Port

Hi
i was wondering, as any of you ever tried to make a port??

I've got some elderberry port on the go at the moment.

I've used 10lb of elderberries to a gallon of water, added about 1/2lb of raisins to the fermenter and sugar to bring the OG up to 1.120.

I added a couple of packs of port yeast and it's currently fizzing away in a fermenting bucket under the stairs.

I'll decant it off the lees at the end of this week and ferment out in a demi john, possibly racking off the lees a couple of times. Once fermentation is over (possibly a couple of months away) I'll stabilise and bottle, adding a good tot of brandy to each bottle.

Then the waiting starts - it will be a year before I open the first bottle, possibly up to two or three before it's trully ready.

HTH

80/-

80/- said:

Once fermentation is over (possibly a couple of months away) I'll stabilise and bottle, adding a good tot of brandy to each bottle.
80/-

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Sounds interesting 80/- So what type of brandy do you use? Decent quality Cognac etc or just a cheaper blended version? And any ideas on the quantity to fortify it to port levels of alcohol?

I've never done it before - this is the first batch.

I've been asking myself the same questions. I recon I might go for a mid-range price brandy but it will depend how good it tastes before the brandy is added !

Port yeast should take the fermentation to decent levels of alcohol - I'll know how strong once it ferments out. At a rough guess I'd say a decent nip in each bottle should do the trick.

It does sound good 80/-. Let me know just how you get on, I've got elderberries from this season in the freezer but I've got plans for those already, but if it goes well for you I'll give it a go next year.

my first real visit. My 2005 fortified Elderberry ( a ratio of 3 elderberry to 1 blckberryy) is now sitting in a 23 lite glass carboy to bulk age. It ferment out by slow addition of sugar to 17 % abv and I then fortified it up to 20 % using a 40% abv Vodka.
It will now sit until december this year when I shall rack it off into a clean carboy and then bulk age for another year. My fortified elderberry usuually throws off lees for at least a couple of years. At the end on the second year of bulk aging I shall taste and ajust for sweetness usung ordinary cane sugar.

It will then bulk age for at least one more year -- probably two before bottling and then drinking at about the five year point.

The addition of the alcohol to lift the wine up to 20% abv give it a very harshtaste and it needs time to adjust and even down. There's only one way to do it -- time is a fantastic wine assistant in all wines whether fortified or not.

All my red "country" wines, without fortifying, bulk age for 2 years and even my apricot does too. The only one I drink "young" is Strawberry wwhich is bottled at about the 9 month point ready for drinking as the new English strawberry season starts in the summer

HI If you want I can give you some links I found about port, and a post I asked(brought up on degasing post) about it, or I coul;d copy, and paste the posts.

When I got a stuck fermentation after I racked my grape blend, and after I watered down(2 gallons out of three) for the yeast starter(raise PH native grapes pure juice/skins{tart/acidic}) that yeast starter was not working I thought after a hour so I went to the store, and got a 1.75 litre of cheap vodka-----(cheap, and Im glad I did so mostly because it's neutral)---- I raised the sugar 1.020, and the whole bottle droped it down to 1.010 I wanted it more dryer, but this expert wine brewer suggested not to blend it next year he said port should be thick,oily

He also said port can be above a certain percentage(I forgot) that must be why I see recipes for it with no fortifying agent.

20ml - 13% wine + 1ml 40% brandy = 14.3% port
20ml - 13% wine + 2ml 40% brandy = 15.4% port
20ml - 13% wine + 5ml 40% brandy = 18.4% port

I also have info about how much sugar raises the

SG. 2 cups finely granulated sugar = 1 pound =1.045 in a US gallon 4 cups finely granulated sugar = 2 pounds = 1.090 in a US. gal. of water

I think you could do the math, but I raised a 5 US gallon batches SG 0.030 with a 5 pound bag of sugar due to a low starting SG--- out of sugar for the forced yeast strater= (carrot wine).sugar probaly didn't dissolve all the way

Wait when you make port aren't you suposed to ferment it only to around the 1/3 sugar break, then fortify it so it is still sweet?

Palecricket --Read this copyed from a wineries tasting notes

"American Port – A fortified wine originally only from the river region of Northern Portugal. The fermentation is halted early in the process by the addition of grape brandy, leaving the natural sweetness from the grape."

(Can't remember where I read this state ment Im about to make)
I read fortifying this way can go as low as 0.996, and still be sweet.
(I will reply when or If I find it)

What you supposed to do when you dillute 3 gallons with 2 gallons of pure acidic(FlaVORFUL) grape wine(Experimented before handthese wild grapes comes out right)

dilluting 3 gallons with at least 1 3/4 gallons, and droping the alcohol content (SG droped 0.080 before dillution)would of most likly had spoiled My Grape wine.
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Mine tatses like cough syrup, but it is still droping no sediment(NONE) after 6 months, but I did add egg whites in the primary fermentation, because of some problems

I started a port kit about a year ago, in the directions it says to add 1 liter of brandy When racking I tasted the wine and it was too sweet, so I added a 50/50 mixture of 1920 brandy V.S.O.P brandy. After the addition I tasted it and it had was not as sweet but hot taste to it. I have been bulk aging it now for over almost a year.

In the process of adding the brandy I took out some of the unfortified wine from the carboy and had about half of a 750 ml wine bottle. I decided to add brandy to this and have been sipping from this for about a year. It has improved with greatly in time. I am looking forward to bottling this and letting it age for another half year so.