Before I begin.

Alan - Just about any general-purpose wine yeast should be fine. I'd wait with the sugar until you can measure the S.G., and adjust as necessary to the low end of the winemaking range (say, 1.080 or so) since beets tend be high in sugar, but it won't register initially as it is bound up in the beetroot flesh. Not sure whether pectic enzyme is necessary, but it doesn't hurt - I'd add some, just on principle. I wouldn't plan on adding much water later on - that just dilutes the wine. Add what you need up front, adjust the sugar and acid as needed. Wait until fermentation is nearly done (S.G. down to 1.010 or so), then rack into gallon jugs. At that point, fermentation should be slow enough that you can fill them pretty nearly to the top without much risk of overflow.

There is really no very good way of stopping an active fermentation, and I don't think you need to. It will stop when the food source (sugar) runs out. Let it ferment dry, wait for it to clear, then add sorbate and sweeten as desired at the end of the process.

Doug

In article , Doug writes

Thank you Doug. I will check the SG at the start of fermentation, something I've not done before. Does that mean fermenting on the fruit pulp from approx. 1.080 down to 1.010 before racking into demi-johns?

Thanks again. Could you detail 'sorbate' a little for me, and is there a possibility of re-activation at the bottling stage by oxygenisation?

Alan -

Yes, I normally ferment with the fruit or whatever for the first week or so, which is normally when fermentation starts to subside a bit.

Potassium sorbate is normally used to prevent renewed fermentation in wines that have some residual sugar. The recommended approach is to ferment your wine out to dry, let it clear and rack off the dead yeast. Then you add the appropriate amount of pot. sorbate and pot. meta-bisulfite (more about this later), sweeten to taste and bottle. Sorbate does not kill yeast ( a popular misconception) nor does it stop an active fermentation. But it does prevent yeast from reproducing. So if a few stray yeast cells manage to find their way into a bottle (quite possible, as yeast is virtually everywhere) they will not manage to reproduce and create enough yeast cells to cause significant fermentation in the bottle.

Not sure what you mean by re-activation. By the time the wine has cleared and you are ready to bottle, the original yeast are long gone. You may get a few stray cells, but that is what the sorbate is for.

It's important to have adequate sulfite levels when you use sorbate, since sorbate is effective against yeast, but not against malo-lactic bacteria, which actually digest sorbate (or near enough) and apparently produce some really unpleasant by-products. These bacteria are very sensitive to sulfites, however, so normal sulfite levels should be enough to prevent ML problems. You can test for free SO2 levels and adjust as needed. Or you can just add 1 Campden table per gallon when you add the sorbate, and you'll probably be fine.

Container terminology must be a little different in UK. In the US, a glass container with a volume of a gallon or so is usually referred to as a "jug"; containers in the range of 3 to 6 gallons or so are usually called "carboys", and the term "demi-john" is reserved for the really big glass containers, 12 gallons or more (45 to 50 liters) that usually have some sort of wicker or plastic covering over most of the bottom and sides. At least, that's been my experience.

Doug

Yes, currants are all high in pectin. A specific wine yeast isn't necessary, but you will want some kind of wine yeast for the best results. Each yeast has different properties that impact the finished wine (for example, I don't like pear wine that uses the lalvin D-47, preferring a champagne yeast for that - but I do like pineapple wine that started with the d-47). For info on variou yeasts, see Jack's site @

No problem! :-)

Woods

In article , Doug writes

I am learning fast. In the past [hold on to your hair] I have attempted to 'stop' wines with Campden tablets at an SG chosen to give a desired level of sweetness. The result has been that when they were bottled, the wine took up oxygen from the air and before too long corks were popping out of the bottles.

I now realise from your advice that the method should be to begin fermenting the mash at a predetermined SG, ferment most of the sugar out on the mash, then strain and transfer the wine to final fermenting vessels until all sugar is used up. Then use sorbate and added sweetener in the way you suggest to finish the wine ready for bottling.

I shall be reading this all up again 'before I begin' at least it is an acceptable way of being 'driven to drink' (!)

Yes, we talk differently across the pond, and we don't all use the same expressions. My own definitions are thus: A 'jug' is mostly a small open china or glass vessel used for serving milk or water at the breakfast table, or a pint beer glass with a handle; a 'carboy' is a very large globular glass vessel sometimes encased in wicker, used for storing distilled water or other chemicals, or a smaller version without wicker used as a terrarium for growing plants in an enclosed system; a 'bucket' for winemaking purposes is a 3 to 6 gallon plastic vessel with a fitted lid used for initial fermentation; a 'demi-john' is a one gallon glass vessel used for finally fermenting wine with a fermentation lock added. I will in future try to refer to initial and final fermentation vessels.

We do have a 'john' as distinct from demi-john, but that is not used in winekaking other than for disposal after drinking. :-)

Again my thanks to all.