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cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 5:56 pm Post subject: What's brewing?

Currently winding down the brewing over winter, but at the moment I'm brewing the following wines:

Clearing and waiting to be bottled:
1 gallon dark mead
1 gallon light mead
1 gallon lemon balm
1 gallon water mint

Still plopping:
1 gallon blackberry
1 gallon mixed black fruit (elderberry, blackberry, black currant)
1 gallon elderberry
(most of a gallon of dregs from the primary ferments of all three of those mixed together - all of these reds will end up variously blended at some stage anyway)
1 gallon of damson
1 gallon of red currant

Recently bottled and still improving (although being drunk):
1 gallon of watermint (yes, that's two gallons of watermint in total)
1 gallon of plum
1 gallon of ginger
1 gallon of meadowsweet (a mistake never to be repeated)
1 gallon of orange blossom

That isn't an exhaustive list of what's in the wine rack, but they're the ones that I rekon are still young.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28237
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 6:01 pm Post subject:

Ok,

Clearing and waiting to be bottled, albeit one of them only wait another hour

5 Gallons Beaverdale Shiraz wine kit.
5 Gallons Beaverdale Cabernet Souvignon wine kit.
5 Gallons Elderberry.
5 Gallons Elderberry + Blackberry.

Still on the go:

5 Gallons high alcohol elderberry + seems to have possibly stopped. Mental note to pay it some attention.
5 Gallons Beaverdale Chardonay wine kit.

jema

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 7:31 pm Post subject:
Can I come to your house Jema!! I have 1 gallon mead, 1 gallon parsnip, clearing, 1 gallon banana, clearing and 1 gallon ribena clearing. Waiting to finish is elderberry, and everything else has been drunk.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28237
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 7:36 pm Post subject:

alison wrote:

Can I come to your house Jema!!

I have 1 gallon mead, 1 gallon parsnip, clearing, 1 gallon banana, clearing and 1 gallon ribena clearing. Waiting to finish is elderberry, and everything else has been drunk.

Should be the place to be by xmas

The Shiraz tastes just a little young at the moment

jema

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 7:55 pm Post subject:

Quote:

1 gallon of watermint (yes, that's two gallons of watermint in total)
...
1 gallon of meadowsweet (a mistake never to be repeated)

The meadowsweet would sound nice, what's wrong with it?

I am also curious to know what the watermint tastes like?

I have:

2 gallons blackberry and apple waiting to be bottled
2 gallons of mainly apple with a hint of garden grapes currently gurgling to each other.
2 gallons of Xmas beer in a 2 gallon barrel and 2 gallons bottled.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 04 8:12 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

The meadowsweet would sound nice, what's wrong with it?

It's revolting. It's utterly horrible, and it's maturing worse. Tases indescribable.

Quote:

I am also curious to know what the watermint tastes like?

Sweet and minty

Really good stuff.

I also forgot to mention that there's a gallon of elderflower clearing too.

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 9:09 am Post subject:

our store of these things is a little more modest - this is our 1st year of doing these things

We have a bottle and a half of limoncello in fridge - being consumed

1 kilner of ginger vodka been steeping since the summer, getting there but needs another month or two

1 kilner Christmas spirit - see recipe resource - should be nearly done

1 kilner damson vodka - absolutely delish - like alcoholic plum crumble - ready for xmas I think

1 demijohn tea wine - racked off once and slowly clearing

1 beer kit to be done ( our 1st) this weekend.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28237
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 11:42 am Post subject:
Racked the elderberry and blackberry, clear and tasting quite like it has potential had to top off with another 4.5 bottles of shiraz as it went into a bigger barrel, means that the wine has now had about 12 bottles of various mixed in! Something vital to do now, which I will announce shortly, but then onto the next racking jema

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28237
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 12:38 pm Post subject:

And racked the basic Elderberry, quite a lot of sediment and still in the process of clearing. I think another couple on months and another racking will be needed before bottling will mae sense.

My high alcohol elderberry is still with agonising slowness fermenting.

Seems like the three lots will pace themselves nicely. I can bottle the first just in time for xmas, and it will be drinkable I think, the other will start coming into their own for the next two xmas's.

I'm going to struggle on storage space though, I know that

jema

Lindsay

Joined: 03 Nov 2004
Posts: 61
Location: Stuck in the suburbs

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 8:46 pm Post subject:
I have: 1 gallon of strawberry and elderberry clearing (does one describe it as "young" if it tastes horrible? ) 1 and a bit gallons of tinned peach fermenting 2 bottles of my fruit cocktail wine from the summer left, hoping to hang onto them until Christmas Bottle and a half of limoncello, mainly destined for Christmas pressies. Ought to get some others on I suppose!

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28237
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 04 1:38 pm Post subject:
Just bottled 27 bottles of Beaverdale Cabernet Souvignon Got lots of brewing space free now. So 5 gallons of what winter wine? suggestions please. jema

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 04 1:47 pm Post subject:
It's too late this year, but could you make a Christmas wine? Cranberry and orange, or something like that.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 04 1:50 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

It's too late this year, but could you make a Christmas wine? Cranberry and orange, or something like that.

Cranberry and orange are both quite acid, so yes, you could, but you'd probably need to limit how much of each you put in.

A better beverage for Chrismas might be a simple old fashioned metheglin.

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 04 1:53 pm Post subject:
And cranberries are quite tannic. I don't want to make it personally, since I'm firmly of the view that wine is made from grapes. I just thought it might be nice for people who like that sort of thing.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 04 2:19 pm Post subject:
Wine made from grapes? Have you SEEN the grapes that grow wild in Gateshead? Making wine from THOSE was a mistake!

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