Joy of Home Wine Making (45 page)

Fruit brandies (unless you made them with high alcohol and low sugar) will make more volume, and you probably won’t need to add sugar. Taste them to make sure. I would use a blackberry brandy to deepen the flavor, or a raspberry to brighten it up a bit. You could also use elderberry or blueberry brandy, of course. To make very sure you are killing off the yeast, you can add a stabilizer or a Campden tablet.

Rack off the wine and add the alcohol. Then bottle, label, and store the wine. Try it in a year, then in two, or even three, years. Consider using some half bottles, so you can taste it more often as it progresses.

You could also just bottle the wine as it is, without fortifying it, and enjoy it, of course! In that case, stabilize and sweeten with four to six ounces of sugar in syrup. Keep for at least a year before trying.

PORTLY BLACKBERRY

5 lbs. blackberries, loganberries, Marionberries (dead ripe)!

¼ lb. dried elderberries

2-4 ozs. banana flakes or ½ lb. dark raisins (optional)

1¾ lbs. sugar or 2 lbs. honey, adding another ½ lb. later

sufficient water to make up a gallon

½ tsp. acid blend

no tannin (the elderberries have plenty)

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (recommended)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet sherry, port, or Montrachet yeast

brandy, grain alcohol, or fruit brandy

Pick over the berries carefully. Watch for mold. Discard anything that looks odd. Wash the berries in cool water and drain. Soak the dried elderberries for a half hour in a cup of hot water. Drain the elderberries and reserve the water.

Wash your hands. Put the berries in a nylon straining bag and into the primary fermenter, then squash with your hands (you might want to use sanitized rubber gloves) or a sanitized potato masher. Be sure you press the berries well. Add the dried elderberries and (optional) banana flakes or raisins (these give even more body and flavor).

Boil the water and sugar or honey. Skim if necessary. Pour the hot sugar water over the crushed berries. You can chill and reserve half the water beforehand, adding it now to bring the temperature down quickly. Add the elderberry water, acid, and yeast nutrient, but wait until the temperature comes down to add the Campden tablet, if you choose to use one. Cover and fit with an air lock. Wait 12 hours to add the pectic enzyme.

Check the PA and write it down. You can adjust the PA up a bit at this point.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast. Stir it daily. Keep it a little warmer than usual, but not over 75°F. After about two weeks, remove the bag (don’t squeeze). Discard the fruit. After the sediment has settled down again, check the PA. It will probably need to go another week. When it gets to 3 to 4 percent PA, rack the wine into your glass fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Add an extra half pound of sugar, dissolved in water, to the
must, gradually, watching the SG as described in Pearson Square. Make a note of it. If the beginning PA was higher than 14 percent, don’t add the sugar. The yeast may not take it.

Rack the wine at least twice during fermentation. You don’t want any off flavors. Be sure to keep it in a dark jug, or put something over it to keep the light from stealing the color.

In six to eight months, or even more, check the PA, and judge the clarity. Taste it, too. There should be plenty of tannin from the elderberries—maybe what seems to be too much. Do you think it will gain in smoothness and flavor over the next couple of years? Here you have to decide if you want to go to the expense of adding the grain alcohol, the brandy, or the fruit brandy.

To be accurate, use the Pearson Square to figure out how much alcohol, of what proof, you will need to bring it up to 19 or 20 percent. If that gives you a headache, figure about two to three cups of 80 proof brandy to the gallon. You might want to add some sugar syrup, too, so add four to six ounces dissolved in waster. The alcohol will kill off the yeast, so you don’t have to worry about the additional sugar.

Fruit brandies (unless you made them with high alcohol and low sugar) will make more volume, and you probably won’t need to add sugar. Taste them to make sure.

I would use a blackberry brandy to deepen the flavor, or a raspberry to brighten it up a bit. If you can get or make apple or pear liqueur, it’s good, too.

Rack off the wine and add the alcohol. Then bottle, label, and store the wine. Try it in a year, then in two, or even three, years. Consider using some half bottles, so you can taste it more often as it progresses.

You could also just bottle the wine as it is, and enjoy it, of course! In that case, stabilize it and sweeten with four to six ounces of sugar in syrup. Keep for at least a year before trying.

ANCIENT MIDNIGHT

You have to like black currants for this one. If you don’t, substitute another dark fruit brandy.

2 lbs. blueberries

1 lb. fresh elderberries or ¼ lb. dried elderberries

2 lbs. blackberries or mulberries

2-4 ozs. banana flakes or ½ lb. dark raisins (optional)

1¾ lbs. sugar or 2 lbs. honey, adding another ½ lb. later

sufficient water to make up a gallon

½ tsp. acid blend

no tannin (the elderberries have plenty)

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 Campden tablet, crushed (recommended)

½ tsp. pectic enzyme

1 packet sherry or Montrachet yeast (or port, if you can get it)

Black currant brandy (cassis) or 8 ozs. Ribena (black currant syrup) AND brandy or grain alcohol. (Black currant syrup can be found in grocery stores specializing in Greek, Italian, or eastern European foods. I have found Ribena, an English syrup, in Oriental grocery stores. Don’t ask me why it was there.)

Pick over the berries carefully. Watch for mold. Discard anything that looks odd. Wash the berries in cool water and drain. Soak the dried elderberries for a half hour in a cup of hot water. Drain the elderberries and reserve the water.

Wash your hands. Put the berries in a nylon straining bag and into the primary fermenter, then squash with your hands (you might want to use sanitized rubber gloves) or a sanitized potato masher. Be sure you press the berries well. Add the dried elderberries and (optional) banana flakes or raisins (these give even more body and flavor).

Boil the water and sugar or honey. Skim if necessary. Pour the hot sugar water over the crushed berries. You can chill and reserve half the water beforehand, adding it now to bring the temperature down quickly. Add the elderberry water, acid, and yeast nutrient, but wait until the temperature comes down to add the Campden tablet, if you choose to use one. Cover and fit with an air lock. Wait 12 hours to add the pectic enzyme.

Check the PA and write it down. You can adjust the PA up a bit at this point.

Twenty-four hours later, add the yeast. Stir it daily. Keep it a little warmer than usual, but not over 75°F. After about two weeks, remove the bag (don’t squeeze). Discard the fruit. After the sediment has settled down again, check the PA. It will probably need to go another week. When it gets to 3 to 4 percent PA, rack the wine into your glass fermenter. Bung and fit with an air lock.

Add an extra half pound of sugar dissolved in water, to the must, gradually, watching the SG as described in Pearson Square. If the beginning PA was higher than 14 percent, don’t add it. The yeast may not take it.

Rack the wine at least twice during fermentation. You don’t want any off flavors. Be sure to keep it in a dark jug, or put something over it to keep the light from stealing the color.

In six to eight months, or even more, check the PA, and judge the clarity. Taste it, too. There should be plenty of tannin from the elderberries—maybe what seems to be too much. Do you think it will gain in smoothness and flavor over the next couple of years? Here you have to decide if you want to go to the expense of adding the grain alcohol, the brandy, or the fruit brandy.

Rack off the wine and add the black currant brandy (cassis) or Ribena (black currant syrup) plus brandy or grain alcohol. Then bottle, label, and store the wine. Try it in a year, then in two, or even three, years. Consider using some half bottles, so you can taste it more often as it progresses.

You could also just bottle the wine as it is, and enjoy it, of course! In that case, stabilize it and sweeten with four to six ounces of sugar in syrup. Keep for at least a year before trying.

RED PORT