Fastest Fermentation EVER!!!

[Henry]

Fastest Fermentation EVER!!! A running log of my first Elderberry wine.

Last Friday I started a batch of elderberry wine, and yesterday I went for a quick peek to check its progress and it was already down to 7% brix, calculated from 22.1% original, that puts me at .988 specific gravity! In four days!!! Here's what I did.

Recipe: (about 2 gallons)
Not sure of the weight, but I used 1 1/2 gallon sized bags of berries I picked and froze in a K-meta solution a few months ago,
One gallon RO water,
Roughly 4lbs of table sugar to bring the Brix to 22.1 (1.09sg)
22g Acid Blend (no test kit, aimed a little low of a per gallon guesstimate based on the recipes here)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Good sprinkling of pectic enzyme over the mesh bag of berries.
1 packet hydrated Redstar Champagne yeast

Procedure:
Melted the berry/water mix in a kettle on the stove, stirring constantly.
Poured everything through a fine mesh bag to catch the berries.
Potato-mashed the berries in the bag, in the empty kettle (off of the stove)
Tied the bag, and added the juice back to kettle.
Brought temp up to about 80 degrees F to dissolve the sugar and nutrient mix.
Before adding the sugar, I began hydrating the yeast in a small glass of the juice.
Everything into the bucket. I sprinkled with pectic enzyme, pitched the already very active, krausening glass of yeast, and put a lid and lock on it.
Concerned that 80* F was too warm, I moved the bucket outside (mid 40's) for a few hours, brought back in at 70* F.
Fermented at about 68*F.
Removed and squeezed the bag of berries after 24 hrs.
Tested after 4 days: 7% Brix, calculated to be .988 sg, smells good, tastes good, needs some back sweetening.

I know I over pitched the yeast, I had some concern as to its viability so I re-hydrated it all... Having not brewed/made anything in a long time I was so exited by the time it came to pitch that I completely forgot about my teeny tiny batch size... oops.

I'll have to look into the effects of over pitching, but how does everything sound to you veterans out there? Any advice or constructive criticisms?

 

[Julie]

if you have a brix of 7% then the specific gravity is around 1.020, it's still fermenting. I would snap down the lid and put an airlock on it. So far I don't think you have don anything wrong. Sometimes you get a fast ferment and sometimes you don't.

 

[GreginND]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "calculated the sg to be .998" ?!? As Julie said if you measured 7brix then the gravity is ~1.020.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Are you using a hydormeter? if not, what are you using to measure your sugar?

 

[Thig]

That is fast but I had an apple go from 1.100 to .998 in 2 days. Scared the crap out of me that it fermented so fast.

 

[BernardSmith]

Just curious - do such quick fermentations prevent flavors and other complexities from being produced? Or does it make no difference?

 

[Henry]

Are you using a hydormeter? if not, what are you using to measure your sugar?

I probably should have mentioned that I'm using a refractometer to monitor my sugar, mostly because I'd rather use a few drops instead of several ounces to test, but also because it doesn't roll off of the table like my old hydrometer did that one time... and it makes me feel like a scientist.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "calculated the sg to be .998" ?!? As Julie said if you measured 7 brix then the gravity is ~1.020.

Alcohol effects the refraction of light as compared to a normal sugar solution and leads to an off reading after fermentation has begun.
Correction Formula, near the bottom of the page.

If you write a program for the graphing calculator you used in college, you can have an excuse to use the clunky thing... and avoid more math. Look at those equations and tell me you wouldn't learn to program that darned thing. Mine now tells me original gravity and final gravity in SG units, and percent alcohol by volume.

Just curious - do such quick fermentations prevent flavors and other complexities from being produced? Or does it make no difference?

This is what I was curious about. I know that when making fruit beers, most people wait until after primary fermentation to wind down to prevent delicate flavors/aromas from being carried away. To what degree, I have no idea. But with wine, it's all fruit. So with nothing for the fruit flavor to compete with, what's the consequence?

That is fast but I had an apple go from 1.100 to .998 in 2 days. Scared the crap out of me that it fermented so fast.

Did you notice any difference between that batch and others like it?

 

[Thig]

That was the only batch of apple wine I have made and it is only one month old. I was told the fast fermentation will not affect the flavor because apple wine needs to age about a year anyway.

 

[Stressbaby]

Just because I was curious, I plugged Henry's numbers in here.

This calculator yields a final SG of 0.988 just as he says, and a final ABV of 13.4%.

 

[Henry]

I didn't have a proper secondary available, so I purged an empty corny keg with CO2 and racked through the diptube. Super easy, just hook the picnic faucet to the autosiphon and open the pressure relief valve.

On another note, elderberry goop is some crazy stuff. Soap and detergents won't work. You have to use oil, and then it will dissolve. Nothing feels more wrong than cleaning out a fermenter with vegetable oil. So glad I used a bucket and not a carboy.

Taste-wise, it's very dry but palatable. I sweetened a sample with some table sugar just to get an idea... definitely going to bottle in 12 oz bottles and hide them from myself so they last.

I've also been tossing around the idea of force carbonating a portion after back sweetening, just for kicks. Sparkling Elderberry anyone?

 

[BernardSmith]

I guess my question about whether fast fermentation might fail to result in the full complexity of flavors is separate from the benefits of aging. Presumably aging allows - and may help produce - certain flavors and aromas and colors and the like to come to the front but I would also presume that it does so BECAUSE certain sterols and other products of the fermentation have already been produced and are in the wine but if the fermentation takes place very quickly (say, because of high temperatures) are those organics in fact in the wine or have they been destroyed or have never been produced? And so when you remove the lees and the active yeasts are they going to be in the wine when you age it? I am not asking this with any sense of irony. I simply don't know but would like to...

 

[Henry]

Forgive me, but I'm having a bit of trouble following your post.

I racked the wine the first time to get it off of the gross lees, there were several berries floating around, and some suspicious looking goo (elderberry is famous for its fermenter goop.) I am sure there are still yeasts present in the wine, it's only been a few weeks, and I accidentally siphoned some during the transfer.

As far as my future plans for the wine, I will wait a few more weeks and rack again. During which, I'll take a sample and play with a back sweetening dosage with sugar syrup. After another month or so, I'll stabilize with sorbate and rack again onto a measured amount of syrup in a corny keg. From the keg, I'll bottle some still and force carbonate the remainder. Rather than guess at a carbonation rate I'll start at 5 psi so at around 60 degrees (basement temp) shake it up, let it sit for a day, sample, and repeat in increments of 5 psi until I'm happy with it. Then I'll bottle the sparkling version. Then I'll try not to drink it. That's the plan. We'll see.

 

[Henry]

Racked again last night. I need to get a second fermenter because racking from the corny to a bucket and back to the corny doesn't sit well with me, even though I did purge each with CO2 prior to transfer. Mostly the sanitization-not sterilization issue. On to the nitty-gritty.

Measured by weight, 2.2 gallons made it back into the fermenter along with a heavy teaspoon of sorbate (directions read 1/2 tsp per gallon)

Also worth noting - I have no idea how old the sorbate is, I bought it a few months ago (I think) but who knows where it's been and what the production date was. I recall reading somewhere that it does become less effective with age.

I sweetened a sample again, and found that it is still very tasty! Tasty enough to forget to test for a back sweetening dosage (I was going to take a refract reading), not a drop left. I thought I picked up on a weird after-taste, but my fiance didn't when she tasted it, so who knows?