Homebrew update

I have decided to write a blog to update a few of the brews I have going at the minute. I currently have a batch of cider, elderberry wine, blackberry wine and my batch of porter I wrote a blog about a few days ago.

Homemade demijohn

First off is the cider I started brewing in late October. Once the fermentation had run its course, which took about a week I moved the cider from the fermenters into demijohns. I have a few demijohns which my dad had from his wine making days. I needed more for this batch of cider though so I used some 5 litre water bottles to make my own demijohns.

The cider went into these under airlock to allow them to ferment out without the dead yeast cells and general sludge left after the first fermentation, affecting the flavour. I stored the bottles beside a radiator to allow them to ferment out all the sugars so I could then store them without fear of the bottles exploding.

Cider transfered into the demijohns

Lined up beside the radiator

Once the bubbles had stopped coming through the airlocks I knew fermentation was finished. I then waited for the cider to clear. For this they need somewhere cool. I moved them away from the radiator and they cleared in about 2 weeks.

Cleared cider

Once clear I moved them to the attic. They will be kept cool there and they will age for a few months. I had a sneaky taste and it was very bitter. This may lessen with aging. If it doesn't mellow by the spring I will sweeten the cider using an unfermentable sugar. I had expected the cider to be quite bitter as I used mostly cooking apples so I am not too worried about that.


Next up are the blackberry and elderberry wines which I started in early October. After 4 days both wines were strained and transfered into demijohns to finish fermenting without the fruit and pulp. They both bubbled away for a few days in the demijohns. I'm not sure quite how long as I left them to ferment and clear for about a month. When I came back to check them I had two very different results.

The blackberry wine had stopped fermenting before all the sugars had turned to alcohol. This left me with a "wine" with about 7% alcohol and it was very sweet. This is a problem with some brews known as a stuck fermentation. It has a few fixes like shaking up the brew, adding yeast nutrient and moving to a warm place. I tried all these and it had little or no effect. Sometimes fermentation stops due the high level of alcohol killing off the yeast. I had a packet of Turbo Yeast. It says it can ferment up to 20% alcohol so I have added that to the wine to see if it can ferment out the last of the sugar and give me a 13% wine with no sugar left. It is quite expensive as yeast goes. I think it cost 6 euro or so.  Finger crossed it gets the job done.

The elderberry wine was much more successful. I tested a sample of the wine and it had zero sugar left in it. The percentage alcohol is about 12%. I had a sneaky taste (as I like to) and it was nice. A bit like a light red wine. Apparently elderberries have a lot of tannins in them which benefit from aging. So going by that reasoning the wine should improve with time in the bottle. That's if it lasts that long. I transfered it into wine bottles and put plastic stoppers into them. I was considering blending some of it with the blackberry wine so I haven't put proper corks in the bottles yet. Having tasted it I will definitely want to keep some unblended to age so I will be putting proper corks in some of these bottles.

That's most of the homebrew taken care of. Today I took a sample of the porter and it has pretty much fermented out and cleared so it will be ready to bottle soon. I also had a sneaky taste (have you noticed a pattern?) and it tasted lovely. Not just as a homebrew, it tasted like a good craft beer. So I am feeling optimistic about this batch. I will put up a post about bottling it when the time comes.

Until Then.