Splosions again

Yup, stuff sploded.  We were racking . . .well, everything.  And I had been keeping several bottles of overage in the fridge to top up when we did rack, and well . . .the apple wine went WHOOSH! WHIZ! SHUSH! All over the sink and the counter and the blinds and the drapes and me and then there was none left to top up with, but lots left to clean up. Grrrr . . . Scorp burped the rest of the topping up bottles and lost nothing. It's supposed ot be too cold in the fridge to promote yeast activity. I don't know what's going on, but I am glad I store stuff like this in grolsch bottles - otherwise I would be cleaning glass and wine and mead out of my refridgerator from bottles broken by the pressure. Imagine the mentos/diet coke thing without mentos or diet coke.

Anyway, on to the stats:

Cinnful Apple Wine
S.G. .992

Cinnful Cyser
S.G. 1.012

Cinnful Holiday Cyser Jug 1
S.G. 1.010

Cinnful Holiday Cyser Jug 2
S.G. 1.014

These all tasted pretty good, getting better in order. Or the alcohol is really high right now and the little bit we were drinking to taste was getting us wasted quickly. I think it is more that we like young meads better than young wines, and the nutmeg added some yumminess. The first jug of Holiday Cyser had a very pronounced nutmeg flavor, the second had a sneaky nutmeg back flavor.

It's amazing the difference yeast makes. On the left is the Holiday Cyser (using K1V-1116) and on the right is the Cinnful Cyser (using D47):



Okay, the pic isn't the best, but you can kinda see that though the Holiday was started only a week or so later, it has a LOT more sediment still in suspension, whereas the Cinnful is fairly clear by now. The sediment is what is making the Holiday look lighter in color.

And the final rack of the evening, Ginger Capsimel
S.G. .994

Okay, this is not hot at all. Alcohol or pepper wise. In Scorp's Words, "Where's the alcohol?" I am thinking that in a couple of months I will backsweeten this and rack it onto some dried chiles to boost the sweetness and the pepper taste. It tasted like water. Thick water. I could taste some capsaicin tickling the sides of my tongue, but this was not the heat that I was looking for to appease my chile head father, husband, assistant mazer, and good friend.

Also, this was brewed in the cubitainer. This is undeniably the stupidest container I have used for brewing purposes. You can't move it. Because it is made of flexible plastic, it flexes everytime you touch it, and when you are trying to pick it up to move it to where you are racking, it ends up sucking mead into the lock and lock water down into the mead. Stupid Stupid Stupid. Don't use this. But a jug of Apple juice instead.



Future brews? Well, since my Mom got me 15 pounds of cheap honey from Sam's Club, I think another batch of Joe's is on the horizon. My Dad got me 10 pounds of local honey for my birthday, and another 100 corks. With my in-laws turning into winos (joking), I have a regular supply of bottles. So as far as supplies go, I'm pretty set. I also have almost 2 pounds of cranberries that will be starting a new batch of cranberry mead soon, and 3 pounds of blackberries in the freezer. YUM!