Instructions
Follow the usual steps for cleaning and sterilising all of the equipment.
- Pour the sugar into your fermentation bucket or Demijohn.
- Bring a litre of water to the boil and pour onto the sugar.
- Stir the sugar until dissolved.
- Pour the red grape juice into the Fermentation vessel.
Wash any fruit, cut or mash and place into the fermentation vessel.
At this stage you should be left with Black cherries, Black currants, Blackberries, Grapes and Elderberries.
In a saucepan or bowl mash the fruit to a pulp.
Strain the pulp through your muslin or tea towel cloth into fermentation vessel. This prevents too much skin and seed going into the fermentation process.
Bring fermentation vessel to the correct level with the remaining water and add yeast and shake or stir well.
Place lid and or insert your air lock and leave to ferment.
Continue with usual stages once fermentation has finished.
What do I do next?
This is the hardest part of wine making, YOU HAVE TO WAIT. The wine can take anywhere from 1 - 4 weeks to ferment depending on the sugar content, yeast and temperature.
Can I speed up the process?
Yes the wine making process can be advanced by purchasing a heating mat or something similar. These heating devices keep the wine at the optimum temperature, this causes the yeast to grow quicker, the yeast eats the sugar to grow and a BI-product called alcohol is then produced. If you can't get hold of heating equipment find the warmest place in the house with the most constant temperature. You can also wrap the fermentation vessel in a blanket, this will help insulate it.
Can the Alcohol content be raised or lowered?
Yes, the alcohol content is governed by the amount of sugar at the start of the process. The more sugar used the more alcohol produced and vice versa. It is not wise to play with the sugar content unless you are experienced and have a hydrometer. The maximum alcohol in a wine is around about 18% alcohol by volume, the reason for this is because the amount of alcohol at this level kills the yeast and so no more alcohol can be produced.
When is my wine ready?
If you are using a hydrometer this will tell you when a wine is ready for bottling. If you don't have a hydrometer, the bubbles passing through the airlock should be no more than 3 per minute, per hour on three consecutive days.
Your wine is now ready what next?
You will need to sterilise all the equipment again.
- Carefully move your wine to a work top and slowly loosen the airlock to prevent it sucking the water in the airlock back into your wine.
- Because of the raisins in your brew, you will need to place your 'T' towel or muslin in the funnel this will act as a filter to stop raisins going into your clearing vessel.
- Take care not to stir up the sediment in the bottom of the fermentation vessel too much.
- Carefully siphon the wine into the clearing vessel through your filter, taking care not to suck up too much sediment from the bottom.
- Add any clearing solutions you have, shake well then Fit the air lock and wait. ( I find it is always a good idea to have a small sample while I'm siphoning off the wine, just as a tester.) Remember the wine will only get better so don't be too disappointed if it isn't great at this stage.
- Do the washing up.
- Wait for your wine to clear.
I cant wait, I want to drink it now!
Wine can be drunk while it is cloudy, it is perfectly fine. It just doesn't look as appetising as a nice, bright, clear wine does.
Can I make it clear any quicker?
Yes, there are two ways of doing this, the first is to put crushed egg shells into the wine, however I don't like to use this method. I prefer to buy a clearing agent, the one I use has two bottles, the first contains a clear liquid the second a brown. When added in the amounts recommended on the box they can clear a wine within 24 hours. These clearing agents do have implications for veegans though.
What Next?
Your wine is ready for bottling and drinking, remember when bottled to store in a cold place, this will prevent the bottles exploding. This is caused by the yeast fermenting again and causing excess pressure building up in the bottles.
