I topped this up today with the last carton. I did not add any sugar since all the calculated amount had gone in at the start.
Category Archives: Wine
Racking off Miller’s Gate + Elderberry
I’d been worrying about the wine not clarifying, but didn’t want to open the demijohn to let oxygen in. Lack of patience got to me and I decided to rack it off in to my little half demijohn and one bottle, leaving the rest for testing. My wife and I both had a little sip of the dregs. It tasted of… cheap wine (and much better than the orange filth from years ago). Hopefully it will improve with ageing – at least that is the theory. Since (ignoring the £15 bucket, £3 yeast, £2 finings…) it cost 10p for about 5 bottles it really is cheap wine. It is good enough to drink the half bottle with dinner and can only (hopefully) improve.
I also racked off the elderberry and topped it up with water. I didn’t keep enough to taste properly, but from the drips I think it will be OK.
Temperature Panic
After buying the brewing belt yesterday because it was so cold, I wondered idly about the correct temperature today. I couple of websites later (e.g. Winemaking Temperatures) and I found that the optimum temperature for making white wine is in the 7-15 °C range. So my 16°C yesterday was perfect, or possibly a bit too hot. And the steady 24°C I have been congratulating myself on is WAY too hot. If it is a white wine. I am guessing that quince wine is a white, so I have switched the belt off for now, but it will come in useful later with beer etc.
I think the idea is that the higher temperature drives off some of the delicate flavours. Since “delicate flavour” is how I would describe quince, I hope it is not too late.
Quince Wine Part 1
I found this very simple recipe for Quince Wine from Wine Making Guides. As with many wine recipes it is rather sparse on the details and ingredients are listed but not mentioned in the instructions!
The main issue was that I only had 17 rather than 24 quince, because some had started to rot in the delay between picking quinces and making wine (my wife had first pick for excellent Quince Cheese). I also didn’t have enough raisins, but my wife pointed out that they were in the same proportion as the missing quince so I stuck with it and added just 50g more sugar to compensate.
The recipe does not say when to add water. After a few minutes of trying to reduce the quince with no liquid, I decided that I needed it in the pan with the gratings. I topped up with a jug until the water was just visible (this was not quite enough and I would be more generous next time, maybe until the water was clearly visible or level with the quince gratings. It took a long time to boil and I put a thermometer in to make sure the middle of the pot was at 100°C.
Otherwise it went pretty well. I have a new LCD thermometer on the side of the bucket, which is genius. I’ll buy more. I’ve added the yeast and nutrient and now we wait for the first ferment! I have to stir every day so I will be careful about sterilisation I guess.
Quince – the next project?
I am a bit short of bubblers and demijohns now until the beer has been bottled. What is the next project? Well, we have a very productive quince tree in the garden. My wife has made some excellent quince cheese with some of them but there are still quite a few left. I’ll do my research and be ready when the beer is done.
