Last week's work and musing on the next batches
Okay, so here's the rest of the brewlog from the Peach brews from last week. Sorry I don't do this everyday, but I did mention the brand new baby, right??? :) He demands a lot of attention, and as much as I love messing around on the computer, when he needs me, I run. Well, okay, I walk but you understand what I'm saying. Anyway, here's what I did:
Ginger Peach Wine
7.24.06
added pectic enzyme and stirred well.
7.25.06 morning
Put water on to boil after cleaning and sanitizing and rinsing equipment. Added 5 c. white sugar, almost 1 t. citric acid (all I had), 1/2 t. tannin, and 1 heaping t. ginger to carboy. Strained must into fermenter through mesh bag, then strained again into carboy. Topped up to shoulders with hot water, corked, and shook until sugar was incorporated.
evening
pitched yeast.
OG 1.092 (inaccurate, prolly, due to fruit)
7.26.06
replaced airlock after wine blew up into the old one.
Ginger Peach Mead
7.24.06
Cleaned and sanitized and rinsed equipment. Put one gallon water in a pot to boil. Put honey in fermenter. Cleaned, cut, and removed stones from peaches, then squeezed them into the honey. Before water was boiling, poured enough to cover honey and peaches and stirred well until the honey was incorporated. Added 1 t. ginger and rest of water. Stirred well.
Temp 140F
OG 1.070 -> 1.084 (after temp adjustment) (again prolly inaccurate due to fruit)
7.25.06
added pectic enzyme and pitched yeast. I used one rehydrated (according to package directions) pack of D47 for both brews.
for next two days, I stirred vigorously twice a day.
7.28.06
racked into secondary
SG 1.050
And here is a visual update on the clearing Pumpkin Wine and "Treat", the pumpkin pie mead that has fermented pumpkin in it. Time will tell if it really does turn out to be a treat to drink. But I really like the concept (borrowed from Miriam on GotMead) of making a wine and a mead of the same flavor at the same time. So far I have matched pumpkin and peach. More on this later.
And here is one of my future bottle washers and equipment sanitizers. Heck if she gets really good at bottle washing, I might let her try her hand at brewing . . . . when she's 18, at least. I have the feeling she'll be on the torch before she's mazing or brewing. :)
And here is a shot of typical Bella behavior. This would be Bella of "BellaDonna". Donna is our other cat. :)
Musings on Future Brews
So, I have been thinking about what is going to be next on my brewing calendar. I am going to try to rack the pumpkin wine and mead at least one more time, after a month of clearing, and let it sit for another month more, then depending on the sediment level at the bottom, either rack them again, or bottle. Because of how clear they are right now (the wine really looks amazing - I might have to take a pic with newsprint behind it), I am thinking that I will be bottling these at the end of the second month.
Also, the Joe's Ancient Orange should be finishing at about the same time - whew, that's going to be fun, bottling 8 gallons, 6 of which in one night. That will free up my 6 gallon fermenter for a new batch.
So in October I will probably have my 6 gal bucket and two 1 gallon jugs available. I have been thinking about either doing an apple wine and a cyser or a blackberry wine and a blackberry melomel. Both sound really good, but I think that I will prolly do the apple ones simply because we are on serious budgeting right now and apple cider/juice is a heck of a lot cheaper in the quantities I need than blackberries.
One of the gentlemen on GotMead posted a recipe that he started recently for a cyser using cinnamon as an accent spice (his wife named it "Cinnful Cyser" *grins*), and that sounded really yummy to me, but I also wanted to try to make a "poisoned apple" wine and cyser (with almond flavoring). I am not sure how well apple and almond would mix, however, so I think I will go for the cinnamon apple. Once I have that recipe perfected, maybe I will try for the poisoned apple.
And for the 6 gallons? I think either another batch of JAO, just so that I won't be out after Christmas gifts have been given out, or a new moon traditional mead, nothing but local honey, water and yeast. I could rack it over various things once it is done fermenting. Maybe finally make that capsimel I have been promising my husband and roommate. *grins*
Ginger Peach Wine
7.24.06
added pectic enzyme and stirred well.
7.25.06 morning
Put water on to boil after cleaning and sanitizing and rinsing equipment. Added 5 c. white sugar, almost 1 t. citric acid (all I had), 1/2 t. tannin, and 1 heaping t. ginger to carboy. Strained must into fermenter through mesh bag, then strained again into carboy. Topped up to shoulders with hot water, corked, and shook until sugar was incorporated.
evening
pitched yeast.
OG 1.092 (inaccurate, prolly, due to fruit)
7.26.06
replaced airlock after wine blew up into the old one.
Ginger Peach Mead
7.24.06
Cleaned and sanitized and rinsed equipment. Put one gallon water in a pot to boil. Put honey in fermenter. Cleaned, cut, and removed stones from peaches, then squeezed them into the honey. Before water was boiling, poured enough to cover honey and peaches and stirred well until the honey was incorporated. Added 1 t. ginger and rest of water. Stirred well.
Temp 140F
OG 1.070 -> 1.084 (after temp adjustment) (again prolly inaccurate due to fruit)
7.25.06
added pectic enzyme and pitched yeast. I used one rehydrated (according to package directions) pack of D47 for both brews.
for next two days, I stirred vigorously twice a day.
7.28.06
racked into secondary
SG 1.050
And here is a visual update on the clearing Pumpkin Wine and "Treat", the pumpkin pie mead that has fermented pumpkin in it. Time will tell if it really does turn out to be a treat to drink. But I really like the concept (borrowed from Miriam on GotMead) of making a wine and a mead of the same flavor at the same time. So far I have matched pumpkin and peach. More on this later.
And here is one of my future bottle washers and equipment sanitizers. Heck if she gets really good at bottle washing, I might let her try her hand at brewing . . . . when she's 18, at least. I have the feeling she'll be on the torch before she's mazing or brewing. :)
And here is a shot of typical Bella behavior. This would be Bella of "BellaDonna". Donna is our other cat. :)
Musings on Future Brews
So, I have been thinking about what is going to be next on my brewing calendar. I am going to try to rack the pumpkin wine and mead at least one more time, after a month of clearing, and let it sit for another month more, then depending on the sediment level at the bottom, either rack them again, or bottle. Because of how clear they are right now (the wine really looks amazing - I might have to take a pic with newsprint behind it), I am thinking that I will be bottling these at the end of the second month.
Also, the Joe's Ancient Orange should be finishing at about the same time - whew, that's going to be fun, bottling 8 gallons, 6 of which in one night. That will free up my 6 gallon fermenter for a new batch.
So in October I will probably have my 6 gal bucket and two 1 gallon jugs available. I have been thinking about either doing an apple wine and a cyser or a blackberry wine and a blackberry melomel. Both sound really good, but I think that I will prolly do the apple ones simply because we are on serious budgeting right now and apple cider/juice is a heck of a lot cheaper in the quantities I need than blackberries.
One of the gentlemen on GotMead posted a recipe that he started recently for a cyser using cinnamon as an accent spice (his wife named it "Cinnful Cyser" *grins*), and that sounded really yummy to me, but I also wanted to try to make a "poisoned apple" wine and cyser (with almond flavoring). I am not sure how well apple and almond would mix, however, so I think I will go for the cinnamon apple. Once I have that recipe perfected, maybe I will try for the poisoned apple.
And for the 6 gallons? I think either another batch of JAO, just so that I won't be out after Christmas gifts have been given out, or a new moon traditional mead, nothing but local honey, water and yeast. I could rack it over various things once it is done fermenting. Maybe finally make that capsimel I have been promising my husband and roommate. *grins*
posted by CraftScout | 10:08 AM
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