Convergency

1685g Elderberries
700g Brambles (Blackberry)
2kg Sugar
6l water
1 Tsp ginger
2 tps Pectin Enzyme (pectolase)
2l pure grape juice (I used red and white)

Destalk and wash the elderberries and brambles.

Add 2l of water to fruit in a large pan and warm gently, mashing with a metal potato masher.

Remove from heat at about 80 degrees C. Add sugar and mash/stir some more. Once cooled add Pectolase (mix it up in a cup of water) and stir some more. Leave overnight.

Add to fermentation bin, mix in the rest of the water cold, add the yeast (leave it on the surface for 15 mins then mix in) and cover with a tea-towel or other fine material and use an elastic band or similar to hold in place. It should be bubbling away in a few hours after pitching the yeast.

Leave to ferment for 5 or 6 days giving it a mash/stir every day with the sterilised potato masher. Strain out the pulp through a tea-towel – it helps if you have a 2nd bucket/bin as there is a lot of pulp – a jam strainer would also probably be handy. I tried straining directly into some home-made demijohns (5l water bottles with a hole drilled in the lids for the airlock) and was mostly successful

I divided the liquid into the two DJs and topped up with the grape juice – screwed the lids on and primed the airlocks.

Left it for about 6 weeks and then racked into another couple of fresh water bottles and put the normal lids on. I also syphoned off a glass full to taste. OMG! It’s like – red wine! Proper bouquet, vanilla and berry… can’t wait to bottle it and mature it. My wife is in shock that I didn’t make vinegar.

A definite success considering it was a made up recipe.

Cheers!

EDIT: at second racking I added a crushed camden tablet and some another heaped teaspoon of pectolase – it wasn’t clearing up as much as I would have liked and everyone adds a camden at this stage (helps prevent oxidisation and prevents further fermentation apparently)

Here’s a satirical look at Britain’s nuclear power plans…

I was just reading this story on the Guardian about the ‘Cashless Man’ Mark Boyle – and read this line:

“I thought it would be just that: a little blog.”

Now – not wanting to pick on Mark, as I love the work he has done and he gets a lot of stick from people who cannot contemplate living without ’stuff’ and cash, but…

A blog (short for weblog) is a website with a number of timestamped entries/stories/articles. In netspeak these are called posts – or blog posts.

Some people call them entries (like a diary), you could conceivably call them stories or pieces or even articles – especially if they appear on a newspaper website.

When you write a post – you are also ‘blogging’ a verb ‘to blog’: the act of writing/editing a post or updating your blog.

This is not a blog. This is a blog post.