried about the airlock being empty at times.
Another question i have been wondering is,once all fermenting has done and i leave it to settle,would it help if i racked into another clean dj and then degassed/added finings etc ?
Or is that not necessary?

No need to split it between dj, I tend to add part of the sugar after a few days. Empty airlock doesnt really matter, carbon dioxide is quite heavy so there will be a layer of gas above your wine to protect it from oxygen. You could get away without one quite successfully.

As for racking before degas and fining, yes it is a good idea. Less debris to be resuspended by shaking to degas before adding the finings the better.

 

[porter]

Thanks for all the replies. :thumb:

 

[Tigress]

Intrestead how this turned out as brought one of these today It was only £2 as it was short dated so just replace the yeast and nutriant just incase .Infact brough 1o soloman lits as they were all £2 inc cherry elderflower and elderberry to name but a few

 

[porter]

Intrestead how this turned out as brought one of these today It was only £2 as it was short dated so just replace the yeast and nutriant just incase .Infact brough 1o soloman lits as they were all £2 inc cherry elderflower and elderberry to name but a few

Sounds like a bit of a bargain there!
I bottled this the other day and it's cleared nicely,although it is a deep reddy/beetroot shade.I had a little taste and the fruit flavour is very dominant.For my taste it was a tad dry so i added two spoons of sweetner to the whole batch and the little sample i had was quite nice.
I suppose it will only improve after a couple of months.I will probably try another one of the SG fruit variety.
Good luck with yours :