Been a long time . . .

And hopefully the brews that I have been unintentionally bulk aging are really nice right now. My new roommate and I just bottled the Cranberry melomel (F.G. 1.084). Very very nice tasting.

The capsimel is next on our to-do list. Hopefully it has some heat and some alcohol by now.

We also started a new batch of JAO. Because there was 3.5 pounds of honey hiding in the pantry. Seriously. :)

Bottled some more Cinn

Mmmm. When last we touched the Holiday Cinnful Cyser, it was just past Thanksgiving and the smells emanating from the bottle were amazing. Tonight we bottled them, and 4 months of aging has done them nothing but favors. Seriously, this stuff is so yummy, I just finished a glass. We decided that one of the bottles just doesn't need to be corked. It will be gone by the weekend.

Both ended up around 1.014 FG, nicely spiced, and a beautiful clear amber.

We also racked the Cranberry melomel. OMG, this stuff is going to be amazing. After 3 months, the SG is 1.080, and it tastes lovely sweet and crisp at the same time. I want to wait another 2 months, rack it again, and maybe rack it a third time if it isn't "read newsprint through the beautiful claret colored liquid" clear. And then bottle it once it is a year old.

Patience is such a virtue. I am going for another glass of Cinn.

Bottled Cinn

Yup, we did it last night.  We figured out how to bottle Cinn.  We're gonna make a fortune! :)



Okay, so it's mead and wine, and we're not selling, because I don't want to get a license to do so.  But we did bottle the Cinnful Cyser and the cinnful Apple Wine. We wanted to bottle the Holiday Cinn, too, but it was not clear yet. Oh, well. Guess it will be for next winter. The Cinnful bottles look so pretty. We bottled most of the mead in little half bottles so that my assistant mazer could give some to friends and family. One of the two gallons of Holiday Cinn is his (when we made the original batch of cyser, he waited all of a week before running out and getting a gallon of apple juice to make his own), but since it wouldn't be ready before he leaves to go home at the end of the week, I told him he could have the original cyser batch, all but 2 bottles I already had plans for (one long term aging, one a Christmas present).




With all the bottling we have been doing (especially that big batch of JAO) I'm going to need to figure out a better, more permanent storage solution. I have almost an entire case of JAO bottles sitting on the floor of my brew closet, in a vertical position. Erg. Some of them will be able to go on racks once the holidays are over (many bottles are being wrapped for under the tree, and many more will be drunk without being wrapped), but I have another 6 gallons brewing (and burping VERY loudly, I might add). I also have a lot of wine that will need much more aging, and I would just rather have that go on somewhere out of the way. *shrug* Something to deal with after the holidays.

New Brews and Learning Patience

So the last few weeks have been a lesson in patieence for me. As in, "Drink no wine [or mead] before its time." Unless you are checking it to see if it is time. I opened a bottle of the Strawberry Wine last night. It was horrible when we bottled it. It was horrible when I tried some a couple of months later. Last night it wasn't that bad. It wasn't great - yet. It was drinkable, and I could tell there was a little of the same ick left in it, so I know that that is aging out. Some strawberry flavor is actually creeping in. I think in a year this will be a very nice brew indeed.

So notes to self: Drink no wine before you have given it at least 2 years. Make enough to last the long aging time. Keep the 6.5 gal bucket active with JAO or cyser so there is a steady supply of good drinkables. Bottle at least 2 375mL bottles for taste testing (I hate throwing out a full 750mL bottle just because it tastes nasty right now). My patience and forethought will be rewarded.

New brews!

Cranberry Melomel (take 2, cuz the first was so good, it's gone!)
2# cranberries, thawed and popped
4# local honey
water to one gallon
campden
1/4 t. pectic enzyme
D47

12.05.06
popped cranberries in nylon bag in primary bucket (I was out of ziploc baggies and this made for less mess). Added honey and warm water to dissolve. The honey was kind of crystalllized, but that shouldn't be a problem since we dissolved it. Stirred until well combined. Added 1 crushed campden tablet and pectic enzyme. Let sit overnight to reach room temp before adding yeast.

12.07.06
okay so I didn't get to the yeast the next day. *grins* Added yeast after rehydrating according to package.
O.G. estimated 1.150 (it was off the chart!)
This should be a very sweet mead indeed . . .

12.09.06
Pulled out the bag of cranberries and poured the rest into a jug and airlocked. It is such a pretty red. I love the color of cranberry mead. Even with the yeast and sediment still in suspension, it is such a beautiful luxurious red . . .

True to my promise to myself, the next batch is
JAO, 6 gallons
18.75# cheap clover honey
2# local honey
6 very sweet clementines, quartered
5 packages of raisins
6 sticks of cinnamon
6 whole cloves
water to 6 gallons
1 pkg Fleishman's yeast

12.05.06
mixed everything but the yeast together and left to sit overnight to reach room temp. (except we know how that went since the next activity for this was on . . . )

12.07.06
drizzled yeast over brew and actually took a hydrometer reading for once.
O.G. about 1.125 (hard to see down in the bucket)

12.08.06
Started burbling, gurgling, and scaring the crud out of people . . . *grins*

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!

Cracking open a couple . . .

