Pics and Progress
I love my new camera phone. Bluetooth is a wonderful thing that means I no longer have to wait for DH to upload pics form his camera to his computer to my computer. And since I mostly want pics for the web, I don't care that they would print small and unclear. They're perfectly sized for blogging! :)
Here are the bottles of Strawberry Wine and Cherry Vanilla Mead. I think I am going to stick with more descriptive names and less "cute" names for now. Unless they are really good, like Trick and Treat.
This is a shot of my "wine cellar" after last weekend's bottling and racking session. Scorp and I bottled the Trick and racked the Treat and Pumpkin Wine to get them off the pumpkin particles. In about 3 weeks, I'm going to see if they need to be racked again, or if they can be bottled up at that point. Both needed to be topped up a little (Treat needed to be topped up a LOT, after the explosion).
Here's a shot of the Pumpkin Wine and Treat. Treat tasted horrible, I'm hoping that it will get better. Pumpkin Wine may turn into a star. It tastes like a nice, but very young, wine right now. It is so good, in fact, that DH said he would drink it, and he's more of a gin and tonic kind of guy.
And I started a 6 gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange cuz that stuff is so dang good!
JAO - 6 gallon
20# raw clover honey (cheap from grocery store)
5 valencia oranges
4 1/2 packs of raisins (about 150)
6 sticks of cinnamon
5 whole cloves
1 pkg. Fleishmann's yeast
water to 6 gallons
7.18.06
I followed the recipe, dumped everything but yeast in after dissolving the honey in warm water. I added water until there was only about 4" of headroom left. Left it overnight to cool to room temperature.
7.19.06
Pitched the yeast, lidded and airlocked it. It was happily burping by the end of the day. I plan on opening it in a week to top up, and then ignoring it until October or so. That will give me plenty of time to gather up bottles - I will prolly get 25 out of this batch. Yay for cheap and easy Christmas presents!
Peaches are on sale right now, so I am planning on making Peach Ginger wine and mead. I love the fact that I can make really wonderful wine for about 75 cents a bottle and wonderful mead for $2 a bottle. I wish I could find a cheaper source of honey. :) The good news is that my grocery stores are starting to have more than just clover honey. I've seen Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Orange Blossom, and Wildflower. I've seen a couple others, too, but forget what they are right now. The only problem is that we are talking about $5 a pound for these honeys. Which more than doubles my cost. *shrug* One day I will have a coupon or I will just have enough spare grocery money to be able to grab enough to do a show mead.
Here are the bottles of Strawberry Wine and Cherry Vanilla Mead. I think I am going to stick with more descriptive names and less "cute" names for now. Unless they are really good, like Trick and Treat.
This is a shot of my "wine cellar" after last weekend's bottling and racking session. Scorp and I bottled the Trick and racked the Treat and Pumpkin Wine to get them off the pumpkin particles. In about 3 weeks, I'm going to see if they need to be racked again, or if they can be bottled up at that point. Both needed to be topped up a little (Treat needed to be topped up a LOT, after the explosion).
Here's a shot of the Pumpkin Wine and Treat. Treat tasted horrible, I'm hoping that it will get better. Pumpkin Wine may turn into a star. It tastes like a nice, but very young, wine right now. It is so good, in fact, that DH said he would drink it, and he's more of a gin and tonic kind of guy.
And I started a 6 gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange cuz that stuff is so dang good!
JAO - 6 gallon
20# raw clover honey (cheap from grocery store)
5 valencia oranges
4 1/2 packs of raisins (about 150)
6 sticks of cinnamon
5 whole cloves
1 pkg. Fleishmann's yeast
water to 6 gallons
7.18.06
I followed the recipe, dumped everything but yeast in after dissolving the honey in warm water. I added water until there was only about 4" of headroom left. Left it overnight to cool to room temperature.
7.19.06
Pitched the yeast, lidded and airlocked it. It was happily burping by the end of the day. I plan on opening it in a week to top up, and then ignoring it until October or so. That will give me plenty of time to gather up bottles - I will prolly get 25 out of this batch. Yay for cheap and easy Christmas presents!
Peaches are on sale right now, so I am planning on making Peach Ginger wine and mead. I love the fact that I can make really wonderful wine for about 75 cents a bottle and wonderful mead for $2 a bottle. I wish I could find a cheaper source of honey. :) The good news is that my grocery stores are starting to have more than just clover honey. I've seen Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Orange Blossom, and Wildflower. I've seen a couple others, too, but forget what they are right now. The only problem is that we are talking about $5 a pound for these honeys. Which more than doubles my cost. *shrug* One day I will have a coupon or I will just have enough spare grocery money to be able to grab enough to do a show mead.
posted by CraftScout | 7:24 AM
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