More on Winemaking

The elderberry juice-water-yeast-sugar mix has been in the fermenting bucket for five days now, so it is time to pour it into the demijohns. I used 4lbs berries and made the juice up to 2 gallons with plain water, before adding 4lbs sugar. The mixture was frothing away beautifully in the bucket, so I know something was happening.

Using a sterilised jug, I poured the juice into the demijohns. I filled two and had at least enough for another half demijohn left. I was a bit concerned that it seemed to be very frothy and almost 'fizzy'. But a quick check online with people who know about home wine making, and all is apparently well.

I couldn't use the additional juice (or 'must', as it's called) straight away as I only have four airlocks and bungs. I will need to get some more tomorrow and put the rest of the juice into another demijohn.

The bungs and airlocks were pressed into the top of the demijohns and I was pleased to see that it was bubbling away fiercely. I'm hoping that's a good sign!

Meanwhile, the elderflower wine that I started back in the early summer had stopped bubbling and there was quite a lot of sediment at the bottom of the two demijohns. I crushed a campden tablet into the bottom of each of two sterilised bottles, then syphoned the juice into them. All I need to do now is wait until the juice has become clear (a week or two, maybe up to a month), then the wine can be bottled. I must admit it smelled really nice as it transferred from one demijohn to another.

Tomorrow, I might even make some more if today's strong winds have left any berries on the trees.