Pectin enzym
After some advice from the people from the homebrewing group on livejournal I ordered a pectin enzym for Halle and Imre. You're supposed to add this stuff when you first mix the protowine, but some say it'll still work afterward, so we're trying that now.
Racking
Gwyllion: 0.990 / 17% (racked)
Much too dry like this. Added about 150 gr sugar. Hope that wasn't too much, but I dissolved 100gr and that only brought it to 1.004. Wait and see.
Halle: 1.018 / ?% (didn't write it down apparently) (racked)
I don't know. Not appetising. Maybe it'll turn into something?
Imre: 1.010 / 14.5% (racked)
Lovely delicate apple taste/scent gone. Damn! Smells/tastes like dry cider now. Have added some demerera sugar.
Much too dry like this. Added about 150 gr sugar. Hope that wasn't too much, but I dissolved 100gr and that only brought it to 1.004. Wait and see.
Halle: 1.018 / ?% (didn't write it down apparently) (racked)
I don't know. Not appetising. Maybe it'll turn into something?
Imre: 1.010 / 14.5% (racked)
Lovely delicate apple taste/scent gone. Damn! Smells/tastes like dry cider now. Have added some demerera sugar.
101 things to do with vodka
As a displacement activity for being really impatient to try the apple wine, I've been making some NotMead booze...
Barenjager Recipe
Barenjager Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 cloves
- 1 vanilla bean
- 700ml vodka
- 300ml very nice heath honey
- a container large enough to hold 1 liter
Directions
Making Barenjager liquor is a simple task, requiring mostly time before everyone can begin enjoying delicious homemade Barenjager drinks.
- First, rough chop the cloves and split the vanilla bean lengthwise before adding them to the container and filling it with the vodka.
- Let this mixture sit for at least 24 hours before straining the vanilla bean and the cloves from the vodka.
- Once the vodka is clear of any remaining pieces, stir vigorously, pouring the honey in a thin stream. Do not stop until the honey and the vodka are completely blended together. Store the finished Barenjager honey liqueur in a cool, dark area and enjoy.
Gwy / Imre
Gwyllion: fed more sugar, I think about 50 grams
Imre: added bentonite. I'm not sure if bentonite is going to do it for fruit haze (have a vague recollection of pos charged and neg charged clearing methods but.. meh. I figure it's going to take ages to get this one cleared as it is super cloudy because the juice was super cloudy, so I might as well start from bentonite and see how that turns out. The next step would probably be gelatine. Will see how that goes.
I'm super curious about Imre because I think it might turn out really nice, sweet apple wine, not at all like cider. If it works out well I will be making one with orchard pear juice as well. These fruit wines also satisfy my urge to make something I can drink soonish, because they should be reasonably drinkable around when it's bottling time, not take ages to age.
Imre: added bentonite. I'm not sure if bentonite is going to do it for fruit haze (have a vague recollection of pos charged and neg charged clearing methods but.. meh. I figure it's going to take ages to get this one cleared as it is super cloudy because the juice was super cloudy, so I might as well start from bentonite and see how that turns out. The next step would probably be gelatine. Will see how that goes.
I'm super curious about Imre because I think it might turn out really nice, sweet apple wine, not at all like cider. If it works out well I will be making one with orchard pear juice as well. These fruit wines also satisfy my urge to make something I can drink soonish, because they should be reasonably drinkable around when it's bottling time, not take ages to age.
Measurings
Fennah: 15% / 1.022
Still cloudy, still quite fizzy. It's been bubbling, so that seems to want more time. The drop I tasted seemed rather sweet, but it's hard to tell with the yeast taste still in, we'll see.
Gwyllion: 12% / 0.990
Hungry, hungry yeast - I fed it about 50 gr cane sugar and it foamed so hard it spilled over. Oops! Mead doesn't react that hard when I add new honey, so that was a surprise. Added a small piece of lemon peel to help keep the foam down. I'm going to try to get it to ferment out by alcohol level without oversweetening it again, so sugar in small increments I guess.
Halle: 16% / 1.020
Very cloudy and fizzy. It smells of heavy fermentation, but the drop I tasted seemed to suggest it could turn out quite nice when the yeast is done.
Imre: 15% / 1.010
Still cloudy, but hardly any fizz when agitated - this seems to be going toward finished. Underneath the yeast taste it was quite nice and appley. I Will Be Patient (for once!) and let it run its course - I'm very curious how this one'll turn out though. And I'm now thinking of doing a similar wine but with the orchard pear juice..
Still cloudy, still quite fizzy. It's been bubbling, so that seems to want more time. The drop I tasted seemed rather sweet, but it's hard to tell with the yeast taste still in, we'll see.
Gwyllion: 12% / 0.990
Hungry, hungry yeast - I fed it about 50 gr cane sugar and it foamed so hard it spilled over. Oops! Mead doesn't react that hard when I add new honey, so that was a surprise. Added a small piece of lemon peel to help keep the foam down. I'm going to try to get it to ferment out by alcohol level without oversweetening it again, so sugar in small increments I guess.
