Elderberry/Blackberry Port

[Wade E]

Okay, I had a bad day! I come home to get a cold beer from the tap and open the door and the temp is 75*!!!!!Censored. I dont know whats wrong and since its the spare fridge I cant afford to have it fixed either but the compressor is working but just blowing hot air in both the freezer and fridge. I open the freezer and everything is thawed out, all my fruits and a few packages of meat also. I had 18 lbs of elderberries in there, 16 lbs of Blackberries, 12lbs of raspberries, and 4 1/2 lbs of mulberries. The last 2 fruits were for f-pacs so I immediately pulled those right out and threw them in a pot and started simmering to get that out of my way. I wasnt sure what I was going to do with the blackberries as of yet as Ididnt really have enough for a batch. Finally I said screw it and threw all the blackberries and elderberries in a fermenting bag along with 3 cups of light malt extract, 9lbs of sugar and the usual suspects and had an sg of 1.110. Tommorow I will add the yeast which will be Pastuer Red. I hope this will be a great wine but just really didnt have time to do anything else as when i opened the freezer a big mess came out which really took some time to clean up as those freezer bags I used were also what I used to pick them and I guess the prickers had done their job as I had a pool of red and purple juice flowing out of that freezer and gotall underneath and everywhere.

 

[Luc]

It will come out good Wade !!!

just make sure not to ferment too long on the pulp.
If you do too much tannin will leach out.

I normally ferment no longer as 4 days on the pulp.

Luc

 

[Wade E]

Ill take your advice on that Luc as Ive never done anything with Elder and never really knew what they even looked like until this year as I was determined to make a bunch of free wine with the exception of sugar and some ingredients that are cheap. Thanks. I was forced into this batch before I was ready though and had to call the LHBS today and ask them to stay open a few minutes past their closing time cause I found out this morning that I must have thrown out the yeast that was in that fridge by accident! The guy is coming tomorrow morning to fix it or find out what is wrong and order parts. It s under warranty though for parts and labor though Phew!

 

[St Allie]

Luckily you had a spare fermenting bag available Wade.. would have been a shame to see all your hard work wasted.

Hopefully the guy will get your fridge fixed pronto

Allie

 

[Wade E]

I would have dumped the fruit right in the bucket and dealt with tye mess later rather then throw out all that hard work, that was months of prickers and ticks and sitting home plucking little berries of of thousands of stems. No way in hell it was getting thrown out. I dont care if I had to ferment this batch in the toilet bowl!!!!!

 

[St Allie]

i would have dumped the fruit right in the bucket and dealt with tye mess later rather then throw out all that hard work, that was months of prickers and ticks and sitting home plucking little berries of of thousands of stems. No way in hell it was getting thrown out. I dont care if i had to ferment this batch in the toilet bowl!!!!!

....................

 

[St Allie]

has the guy had a look at your fridge yet? When will you be up and running again.. Oh I meant to ask.. is the beer ruined now because it got warm?


Allie

 

[Wade E]

I sure hope not but I really have no clue if the beer will be OK! The guy came and said the compressor is shot and too much money to replace. Now the owner is saying that he will give me a loner until he can decide what he's going to do. Now I dont feel like I got such a great deal. What the hell is up with new appliances, American made stuff i really pissing me off lately, When I bouht this house i was given $2,500 to buy all appliances, I bought all Maytag as Ive hear everywhere that it was a good product. 1 of those appliances, the fridge has already had a problem fixd where the whole thing stopped working, some switch and then another year later the washer crapped out and same thing, wasnt worth fixing as it would be the same amount of money to buy another almost so thats what we did. Now this is a big GE profile which is big money and months later its shot!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!! And because I payed very little for it they wont give me a new one and this place is kind of hard to get a hold of as its a small place and it seems that the guy is in and out all the time. I dont careif they replace it with a different fridge. Basically I just want to get another one and be over with it and get back to normal.

 

[St Allie]

Do you have a consumer watch authority in the US?

we do.. for a very small fee you can lay a complaint.. and an independent authority goes in to sort it out on your behalf.

Allie

 

[St Allie]

What you paid for the machine isn't the point.. it's under warranty..

oh and I have a maytag washing machine.. only one service in two years.. expensive though.. and my own fault for washing swimming gear in it.. we have iron sand beaches and I completely ruined the machine. My daughter and I surf all summer, apparently the build up of sand .. wasn't a good thing.

apart from that.. I am very happy with the machine itself.

Allie

 

[Wade E]

My parents have appliances that are older them me an most of them have never seena repairman. They just dodnt build stuff like they used to.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

My parents have appliances that are older them me an most of them have never seena repairman. They just dodnt build stuff like they used to.

so true. we had a westinghouse fridge, that was built in the 40's. still worked when we scrapped it ('08). it had an issue with getting too cold! bet a brand new dacor wouldn't go half that long even with minor repairs!

 

[Wade E]

Supposedly they are going to brng over a ne unit tommorow, not stainless steel but I dont care about that, I just want a new fridge that decent and energy efficient and can fit the four kegs in and hopefully a fifth.

 

[joeswine]

no cool

IT SOUNDS TO ME YOU EITHER LOST THE REFRIGERANT OR THE COMPRESS INTERNALS<THE FIRST WOULD BE MORE LIKELY.......unit running air bl owning but no refrigerant effect....................

 

[Wade E]

The repairguy said the compressor was shot but let me tell you I was very afraid when I got the call from my wife at work that it was blowing hot air as I drilled 2 holes (very careully) through the back for my C02 lines for the kegs and did so step by step with shallow small holes, poke around a little then g a little bigger and so on. When I got home I looked very closely and I was free and clear with no lines in sight. Finally today they delivered my new Maytag fridge which works for me and actually fits in that space a little better as its 3/4" smaller. It has a big hump in the bottom back though so i had to build a platform today after drilling through carefully again. Im back baby!

 

[Wade E]

Racked it this morning with an sg of 1.015 and the green stuff does come right off with vegetable oil nicely otherwise it just smears really bad with other stuff. I can see already thats its going to be fun getting the carboy clean though as that goop is already forming at the neck within minutes! Its the only carboy in front on the left. Smells wonderful, I think Im going to just throw out the mesh bag though and use Home Depot straining bag for this next time!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

nice setup wade.

glasses are ready to go!

 

[Wade E]

Yup, ready for you guys to turn them upright!

 

[Wade E]

I have made a lot of wines in my time but must say that the aroma coming out of the room from that carboy is intoxicating, what a beautiful smell it has to it! Smelling like it was worthall the trouble!

 

[Luc]

I hate to say this...............

Told you so

Luc