Plateau of Productivity

The Hype Cycle is a graphical representation of technology adoption and diffusion. The part of this graph I most like to point out is the "Trough of Disillusionment." Companies have to recognize this point in a product or project lifecycle and push through it.

I was standing there looking at a dozen carboys yesterday and thinking I've been through this same cycle with winemaking. I had some early successes which led to inflated expectations. Then failures led to some disillusionment. Study and practice and a lot of bad wine pushed me up the Slope of Enlightenment. Yesterday I looked at a dozen carboys, confident that not one of them has undrinkable wine, I felt as if I'm approaching the Plateau of Productivity.

For Thanksgiving the family is home, including my parents. The Elderberry Persimmon wine Wednesday was a big hit, both in terms of taste and in terms of photogenicity.

We moved the blackberry-elderberry to secondary and kicked off the second run elderberry. Grandma Sharon helped with this batch. For Thanksgiving dinner we finished a bottle of last year's second run elderberry. This wine was bottled dry and came out terrific - fruity with strawberry and raspberry elements and beautiful ruby color. This wine cleared on it's own and was bottled after 9 months.  Here is the recipe.

Elderberry - seeds, skins, and pulp leftover from 2 16# 3 gal batches
3# bananas
3 cans Welch's white grape concentrate
4# 14oz sugar
GoFerm
Fermaid K
3t pectic enzyme
5t citric acid
1t tartaric acid

Place elderberry pulp in nylon straining bag in primary; add sugar and grape concentrate. Slice bananas, simmer, strain into primary.  Add boiling water to 3 gallons.  When cool, stir in acids, pectic enzyme.  Pitch yeast starter with EC-1118, step feed, kmeta when into secondary, usual care thereafter.