Euphoria

So about a year ago, I made this. It was intended for my graduation party, which probably isn't going to happen (I'm graduating, just not in the position to have much of a party). I opened it a few weeks ago for a games/Eurovision weekend with friends. Filtered out the fruit. I had the cherry and strawberry I made in that post, and peach and raspberry that I made a few weeks after that.

Some of them work neat, some of them are mixers. Strawberry is nice if a bit syrupy sweet. Raspberry is nice if a bit overly tart. Mixed, they are delicious. Peach isn't very nice neat (tastes like the syrup in canned peaches, but alcoholic) but I'm told it tastes fab with bitter lemon or tonic water. I don't much like alcoholic cherry flavours but my mother loves the cherry variety. It also tastes like it could be good in chocolate fondue. Actually, they all do..

I made a new version yesterday - apple. I cut up two Granny Smith apples and a lime (just the flesh), added 60gr sugar, a few slivers of lime peel, and filled up with vodka. I'm hoping for a mild apple sour effect. Let you know how it turns out.. in 6 months or so :-)

Imre

Oh dear, I just couldn't resist the sight of the two empty demijohns in the windowsill, so I filled one of them..
I'd been reading about making cider and apple wine and thought it sounded pretty interesting. I'm not a huge fan of cider, but apple wine.. hmm.

IMRE is:

• 3 litres of very nice cloudy orchard apple juice. This stuff tastes amazing, not at all like the processed juice from concentrate. It's been pasteurised, but nothing else. Tastes like real apple, liquid form.
• 1.5 litres cheaper 'normal' apple juice (I had decided the total cost should be under 5 euro)
• 500 gr demerera sugar
• 150 gr sultanas
• some lemon peel
• doux yeast

It looks kinda unpleasant right now - the sugar gave it a brownish colour and the cloudiness of the juice makes it look, well, brown and murky right now. With the sultanas in there it doesn't look inviting. It's slowly started bubbling though, and we will see how it all turns out. It should be relatively fast (compared to the meads) to drinkability - I'm hoping to have this drinkable by christmas. One can hope.
Starting gravity was 1070. Depending on how it progresses I will probably add more sugar later.

Halle

I got 1.5 litres of quince juice and decided it'd probably be best to use it ASAP. This involved using my last free 5L demi (I like to keep one free to rack into) so I need to either bottle something in the next few weeks, or buy an extra. I used the blender to mix the juice with the honey, as this honey is very 'heavy' and is almost impossible to stir in by hand.

Halle
1.5 litre freshly made quince juice
1.5 kilo Bulgarian flower honey (same stuff as Fennah and Ehle)
Half a teaspoon yeast starter/activator
half a teaspoon Doux yeast

SG: 1.100
That's very high, so it remains to be seen if it'll actually start. I asked the Internets for help about if I should dilute (which would necessitate some fuss with demi's) and someone said that there are people who start all their mead from such a high SG, so I should just see what happens.

The quince juice smells amazing, there's a bit of a honey scent there already, and has a pretty pink blush - the combination will hopefully work well. I have high hopes for this one.

Gwyllion - Elderberry wine

I had promised myself not to start anything new until I had some confidence in the drinkability of my first batches, just because I'm a little worried about pouring time and money into making a lot of mediocre brew.
However - the elderberries are ripe. I spotted a bush down the street that yielded half a kilo. I am reliably advised that elderberry wine (rather than elderberry mead) is well worth making, and figured that without the cost of the honey, this is practically a free experiment. Why the hell not. I got port yeast with my last brewery supplies, and it seems like an interesting combination.

Of course, I had not counted on the foraging on the floodlands and cleaning/juicing taking up an entire day!

Gwyllion
- about 2 kg elderberries
- 1.5 kg sugar
- port yeast
- teaspoon yeast energiser (because I'm too lazy to make a starter)
- water

Boiled the berries to make juice and let it boil gently for about 30 minutes (according to some reports this removes some kind of unpleasantness from it). Once strained, I dissolved half of the sugar. Let it cool and poured into a 5l demijohn. Filled up to 4 litres with water. Mixed in the energiser, then pitched the yeast. The other half of the sugar is going to be added in a few days, once fermentation is well and truly underway.

grav. 1.072, watered down to 1.064 the next day

Elderberries are fairly acidic and I may need to think of something to tone it down further along the way. One recipe suggested bananas, but that sounds just weird.

Boozemaking - Euphoria

Something non fermenting today. In the book about meadmaking is also this recipe, and when I had extra fruit I figured it'd be a nice surprise for myself in the autumn.
Plus, I've picked up these nice litre bottles in Ikea yesterday :-)
It's fruit (one cherry, one strawberry), sugar and vodka - should be nice in about 4 months. I've given it labels which say "Do not open before graduation" as I hope to graduate uni in October and it'd be a nice treat!