My 5 gallon baby....bear with me!!

[Missus]

Evenin All.

Reety-ho – I have dug to the very depths of the old chest freezer and have come up with

5lbs Elderberries
4lbs Damsons (de-stoned)
4lbs Sloes (stone in)

I also have 3L of RGC from th’Asda, plenty of sugar and the usual bits and bobs.

I know there’s not enough fruit there to make a 5 gallon batch of medium to full bodied red. But should I add anything else? I’m thinking along the lines of some of Lidl’s finest Apple Juice – but how much would I need? A further 3 or 4 litres? Alternatively I could go for some raisins…frozen mixed fruit….a couple of jars of black cherries from Lidl….more RGJ…or RGC?

I have to pop to my LHBS on Monday (about a mile away…I know I’m very lucky!!) – any suggestions for yeast? I have been using Youngs ….maybe it’s time to move on to more ‘grown up’ yeast??

I have the fruit defrosting as we speak…intending to add the juice with a good dose of pectolase and some water tomorrow…leave for 3 or 4 days then strain and then add the sugar (to maybe 1.090) and pitch the yeast. Hoping there’ll be enough tannin in the elderberries and enough acid in the damsons and sloes for a good balance. I don’t have an acid testing kit…is there any way to test this before I start (other than taste…..not very scientific!!). I made some Cherry Plum wine late summer ….. seems very acidic to me now but am happy to leave it for months/years to mellow, then judge. I’d rather avoid this from the beginning if possible.

Any suggestions???….I have made a 5G batch before but just chucked a load of fruit in – I’d rather approach this a bit more methodically!!!

Cheers

[Missus]

Oh - and thanks for the suggestions form JTFB and Hedgerow.... as you can see I have cogitated and digested.....and am no further forward.

I really am a decisive person

Sometimes

No, really, I am

[goldseal]

Yeast - I'd suggest Lalvin K1V-1116 (aka Gervin Varietal E) or RC-212.

K1V tends to bring out the fruit in reds, and RC-212 is a sort-of standard red wine yeast. Remember to use a decent dose of yeast nutrient, especially with the latter.

Someone will probably come along and tell me I'm wrong, but I think you'd need to add quite a bit extra to those ingredients to make 5 gals. So ... I won't offer any suggestions - I'll let someone with more imagination than me do that

Black Cherries sound good though. Rich and I used some jars of Bilberries to make a port - they worked well.

[hedgerow]

heres a few ideas you can use whilst it has started to ferment,

raid the fruit juice stall at asda,
blackcurrant and apple, red grape, they do a wimter berry juice and a dark berry juice

or go the oppposite way cant make a strong red why not a rose, fill it up with apple, rhubarb, white grape, or still want a red try iceland or freezer world etc and have a look for there frozen berry packs they do one called dark or winter around £5 a kilo add one of those but the juice containers are cheaper
lastly get you self of down the hedgerows again and collect a couple of kilos of sloes, hawes, rose hips, pears and fill it up with that lot

[fatbloke]

well I'd say that there's no contest with the sloes....... 4lb is enough for half a gallon (3 x 750ml bottles) of sloe gin then you could always get some red grape juice and get a second run on the fruit........

regards

jtfb