What's going on in your winery today..

[crusher]

Just put 15 lts of this years Elderflower cordial into the freezer. We finished last year's about 6 weeks ago, realised how poor the commercial stuff is in comparison!
Will be freezing my Elderflower and Ginger soon, yum.
I've had no probs with freezing it.

[spritzer]

I didn't like the elderflower cordial.
The smell was nasty.
The taste was nasty.
It went down the sink, I'm affraid.

I think I will leave elder from now on, until the berry's appear

[crusher]

I can only think that you must have picked some of the "cat pee" smelling flowers. I'm always very careful to smell each lot before picking and the result is superb. Much better than the shop bought stuff.
It's very good to add to basic wine no 1 or rhubarb wine to give a gentle floral bouqet.
Why not try again whilst the flowers are still around.

[goldseal]

Bottled 5 gals of WE Ltd Ed Trio Blanca, and 5 gals of Fruit Merlot (Merlot skins from last year's Grapefest, in a basic Strawberry/Raspberry must).

Now the bit I dislike - tidying up

[goldseal]

Just put 15 lts of this years Elderflower cordial into the freezer. We finished last year's about 6 weeks ago, realised how poor the commercial stuff is in comparison!
Will be freezing my Elderflower and Ginger soon, yum.
I've had no probs with freezing it.

Ta for the advice. All mine is now in the freezer.

[ms67]

Deflowered (the old gags are the best) the Elderflower wine yesterday.
Racked the 5 gallon batch today.
Moved the 3 gallon batch to secondary today.

[spritzer]

I can only think that you must have picked some of the "cat pee" smelling flowers. I'm always very careful to smell each lot before picking and the result is superb. Much better than the shop bought stuff.
It's very good to add to basic wine no 1 or rhubarb wine to give a gentle floral bouqet.
Why not try again whilst the flowers are still around.

I picked a variety of flowers from a few different trees...
None smelt like cat pee
I dont think my head was really into it, so I think I will give it a miss for this year.

[crusher]

Pity, it's a shame your not nearer, you could have had a bottle of mine to try. Better luck next time

[lockwood1956]

Want to make Elderflower cordial this weekend, but I have lots of Racking, filtering and bottling to do (cant see the worktops in my kitchen (and I have a lot of worktop space!!)

Bottling the 2nd batch of "safe" ginger beer

got some Cider and some Perry (note...not pear cider....no such thing!!!!!) to prime and bottle.

Tropical fruit Riesling to bottle also

Acid reduction in Seyval to undertake (lots of reduction required)

Icewine ( a la Steve's tutorial) to bottle

Muscat to try (again) to clear, was star bright, but then threw a haze for no apparent reason....will get there soon, i got it to drop stuff from suspension with addition of pectolase, still not 100% clear so will add two part finings, see where we end up

three kits to start......

and want to make some Pils (all grain mash using new Lidl boiler)

busy weekend ahead (except of course at 3pm Tomorrow)

[goldseal]

Acid reduction in Seyval to undertake (lots of reduction required)

I'd be interested to know how you are going to do that. Coincidentally I have just racked my last gallon of the stuff - really mucky and very acidic

A first for me today - I threw away a gallon of wine . I had a dodgy ferment of a Wine No. 1 a couple of months ago, and it looks like I saved 4 of the 5 gallons. This one smelt old and slightly oxidised, so down the sink it went.

I'm now trying to decide whether to do some bottling, or to put my feet up ...

[lockwood1956]

I'd be interested to know how you are going to do that.

I will measure acidity by titration, and then will add acid reducing solution till I achieve the desired result. I want a very crisp dry white, so I'm shooting for 5.5 g/l measured as sulphuric (8.5 g/l measured as Tartaric)

using Ritchie's acid reducing solution avail from hobby wine supplies, cant see it on website, but I bought mine there this morning

[NorthernWiner]

Next weekend is a 3-1/2 day holiday weekend, so I'm planning to do some bottling. I have Barbera, a 2nd run Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, Frontenac-Durif blend, and Marquette. About 40 gallons total.

[spritzer]

Pity, it's a shame your not nearer, you could have had a bottle of mine to try. Better luck next time

Thanks for the offer ....
I might take you up on that at the end of the summer, as I hope to be down that way then, if you still have some left

Actually... I think I need to buy some from the shops, to see if I like "their" version.... just to get a rough guide

[goldseal]

This morning I'm working out the best way to reduce the fermentation temperature of my. Kenridge petit verdot. It's at 26c, which is a bit warm for my liking. At the moment I have it wrapped in a wet tea towel, but I'm going to cool a litre of water in a pop bottle, sanitise the outside and drop it in

[lockwood1956]

Freeze the bottle Pete (or the next one) and use it as an ice bomb....very effective cooling method