Halle: 16% / 1.020
Very cloudy and fizzy. It smells of heavy fermentation, but the drop I tasted seemed to suggest it could turn out quite nice when the yeast is done.
Imre: 15% / 1.010
Still cloudy, but hardly any fizz when agitated - this seems to be going toward finished. Underneath the yeast taste it was quite nice and appley. I Will Be Patient (for once!) and let it run its course - I'm very curious how this one'll turn out though. And I'm now thinking of doing a similar wine but with the orchard pear juice..
Brynn, and Gwyllion - again
Very unhappy day yesterday as several of the Brynn bottles decided they didn't like it in the bottle and pushed out corks. Even one that was already in the fridge! I lost about a litre and a half in total, salvaged about 500 ml that I'm probably going to drink, and opened a few others before they popped corks. Was. Not. Happy. Messy to clean up too. I'm mourning for quite a bit of what promised to become very nice mead. The remaining bottles are standing on the kitchen counter, loosely corked so they can breathe off, and until I stop being pissed off about it and start dealing with it.
Gwyllion is more hopeful. Had a slight brainwave and realised that with a different wine with a similar problem, I'd be looking to add fruit juice or concentrate to fix the thin-ness problem. The hippie food shop sells elderberry juice, so I went and got some, and did a little test with some of the thin, too sweet port. About 1:8 juice:port balances it out very nicely - counteracts the sweetness, gets rid of the thin-ness. Yum. I took out 0.7l to make space, and then added juice - originally 660ml, but reduced to about 0.5l.
I didn't stop there, because that would make sense - I added the yeast starter I've been putting through Alcohol Tolerance Bootcamp over the past week. It's more wine now (14%) and I still hope it'll become a proper heavy port. No idea how that's going to work out, but we'll see.
It was 1040 (I think the previous readings were off - they were with a less precise hydrometre) & 14% just now.
So I have a demi full of Further Experiment, plus a bottle that with the addition of a bit of juice will make something to try at Christmas - I quite like it, we'll see what my visitors think :-)
Gwyllion is more hopeful. Had a slight brainwave and realised that with a different wine with a similar problem, I'd be looking to add fruit juice or concentrate to fix the thin-ness problem. The hippie food shop sells elderberry juice, so I went and got some, and did a little test with some of the thin, too sweet port. About 1:8 juice:port balances it out very nicely - counteracts the sweetness, gets rid of the thin-ness. Yum. I took out 0.7l to make space, and then added juice - originally 660ml, but reduced to about 0.5l.
I didn't stop there, because that would make sense - I added the yeast starter I've been putting through Alcohol Tolerance Bootcamp over the past week. It's more wine now (14%) and I still hope it'll become a proper heavy port. No idea how that's going to work out, but we'll see.
It was 1040 (I think the previous readings were off - they were with a less precise hydrometre) & 14% just now.
So I have a demi full of Further Experiment, plus a bottle that with the addition of a bit of juice will make something to try at Christmas - I quite like it, we'll see what my visitors think :-)
Gwyllion - Elderberry wine
Gwy: 1035 and 14%
Well, Edmund was right..
Watering is often a mistake. In addition to introducing new issues of sterility and oxidation, watering cuts the balances of sugars and minerals in an unbalanced way; you'll end up with a drink that simultaneously tastes too sweet and too thin.
I tasted it and it does indeed taste thin and is still too sweet. Bugger. Shame I didn't know that before I did it, I didn't think half a litre of water could make that much difference! I bottled half a litre of the un-watered bottle and have set the rest of that aside to add to the new start I've made - I got in a 'killer' yeast that should go to 16%, and I'm going to try making a starter and very slowly introducing the wine to ease the yeast up to the alcohol percentage. Then I'll pitch and see how it goes.
Well, Edmund was right..
Watering is often a mistake. In addition to introducing new issues of sterility and oxidation, watering cuts the balances of sugars and minerals in an unbalanced way; you'll end up with a drink that simultaneously tastes too sweet and too thin.
I tasted it and it does indeed taste thin and is still too sweet. Bugger. Shame I didn't know that before I did it, I didn't think half a litre of water could make that much difference! I bottled half a litre of the un-watered bottle and have set the rest of that aside to add to the new start I've made - I got in a 'killer' yeast that should go to 16%, and I'm going to try making a starter and very slowly introducing the wine to ease the yeast up to the alcohol percentage. Then I'll pitch and see how it goes.
Rackings
Alexis: super dry and starting to fall clear (added bentonite last time). I'm thinking about keeping this one to correct too sweet mead with.
SG: 0.995
Alc. 15%
Halle: Just ticking along - I think it's mostly fermented out now though. This one is going to be a pain to get clear.
SG: 1.015
alc. 15.5%
Imre: I had hoped this would hang on to some of the apple scent, but sadly not. Very ciderish. I added a syrup of 100gr demerera sugar to hopefully sweeten it some.
SG 1.000 (before I added sugar, didn't measure after. 'cause I'm smart like that)
alc. 14.5%
SG: 0.995
Alc. 15%
Halle: Just ticking along - I think it's mostly fermented out now though. This one is going to be a pain to get clear.
