Ginger Wine - what next ?

[fatbloke]

OK so hopefully I've attached a view of my efforts for ginger wine.

You should be able to see that it's cleared, well sort of.

There's still some of the original "flakes" of ginger floating on top, plus there's the incredible layer of sludge - that container is about 12 litres in size so the sludge layer is about 6 or so inches thick.

Obviously it's debris from the huge amount of ginger I used in my effort to get something that would be as "hot" tasting as "Stones" ginger wine.

I'm presuming that the sludge is part ginger and part yeast, so what would be the best method of filtering (?) it away.

I'm guessing that a filter would be no good as it would just clog up all the time, while I also suspect that some sort of muslin might be too coarse and would allow some of the sediment through.

Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

regards

fatbloke

[lockwood1956]

Rack the clearer part of it off the top of the sediment, it will likely need further rackings, but let gravity take care of it.

regards
Bob

[Duffbeer]

I agree with Bob here, most of that sediment will get through any strainer and certainly clog anything too fine, keep your syphon tube as near to the top of the liquid as you can and move it down as the leval drops, otherwise it's just gonna suck up that fluffy sediment.

[fatbloke]

So neither of you think it'd be worth banging some finings in there to try to make it "sit down" a bit quicker ???

regards

fatbloke

[Duffbeer]

So neither of you think it'd be worth banging some finings in there to try to make it "sit down" a bit quicker ???

regards

fatbloke

No mate finings won't make it settle any better, time probably will, but with such a heavy deposit I'd be inclined to go with Bob and rack it off. A little sediment during transfer is going to be hard to avoid but won't hurt. As for the floating ginger flakes you could run it through a sieve whilst racking.

[lockwood1956]

after you have racked it , you can of course take what is left and place it in a taller thinner container and wait for it to settle, so you can rack again so as not to lose anyhting, but i certainly would get this stuff off that gross lees as soon as possible, or you could develop sone serious off flavours

[StockeyDAW]

FB -- I agree with our leader and DB, racking, ageing racking again and the same again if necessary. This may take some time 6 months to 1 year? If you are really in a hurry to get a taste of it you could use some finings like bentonite and sparkeloid but if you have patients and not in a hurry to drink let it clear on its own with the aid of time and timely racking. Cheers DAW

[Hippie]

Count me in the popular concensus!

[fatbloke]

The current "master plan" ?

I was thinking about this during the week.

The only snag with just racking and then moving the sludge to something "smaller and taller", would be obtaining such a receptacle.

I had my mind on filtering still and my epiphany was that while most materials would allow some/most of the sludge through, I figured that if I get a piece of flannel/towelling, boiled it, then soaked it in steriliser/cleanser solution, then rinsed in clean water, the fibres would be expanded enough to act as a nice filter to remove a fair amount of the sludge while letting enough of the liquid through clean.

Then rack it in the normal way, in my normal bottles/jars/DJ's etc.

Does that sound reasonable ?


regards

John the fatbloke

[Mamgiowl]

I think that with so much thickness of the material it's going to take ages to work through the fibres. I think you should rack off down to the lees then strain the gunk through a seive, thus getting rid of the larger lumps. After that try to suspend a jelly bag or similar over a bucket, pour in the gunk, surround all with a polythene 'tent' for protection, and leave over night. I did this with some apples I'd puree'd and it worked beautifully.

If you have a Lakeland near you they do a jelly strainer kit which is brilliant for the job.

[lockwood1956]

Does that sound reasonable ?

John
I think you are seriously heading towards this batch being ruined if you dont get it off the gross lees soon, as spoilage will surely follow...

I think racking is the best way to proceceed, as this prevents the sludge at the bottom being agitated, as this I'm fairly sure will cause you problems, Im pretty sure you wont get any more liquid out by your method, as the stuff at the bottom is solids, but it's your wine, and so your call....

just my two pennerth

regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

The only snag with just racking and then moving the sludge to something "smaller and taller", would be obtaining such a receptacle.

er.....


wine bottle springs to mind.

[fatbloke]

er.....


wine bottle springs to mind.

Ha ha! didn't think of that. How stupid of me

John
I think you are seriously heading towards this batch being ruined if you dont get it off the gross lees soon, as spoilage will surely follow...

