It’s been a month of Sundays since my last post, and for that I am profoundly sorry. I hate leaving you 3 folks in need of my rapier wit for far longer than anyone should have to wait. In an effort to assuage your anguish, I wanted to get something out there for your eyes to feast on. Here’s a quick recap on how things have been going brew wise:
All the wines that have been in secondaries, remain there. I added 1/4 cup of honey to my chocolate mead, as well as 1/2 cup or so of icewine to top up with. It has dropped some additional lees and I will rack it off of them within a couple weeks. I also added 1/4 cup of sugar to my latest batch of welch’s wine. It seems to “perform” better when sweetened IMHO. No lees or refermentation as I added a pinch of campden and sorbate at the same time. I will bottle this soon.
My jalapeno wine is clearing nicely on its own. Another month or two and it should be crystal clear. I did have a sip I must admit. It’s hot, but very bearable. Quite interesting. Exactly what I had expected. I am not sure if I will sweeten at all or not. I also started a batch of jalapeno mead, which I do intend to sweeten with some honey later down the road. It is just barely starting to clear, but remains very very young.
My braggot #2 is bottled finally! Bottom line - braggot takes 3 weeks in a primary/secondary to be ready for bottling. It’s that simple. I bottled in the normal fashion and tasted one 2 weeks after bottling. While it was only a 1/2 bottle (the leftover, mind you) it is clearly better than my first batch. A correct amount of body with malty sweetness and definate honey notes. I am still trying to decide if the hops are in the correct amount. I may try a whole bottle tonight and decide where to go from here for batch #3. All in all, a success so far.
A gentleman I work with was kind enough to pick me up a gallon of honey from a local guy so I’m good to go on the mead and braggot front for quite some time. Only $25 and pure as the driven snow… Can’t beat it!
I’ve tasted my crystal clear dandelion wine recently as well. This deserves a whole post as it is clearly the finest homemade non-kit wine I have made. It is a shame I only made a gallon, although picking those dandelions was not easy. I am not sure I could have done another 2-4 gallons!
Coming up: I acquired a whole brewers best beer kit so I need to clean all that and get it into the rotation! Another primary means I need another large carboy! I plan on making a Chardonnay for the wife here soon. I just need to select a kit. I still plan on making my icewine style kit, a tomato wine, a garlic wine for cooking and more braggot. I should have a week off here soon where I plan on making SOMETHING almost every day!
Stay tuned. The updates, even if small, will be coming along at a steady pace now. Consider me recommitted.
Entries (RSS)