[tattycat]

Ok, gonna have a go at flower wine again, nd last time the alcohol was so strong the flavor was lost. Don't get me wrong, we battled through and drunk it......lol, however I don't want to lose the delicate flavors..any idea's out there? Wine's I'm referring to are gorse and red clover. Thanks.

[HesterF]

I've just read the River Cottage booze book and that was quite enlightening for me - I've tried reading home brewing books before and always got a big bogged down in the technical side of it (and I have a chemistry degree - it should be right up my street!) but their's was great, made a whole lot of sense. They say to check the specific gravity levels before fermentation so you can adjust sugar levels to ensure the right alcohol level. So although I've yet to put it into practice, I would highly recommend getting the book. There are a lot of recipes in there, including some floral wines (pretty sure gorse was one - will try and check later) with top tips for keeping the floral notes. Maybe you could get it from a library if you don't want to buy it?

[cloddopper]

Look up " The Pearson Square " wrt wine making .

It is a simple to follow diagram that takes in the natural sugar content at a given temperature and what additional sugars you need to make a given alcohol by volume .

 What will you be using for your sugar content , honey, cane sugar, beet sugar ,  brown sugar, grape juice,  natural pure un adulterated fruit juices , banana pulp ?
 You might also consider a lower tolerance alcohol wine making yeast .
They used to be available as dried packet yeast sachets from 5 % ABV right up to 21/ 22 % ABV ( a TOKAY wine yeast ) .
'
You'll need a decent wine hydrometer & an accurate temperature thermometer  as a well so you can get the correct temp and specific gravity readings needed for the Pearson Square  information for the final ABV ( alcohol by volume ) desired


 You could go for as low as 5.5 % ABV but it tends to go off within a few months , a slightly higher level at 8% ABV seems to be the magic alcohol level that preserves and enhances the wines with ester alcohols etc. .

[tattycat]

Thanks HesterF. Will try the library, birthday long way off...

Thanks Cloddhopper. Was trying to make a simple hedgerow wine only to discover that it's not so simple...Sloe gin is!! lol
Any way of checking alchol level without expensive equipment?

[cloddopper]

A wine hydrometer is about £4.00 on eBay or in a Wilkinson's store .. it's well worth the investment .

 This one on eBay is slightly more expensive but it does have the advantage of coming with a deep test tube that has a decent stand/foot on it so you can measure the values easily .

Item number 171183035390

[cloddopper]

re  making the wine with out a hydrometer using accurate digital scales that read off in 2 gram increments .
 Weigh the elixir that the fruit has been steeped in . adjust the volume till you get an exact Kg reading this will equate to almost the same volume in cubic centimetres  now add your weighed out sugar & reweigh .


Locate the online equation for the Pearson square put in the figures  and you will be able to calculate the alcohol by volume of the finished wine .  You can then add a little bit more sugar to increase the alcohol if desired.

 This is the complex American description ,. you may be able to follow it . Though i'll search for an easier one for you .

http://www.northtexaswinemakers.org/Wine/using_pearsons_square.pdf


 Here is one that may work for you after reading it six or more times to understand it  .

The charts are very useful . You can work out the specific gravity by weighing a  exact measured litre or weigh out one kg of water put it  in a bottle & mark the bottle where the water cones to on the bottle .
Plain water has an SG of one .  now weight the whole bottle with the water in it   Empty out the water .
Now fill the bottle to the litre mark with the elixir  and reweigh take off the weight of the bottle ..this will give you a slightly heaver weight for litre of elixir  due to the increased sg . now make it as percentage increased number .


http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/HydSugAl.htm