I think racking is the best way to proceceed, as this prevents the sludge at the bottom being agitated, as this I'm fairly sure will cause you problems, Im pretty sure you wont get any more liquid out by your method, as the stuff at the bottom is solids, but it's your wine, and so your call....

just my two pennerth

regards
Bob

Yes, you're probably spot on there. Though if it has gone to a "sack" (of sh1t) it doesn't matter too much as it was basically an experiment, that can be repeated, but with the correct amount of ginger.

I think that with so much thickness of the material it's going to take ages to work through the fibres. I think you should rack off down to the lees then strain the gunk through a seive, thus getting rid of the larger lumps. After that try to suspend a jelly bag or similar over a bucket, pour in the gunk, surround all with a polythene 'tent' for protection, and leave over night. I did this with some apples I'd puree'd and it worked beautifully.

If you have a Lakeland near you they do a jelly strainer kit which is brilliant for the job.

The nearest Lakeland is either Eastbourne or Chichester, both of which are impractical to get to at short notice - unfortunately (though I might convince Clare that she needs one for her jam making so I can get one as well ).

It was more of an idea, as the fine weave of towelling might work, plus the fine fibres of the fabrics twill, should (when wet) increase the surface area.

Obviously it sounds a little daft, but as it's currently the only option available, I think I'll give it a go to see just how long it's gonna take. I can always suspend the sieve mechanism over my 25 litre bucket and cover it in "clingers" if it looks like it's gonna take overnight.

I'll report back how I get on.

regards

John the fatbloke

p.s. also, if it does seem to be working, I can always (as I would with pulped apples) bung it in my press and then leave it to stand and then rack off normally. As I already said, it's basically an experiment.

[StockeyDAW]

FB - I am also in favor of racking off the lees ASAP leaving the ones at the bottom of the DJ behind. Rack it into a primary fermenter if you have to; then clean out the DJ that it is in right now and then rack it back into there. That is my two cents. Filtering the whole thing through a cheese cloth type cloth is not the way to go. Cheers DAW

[fatbloke]

The latest.........

Ok, so inspite of the suggestions to the contrary, I figured that if I just racked off the I'd loose too higher amount of the liquid, but thought that I'd try that anyhow to see what happened (I did have some reservations and other thoughts about how this might work out).

Anyway, that effort came to nought, because even though I kept the siphon tube above the sediment, it still kept clogging up with the larger pieces of ginger.

So I reverted back to plan "B" and got a clean towel, soaked it in some sterilising solution for 20 or so minutes and then wrang it out and rinsed it.

This was pegged over 2 gallon poly bucket (similarly sterilised), I removed the siphon tube and tried to just use the main part of the poly tubing.

That effort also came to nought as it also kept clogging up, it would run for 30 seconds to a minute but then clog and no amount of taping it on the side of the jar would clear it.

So plan "C" came into action. I just poured it very gently into the "sieve" , when the bottom of the towel bulge was touching the liquid I undid the pegs and tightened the towel to partially wring some more of the liquid out - a bit of the sediment did escape, but not much.

I finished by shaking out the sediment from the towel, rinsing it under cold water and then pegged it back on the bucket to strain the last of the sediment. The wringing process was repeated.

So it currently looks like the attached picture. I'm in the process of sterilising 2 demijohns so that I can split it into them and not to have such a large air gap. I've added 2 campden tablets and some stabiliser so that it won't ferment any further.

How does it taste ?

Well, it's certainly not as sweet as "Stones" ginger wine, but it seems to have obtained the "required" ginger flavour/heat. The stabiliser is so that I can add whatever sweetener I want (dextrose or honey are looking favourite at the moment) without the possibility of it "popping" any bottles. I'm not sure yet as to whether I'll bottle it into whole or half size bottles (the local HBS seems to now have a goodly supply of 375 ml bottles as well as the usual suspects).

Overall, I'm quietly pleased with it. It still isn't finished though, as the recipe calls for a pint of brandy and some optional sultana's or currants. I'm presuming that the brandy is to fortify/up the % abv as a preservative and the sultana's to add some body/improved mouth feel (are these the same ? I don't know).

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Sorry that the picture isn't too clear, but you can see the difference in the amount of sediment it no longer has - Oh and I managed to get about 8.5 litres of liquid from the total mix i.e. nearly 2 gallons.