I have a plentiful supply of blackcurrants in the freezer, beetroot in
the garden, a 1kg. can of Solvino 'Spanish Rich Red' grape juice
concentrate and various wine additives. From these I am aiming to make
two gallons of medium dry blackcurrant and beetroot wine. Before I begin
though, I thought it as well to check my proposed plan of action with
this group for advice.

Primary ingredients: 3 lb blackcurrants, 4lb beetroot, 1kg. red grape
concentrate, 1kg. white sugar. I also have available: Brewmaker (Vina)
Express wine yeast compound. Young's 'UBREW' wine tannin in powder form,
Pectolase, Citric acid, Bentonite, Gervin 'New Minavet' yeast nutrient,
Campden tablets.

Method: Unfreeze blackcurrants to room temperature, scald with boiling
water to sterilise, macerate. Wash and dice beetroot, cover with water,
bring to boil, simmer until tender and colour has been extracted, add
strained beetroot boilings to blackcurrant mash, stir well and macerate.

Add grape concentrate and sugar. When cooled to room temperature add 1
tsp. wine yeast compound, 1 tsp. tannin, 1 tsp. citric acid, 1 tsp. pre-
dissolved bentonite, 2tsp. pectolase, 2 grams yeast nutrient. Ferment on
the mash for 3-4 days, strain into 2 x 1 gallon demijohns, top up with
water to 3/4 full, adding more water as fermentation slows.

From there, I am uncertan about final s.g., racking, clearing and
stopping fermentation prior to bottling after (?) 6-12 months.

?? Are blackcurrants high in pectin. Is a specific wine yeast necessary.

TIA.
--
Alan Gould. North Lincolnshire, UK.

Alan -
Just about any general-purpose wine yeast should be fine. I'd wait
with the sugar until you can measure the S.G., and adjust as necessary
to the low end of the winemaking range (say, 1.080 or so) since beets
tend be high in sugar, but it won't register initially as it is bound
up in the beetroot flesh. Not sure whether pectic enzyme is necessary,
but it doesn't hurt - I'd add some, just on principle. I wouldn't plan
on adding much water later on - that just dilutes the wine. Add what
you need up front, adjust the sugar and acid as needed. Wait until
fermentation is nearly done (S.G. down to 1.010 or so), then rack into
gallon jugs. At that point, fermentation should be slow enough that
you can fill them pretty nearly to the top without much risk of
overflow.

There is really no very good way of stopping an active fermentation,
and I don't think you need to. It will stop when the food source
(sugar) runs out. Let it ferment dry, wait for it to clear, then add
sorbate and sweeten as desired at the end of the process.

Doug

In article .com>, Doug
> writes
>Alan -
> Just about any general-purpose wine yeast should be fine. I'd wait
>with the sugar until you can measure the S.G., and adjust as necessary
>to the low end of the winemaking range (say, 1.080 or so) since beets
>tend be high in sugar, but it won't register initially as it is bound
>up in the beetroot flesh. Not sure whether pectic enzyme is necessary,
>but it doesn't hurt - I'd add some, just on principle. I wouldn't plan
>on adding much water later on - that just dilutes the wine. Add what
>you need up front, adjust the sugar and acid as needed. Wait until
>fermentation is nearly done (S.G. down to 1.010 or so), then rack into
>gallon jugs. At that point, fermentation should be slow enough that
>you can fill them pretty nearly to the top without much risk of
>overflow.
Thank you Doug. I will check the SG at the start of fermentation,
something I've not done before. Does that mean fermenting on the fruit
pulp from approx. 1.080 down to 1.010 before racking into demi-johns?
>
>There is really no very good way of stopping an active fermentation,
>and I don't think you need to. It will stop when the food source
>(sugar) runs out. Let it ferment dry, wait for it to clear, then add
>sorbate and sweeten as desired at the end of the process.
Thanks again. Could you detail 'sorbate' a little for me, and is there a
possibility of re-activation at the bottling stage by oxygenisation?
--
Alan Gould. North Lincolnshire, UK.

Alan -

Yes, I normally ferment with the fruit or whatever for the first week
or so, which is normally when fermentation starts to subside a bit.

Potassium sorbate is normally used to prevent renewed fermentation in
wines that have some residual sugar. The recommended approach is to
ferment your wine out to dry, let it clear and rack off the dead yeast.
Then you add the appropriate amount of pot. sorbate and pot.
meta-bisulfite (more about this later), sweeten to taste and bottle.
Sorbate does not kill yeast ( a popular misconception) nor does it stop
an active fermentation. But it does prevent yeast from reproducing.
So if a few stray yeast cells manage to find their way into a bottle
(quite possible, as yeast is virtually everywhere) they will not manage
to reproduce and create enough yeast cells to cause significant
fermentation in the bottle.

Not sure what you mean by re-activation. By the time the wine has
cleared and you are ready to bottle, the original yeast are long gone.
You may get a few stray cells, but that is what the sorbate is for.

