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blackberry wine. time in demijohn?

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Kleftiwallah:
Don't forget to use camden tablet dilution in the 'bubbler' and not straight water.     Cheers,     Tony.

GrannieAnnie:
Getting in on this late so I guess you're doing fine by now.
Don't let negative comments stop you from this fun pursuit. I've been experimenting for a couple years now, and have created some delightful wines in addition to some interesting mistakes which are all part of the learning process. One year I made terrific crabapple wine which folks loved; the next year it turned out poorly due to contaminants, not enough campden tablets I think.

Have a great time! Let us know how it tastes, too.

ToniD:

--- Quote from: Gordonmull on September 06, 2011, 21:45:15 ---Now this will probably cause a bit of controversy amongst other home brewers, but I feel keeping the demijohn topped up is not absolutely essential as long as you don't degas the wine. This is something you also need to know about. The reason that it is reccommended you keep the dj topped up is that it reduces contact with oxygen, which can turn your brew to something along the lines of bramble vinegar. A similar wine or, as adrian says, a little extra of the same wine fermented on the side can be used. I never use water..

--- End quote ---

It is essential, the point, is to use cooled, boiled water.

Gordonmull:
Water down booze?  :o   ;D

Never!  ;D

That got me thinking though, a 30% dilution of vodka/water would keep the strength up. Not that I'm all about the alcohol content. I've made that mistake before!

I have several wines that are nearly 2 years old, still in the demijohn with about 2-3" of headspace and all are still fine. The guy that told me about this had to really convince me to leave the "standard" approach behind but I caved and gave it a go. Two fluids with different densities (air and CO2) won't readily mix and CO2 is denser than oxygen, so will always remain on the bottom.

You can confirm this to yourself quite easily by taking a match or a burning piece of paper and putting it into the neck of your demijohn. It should instantly go out. I've actually just done this on my oldest wine and it's still got a nice CO2 layer in there. The flame never even got 1cm into the neck. Like I say though, if you degas the wine, then you lose this protection.

cestrian:
I made some blackberry wine a couple of years ago and it turned out beautiful. I left it for 1 month in the demijohn and then decanted into another demijohn to get it off the trub (dead yeast). Then I left it in the shed for 12 months to mature.

That's quite quick, Elderberry wine needs to mature in bulk for two years before bottling.

A good website for all things brewing is Jimsbeerkit.co.uk Its predominantly a beer brewing website but there's lots of good advice on wine and meads too.

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