is my berry wine fermenting...

[artyb]

i have an fv with around 4 gallons of black berries,elder and liquid

i pitched the yeast starter 2 days ago and popped it in the fermenting cabinet,

because all of the 4 billion berries are floating on the top iv'e no idea if its bubbling and i cant see anything.. :?

i did give it a good sniff this morning and it was like smelling salts which i presume is the co2 coming off of it ...

 

[Moley]

If the berries are all floating on the top that means it's starting to work :thumb:

Now get a sterilised long handled plastic or stainless steel spoon and keep stirring those berries back into the mix 2-3 times a day.

I would also scrub up (paying particular attention to the fingernails) and squish the berries through my fingers.

 

[artyb]

cheers mr mole.... :thumb:

i have given them a gentle stir, is there a way to weigh them down,

fingers ..! it leaves a really red colour on the plastic paddle....
maybe i will get some latex gloves..

 

[Moley]

Don't be a wuss, it doesn't stain your hands (much) if you wash again straight away, and I find it quite pleasant, but I would draw the line at getting my feet in.

And I don't much care for the taste of rubber.


Some people weigh them down with a dinner plate on top.

 

[artyb]

I did think about a plate , but dont have one big enough.. :?

 

[artyb]

ok i think this is going quite well.. :hmm:

but would welcome any advice ... :thumb:

i started of with 3lb of blackberries,
4lb of elderberries,
4 mashed banannas,and some used sloes from my sloe vodka...




i added around 3 gallons of hot water and stirred it all well some pectolase,yeast nutrient and 3 lb of sugar.
next day when it had cooled i added some wine yeast and let it all ferment for 4 days,at 13 deg
then i sieved the liquid into 3 demijohns,
and added a half teaspoon of yeast and a couple of spoons of sugar ...its now happily bubbling,
i have topped them up with lidls cheap red grape juice.

2nd brew
i then took the fv with the berries and mashed them with a masher
and put in 2 kg of sugar and 2 gallons of boiling water ,and when cooled added yeast this is now also bubbling away.. :party:

when i get all of the must into the demijons i will feed them with sugar ..


i havent taken any hydro readings :?
as there were to many berries involved, should i measure it in the demijohns

 

[oldbloke]

It's a bit late to bother measuring - it won't tell you anything.
You could use the hydrometer later, to check if it's finished, but when it's down to no bubbles per week and you can see through it, that's good enough.
Can't quite get my head round how much sugar is in there, in what volume, but if you can - I like a kilo per gallon, for a fairly strong wine. If you have significantly less, maybe add some. If more, accept it's gonna either be sweet or take a long time to end up very strong

 

[artyb]

i was thinking i may be low on sugar... :?
it works out around 1kg per gallon ..i was thinking along the lines of the wow wines, :wha:

 

[oldbloke]

a kilo/gallon is fairly strong, don't add more - it'll either get too strong or be too sweet, or go syruppy, or a combo of those

 

[artyb]

many thanx for your mr oldbloke input :clap:

i feel a bit surer about it now, :hat:
i really sort of winged it a bit when i got the berries sorted and into the bucket,
next time i will be more organized about it :thumb:

 

[oldbloke]

I wing it a bit too... I've got a couple of gallons of rasp&bramble on with a kilo of sugar and about 3kg of berries each, plus some raisins, which I know is too strong really but I expect some losses at racking time to bring it down a bit when I top up afterwards. If sugar came in 2lb bags instead of kilo bags I might be more sensible!

 

[artyb]

im wondering how long this elder and blackberry will nedd to ferment ... :wha:
i read of 2- 4 weeks does that seem about right,?

im watching the airlocks for activity.. :hmm:

 

[artyb]

this has had 5 weeks fermenting,
a couple of the dj's have some white stuff floating on them. :?
so i am going to rack them , should i be adding a stabiliser to the wine when racking...?

 

[oldbloke]

Does the white stuff look like mould, or is it just white stuff?
If you think, or a hydrometer sample says, it's finished, of course stabilise.
The sulphite in the stabiliser will hopefully kill whatever the white stuff is if it's bad. It may be just floating gunk, though without seeing it there's no way to tell.
Sneak a taste when you rack - if it doesn't taste bad, assume it's OK.
The leave it racked and stabilised for a bit to check if anything nasty's growing in it.

 

[artyb]

thanx for the reply, :thumb:

i have racked it into clean dj's and added 2 ct's into each , they all tasted ok and smelled about right,

the white stuff was,
some bits of white grains,
and some floaty whispy stuff,

i seemed to leave most of it behind in the dj's.......2 of them were worse than the other 3

ive left them with airlocks on and no stabiliser as yet,