It's important to have adequate sulfite levels when you use sorbate,
since sorbate is effective against yeast, but not against malo-lactic
bacteria, which actually digest sorbate (or near enough) and apparently
produce some really unpleasant by-products. These bacteria are very
sensitive to sulfites, however, so normal sulfite levels should be
enough to prevent ML problems. You can test for free SO2 levels and
adjust as needed. Or you can just add 1 Campden table per gallon when
you add the sorbate, and you'll probably be fine.

Container terminology must be a little different in UK. In the US, a
glass container with a volume of a gallon or so is usually referred to
as a "jug"; containers in the range of 3 to 6 gallons or so are usually
called "carboys", and the term "demi-john" is reserved for the really
big glass containers, 12 gallons or more (45 to 50 liters) that usually
have some sort of wicker or plastic covering over most of the bottom
and sides. At least, that's been my experience.

Doug

Alan Gould wrote:
> I have a plentiful supply of blackcurrants in the freezer, beetroot in
> the garden, a 1kg. can of Solvino 'Spanish Rich Red' grape juice
> concentrate and various wine additives. From these I am aiming to make
> two gallons of medium dry blackcurrant and beetroot wine. Before I begin
> though, I thought it as well to check my proposed plan of action with
> this group for advice.
>
> Primary ingredients: 3 lb blackcurrants, 4lb beetroot, 1kg. red grape
> concentrate, 1kg. white sugar. I also have available: Brewmaker (Vina)
> Express wine yeast compound. Young's 'UBREW' wine tannin in powder form,
> Pectolase, Citric acid, Bentonite, Gervin 'New Minavet' yeast nutrient,
> Campden tablets.
>
> Method: Unfreeze blackcurrants to room temperature, scald with boiling
> water to sterilise, macerate. Wash and dice beetroot, cover with water,
> bring to boil, simmer until tender and colour has been extracted, add
> strained beetroot boilings to blackcurrant mash, stir well and macerate.
>
> Add grape concentrate and sugar. When cooled to room temperature add 1
> tsp. wine yeast compound, 1 tsp. tannin, 1 tsp. citric acid, 1 tsp. pre-
> dissolved bentonite, 2tsp. pectolase, 2 grams yeast nutrient. Ferment on
> the mash for 3-4 days, strain into 2 x 1 gallon demijohns, top up with
> water to 3/4 full, adding more water as fermentation slows.
>
> From there, I am uncertan about final s.g., racking, clearing and
> stopping fermentation prior to bottling after (?) 6-12 months.
>
> ?? Are blackcurrants high in pectin. Is a specific wine yeast necessary.
>

Yes, currants are all high in pectin. A specific wine yeast isn't
necessary, but you will want some kind of wine yeast for the best
results. Each yeast has different properties that impact the finished
wine (for example, I don't like pear wine that uses the lalvin D-47,
preferring a champagne yeast for that - but I do like pineapple wine
that started with the d-47). For info on variou yeasts, see Jack's site
@ http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp

> TIA.

No problem! :-)

Woods

In article om>, Doug
> writes
>
>Not sure what you mean by re-activation. By the time the wine has
>cleared and you are ready to bottle, the original yeast are long gone.
>You may get a few stray cells, but that is what the sorbate is for.
I am learning fast. In the past [hold on to your hair] I have attempted
to 'stop' wines with Campden tablets at an SG chosen to give a desired
level of sweetness. The result has been that when they were bottled, the
wine took up oxygen from the air and before too long corks were popping
out of the bottles.

I now realise from your advice that the method should be to begin
fermenting the mash at a predetermined SG, ferment most of the sugar out
on the mash, then strain and transfer the wine to final fermenting
vessels until all sugar is used up. Then use sorbate and added sweetener
in the way you suggest to finish the wine ready for bottling.

I shall be reading this all up again 'before I begin' at least it is an
acceptable way of being 'driven to drink' (!)
>
>Container terminology must be a little different in UK. In the US, a
>glass container with a volume of a gallon or so is usually referred to
>as a "jug"; containers in the range of 3 to 6 gallons or so are usually
>called "carboys", and the term "demi-john" is reserved for the really
>big glass containers, 12 gallons or more (45 to 50 liters) that usually
>have some sort of wicker or plastic covering over most of the bottom
>and sides. At least, that's been my experience.
>
Yes, we talk differently across the pond, and we don't all use the same
expressions. My own definitions are thus: A 'jug' is mostly a small open
china or glass vessel used for serving milk or water at the breakfast
table, or a pint beer glass with a handle; a 'carboy' is a very large
globular glass vessel sometimes encased in wicker, used for storing
distilled water or other chemicals, or a smaller version without wicker
used as a terrarium for growing plants in an enclosed system; a 'bucket'
for winemaking purposes is a 3 to 6 gallon plastic vessel with a fitted
lid used for initial fermentation; a 'demi-john' is a one gallon glass
vessel used for finally fermenting wine with a fermentation lock added.
I will in future try to refer to initial and final fermentation vessels.

We do have a 'john' as distinct from demi-john, but that is not used in
winekaking other than for disposal after drinking. :-)

Again my thanks to all.
--
Alan Gould. North Lincolnshire, UK.