SG: 1.015
alc. 15.5%
Imre: I had hoped this would hang on to some of the apple scent, but sadly not. Very ciderish. I added a syrup of 100gr demerera sugar to hopefully sweeten it some.
SG 1.000 (before I added sugar, didn't measure after. 'cause I'm smart like that)
alc. 14.5%
Bottlings and measurments
Alexis: very dry. Starting to fall clear (though unfortunately I stirred up some of the sediment in racking).
SG: 1000
Alc 15%
Brynn: smells great, tastes nice - I have hopes for this one. bottled at
SG: 1020
Alc 14.5%
Fennah: has been completely still - topped out due to max alc reached, but is not falling clear. I watered it down slightly in the hope this might encourage the yeasties to have another go. Racked.
SG: 1032 diluted to about 1030
Alc 16% diluted to about 14.5%
Gwyllion: this smells and tastes pretty good! It's too sweet though, even for port. Must have miscalculated the sugar. Watered down slightly + small amount of yeast activator in the hope that the yeasties will eat a few points of the sugar. With that oversweet edge off I think this could be great.
SG: 1042
Alc: 16%
SG: 1000
Alc 15%
Brynn: smells great, tastes nice - I have hopes for this one. bottled at
SG: 1020
Alc 14.5%
Fennah: has been completely still - topped out due to max alc reached, but is not falling clear. I watered it down slightly in the hope this might encourage the yeasties to have another go. Racked.
SG: 1032 diluted to about 1030
Alc 16% diluted to about 14.5%
Gwyllion: this smells and tastes pretty good! It's too sweet though, even for port. Must have miscalculated the sugar. Watered down slightly + small amount of yeast activator in the hope that the yeasties will eat a few points of the sugar. With that oversweet edge off I think this could be great.
SG: 1042
Alc: 16%
Halle & Imre
Halle was racked and measured:
SG 1032
Alc 12%
As expected, Imre dropped massive amounts of sediment in the first few days (it's that cloudy apple juice) and I also wanted the sultana's out of there to stop them from overpowering the apple.
SG 1045
Alc 9%
Racking lost a fair amount of volume (as expected) so I topped up with the good apple juice (about 750ml) and added about 150gr sugar. No idea about the new SG because I didn't dissolve the sugar, just poured it in - if previous experience are anything to go by, it will simply be eaten from its layer on the bottom.
Brynn is ready to bottle, I think. Will do that sometime this week.
SG 1032
Alc 12%
As expected, Imre dropped massive amounts of sediment in the first few days (it's that cloudy apple juice) and I also wanted the sultana's out of there to stop them from overpowering the apple.
SG 1045
Alc 9%
Racking lost a fair amount of volume (as expected) so I topped up with the good apple juice (about 750ml) and added about 150gr sugar. No idea about the new SG because I didn't dissolve the sugar, just poured it in - if previous experience are anything to go by, it will simply be eaten from its layer on the bottom.
Brynn is ready to bottle, I think. Will do that sometime this week.
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.
Bottled!
I bottled Caelan. Basically decided that it was pissing me off, I had champagne bottles so it's not likely to become another bottle bomb, and I will pull one open in a year to see what's it turned out like.
Oh! and I have at last turned on comment notification, so I won't miss comments to older posts. (sorry Vicky!)
Oh! and I have at last turned on comment notification, so I won't miss comments to older posts. (sorry Vicky!)
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.
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.
The Mass Measuring Returns
Alexis: something weird going on here. SG went down compared to last measuring (as expected, it's been bubbling slowly) but the Alc level did not go up. Huh?
Grav: 1.002
Alc: 15.5%
Brynn: I keep hoping that this is finally ready for bottling! Specific gravity still dropped a little bit though, and when the bottle is handled there are some bubbles out the airlock. Hmm.
Grav: 1014
alc: 14%
Caelan: Racked. This batch hates me. It won't stabilise and the colour has changed more toward the orange spectrum - it's lost the pretty pink/purple hue. I really have no frame of reference for the taste, but it's not good - I'm just not sure if it's the sort of not good that won't age out. I'm starting to think about dumping it! It's still very carbonated. If I had champagne bottles (or a cheap& easy way to get them) I might just put it in there and stash it away somewhere, but.. *sigh*
Grav: from 1.025 to about 1.055
Alc: 14%
Gwyllion: I actually have some hope for this one. The scent is wine(ish), the taste is not good but in the sort of way that suggests it might become good. (again, no frame of reference!) It's fermented a little more, though I'm not sure if it's topped out now - port yeast might take it a little higher still.
Grav: 1.042
Alc: 17%
Gwy
Took that SG reading this morning before it wouldn't be a reasonable starting reading anymoreSG was 1042
It's not moved since yesterday, no fizzing, no bubbles. In fact I was a little worried that the sudden added gravity had bogged things down, so I added just a touch of yeast activator (only to the demi, not the overflow bottle). It didn't foam as expected. Not sure what's going on, but I'll just sit on my hands and leave it alone for a month I guess...
To the right a photo of the stopper kludge I made. Not sure if it's not airtight and therefore not building up pressure, or if there's just no pressure because the wine is still. Hmm.
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