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I’ve made this a couple of times and its ideal for newbie’s like myself who have mastered wine number one and want to produce something a little different
For 5gals
5 litres Supermarket grape juice
5 litres Supermarket pressed apple juice
30g dried elderflowers (I use Young’s)
Lalvin E1118 Champagne yeast
7 ½ pounds of sugar (Plus ½ -1 lb more for back sweetening)
5tsp pectolase (if you use the cloudy apple juice recommended)
5tsp yeast nutrient
5tsp citric acid
2 ½ tsp sorbate
5 campden tablets
Finings (young’s two part works well)
Mineral water if you have fluoride in your tap water as we do here.
Method
Dissolve the sugar in 1.5 litres of boiling water and allow to cool a little
Add the grape and apple juice to your fermenter with the pectolase nutrient and citric acid.
Add in the sugar solution and fill to 20 litres with water
Check temperature and add either hot or cold water up to 23 litres to achieve 22 c
Rehydrate the yeast as per instructions on the packet and add to fermenter
Add the dried elderflowers. Once you have a good fermentation on the way give the fermenter a good swirl to infuse the dried elderflowers
Leave to ferment to 1010 and rack off into 23 litre carboy filtering the wine through a sieve to remove any stray elderflowers.
Leave to ferment to dry about 990-996
Rack add 5 campden tablets and 2 ½ tsp of sorbate
De-gas Clear with finings in you usual way and rack off.
The wine now will be dry and floral often not a good combination and will need to be sweetened to taste. About ¼ to ½ a pound of sugar should do just fine. My method is to dissolve ½ a pound in ½ a litre of water and use the solution a little at a time. Stirring and tasting. Usually I use about half of the solution and land up with a just off dry wine with a SG at about 1000.
Now that’s not sweet by any means so feel free to add more. Just remember you can’t take it out once its in. and you may have to add a little more citric acid to balance out that extra sweetness.
We've added sorbate so a new fementation shouldn't start but there's no harm in leaving a few days just to be sure.
Filter and bottle. It’s ready to drink in about 6 weeks.
Hope you enjoy this wine as much as my friends who favour a floral Germanic type wine
For 5gals
5 litres Supermarket grape juice
5 litres Supermarket pressed apple juice
30g dried elderflowers (I use Young’s)
Lalvin E1118 Champagne yeast
7 ½ pounds of sugar (Plus ½ -1 lb more for back sweetening)
5tsp pectolase (if you use the cloudy apple juice recommended)
5tsp yeast nutrient
5tsp citric acid
2 ½ tsp sorbate
5 campden tablets
Finings (young’s two part works well)
Mineral water if you have fluoride in your tap water as we do here.
Method
Dissolve the sugar in 1.5 litres of boiling water and allow to cool a little
Add the grape and apple juice to your fermenter with the pectolase nutrient and citric acid.
Add in the sugar solution and fill to 20 litres with water
Check temperature and add either hot or cold water up to 23 litres to achieve 22 c
Rehydrate the yeast as per instructions on the packet and add to fermenter
Add the dried elderflowers. Once you have a good fermentation on the way give the fermenter a good swirl to infuse the dried elderflowers
Leave to ferment to 1010 and rack off into 23 litre carboy filtering the wine through a sieve to remove any stray elderflowers.
Leave to ferment to dry about 990-996
Rack add 5 campden tablets and 2 ½ tsp of sorbate
De-gas Clear with finings in you usual way and rack off.
The wine now will be dry and floral often not a good combination and will need to be sweetened to taste. About ¼ to ½ a pound of sugar should do just fine. My method is to dissolve ½ a pound in ½ a litre of water and use the solution a little at a time. Stirring and tasting. Usually I use about half of the solution and land up with a just off dry wine with a SG at about 1000.
Now that’s not sweet by any means so feel free to add more. Just remember you can’t take it out once its in. and you may have to add a little more citric acid to balance out that extra sweetness.
We've added sorbate so a new fementation shouldn't start but there's no harm in leaving a few days just to be sure.
Filter and bottle. It’s ready to drink in about 6 weeks.
Hope you enjoy this wine as much as my friends who favour a floral Germanic type wine