Okay, so it was more of a gently releasing with the corkscrew, but you get the idea. :) I made the executive decision to open up two of my reserved bottles yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner. One was my last bottle of my original batch of JAO, and the second was my last bottle of Cranberry melomel (my second batch of mead). I can only say one thing:

Wow.

I mean, Wow.
I mean . . .did I mention, Wow?

My dad liked it.  I mean he really liked it.  And I could say, well, the stuff you had before was prolly bad commercial stuff, whereas homebrew is GOOD.  Especially the JAO.  OMG.  I almost feel like squirrelling away the bottles I just bottled for another year to let other people enjoy them tasting like that!  I am so glad I have enough now that I can tuck a few bottles away to age nicely.  Maybe as long as five years.

As far as how it tasted (other than WOW): The JAO smelled pleasant, has some nice legs, and the taste?  Well, it is just what my mind comes up with when I say "honeywine".  A perfect fusion of the sweet honey and the burn of alcohol.  Although the burn had largely aged out until it was just the pleasant warmth of alcohol.  Words cannot describe it accurately.  I shall wait longer to drink my brews.  This is just over a year old and has proven to me the worth of aging.

The Cranberry is not as good (my mom thought it was the better one, though, so this is just personal taste), but still wonderful.  It has a beautiful red color, and tastes a little crisp still, like a cranberry.  It doesn't taste like cranberry juice at all, though.  More like wine, definitely, it just has the "crispness" (not quite tart, but close) of a cranberry.  I am very glad I have a couple of bags of cranberries in the freezer and several pounds of honey in the alcohol closet.  I will be making more of this.

Oh, but they were both good.

Oh, wow, has it been a while . . .

So I have actually been doing stuff with my brews over the last two months. I just haven't blogged them, unlike last time I was "long time, no blog". We'll go chronilogically:

9.25.06
Started a new brew, and is this one going to be a doozy!
Ginger Capsimel
2.5 pounds clover honey
3 serrano peppers, split and seeded
2 jalapeno peppers, split and seeded
1 inch of fresh ginger
4 T. lemon juice
dried lemon peel
Fleishman's bread yeast

Following a recipe by palecricket1, put 1/2 gallon water on to boil. Meanwhile, I sliced the ginger. When the water is boiling, I dropped in the ginger. while this is boiling away, I split, seeded and removed the ribs of the peppers - HOLY COW!!! I am not, nor have I ever been a chilehead, but I am married to one and have another as a roommate so I thought I would give this whole capsimel thing a try. I'll give you the warning I didn't get:
GET A HAZMAT SUIT!
Fresh peppers are insane! I think that all the chileheads in my life will be purring when they drink this stuff. (0:10)After the ginger had boiled for 10 minutes, I added the chiles. Then I proceeded to clean EVERYTHING. No lingering chile oil to destroy my eyes or my DD. (0:20)After 10 minutes of boiling, remove the chiles but leave in the ginger. (0:30)After 10 more minutes, I removed the pot from the heat. (0:45)After 15 more minutes, I mixed in the honey and added 1/2 gallon more water and the lemon juice. I poured it into a primary and covered. I placed the primary in a pot of soapy water to cool overnight.

9.26.06
I pitched the yeast in the Capsimel and aerated. I used bread yeast because I want to keep the alcohol somewhat low and the honey flavor and sweetness level somewhat high (I don't want it to go to dry!!).
O.G. 1.085

9.27.06
Prepped to bottled the JAO. 5-6 gallons. This required an emergency trip to LHBS to buy bottles because I was about 3 shy of what I might need. Then washing all the bottles, sanitiziing all the bottles, prepping the corks, cracking open the bucket and seeing . . . . really really not clear mead. I looked at my assistant mazer, and we both kind of sighed heavily and sealed it back up. We decided to ease our pain by starting a couple of new batches:

Cinnful Apple Wine
1 gal Whole Foods Organic Apple Juice
1# granulated sugar
1.5 t. acid blend
.5 t. pectic enzyme
.25 t. tannin
1 crushed campden tablet
3 cinnamon sticks
Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast

mixed everything together except the yeast.
O.G. 1.097

Cinnful Cyser
3 pounds clover honey
1 gal Whole Foods Organic Apple Juice
4 cinnamon sticks
.5 t. nutrient
.5 pectic enzyme
D47 yeast

mixed everything together except yeast. This is following a recipe created by DeltOgre, who as far as I am concerned is a Cyser God. His recipe also inspired the Cinnful Wine recipe (obviously)
O.G. 1.132

9.28.06
Pitched yeast on Cinnful Apple Wine and Cinnful Cyser

10.02.06 (Rack and Roll Day!)
Racked the Capsimel to secondary and airlocked it. I really do like the idea of making a tea with the peppers and then taking them out. I'm hoping that it will not produce the oily scum a lot of people have talked about getting with their capsimels.
S.G. 1.028

Racked the Ginger Peach Wine.
S.G. .985

Racked the Ginger Peach Mead (there was no white stuff this time - yay!)
S.G. .996

Racked the Cinnful Apple Wine over 4 more cinnamon sticks.
S.G 1.066

Racked the Cinnful Cyser over 4 more cinnamon sticks.
S.G. 1.060

Well, The Cinnfuls have been smelling and looking so good that it's been killing us. My assistant and I ran out to get more honey and more apple juice. We modifed the recipe a little, adding some nutmeg and changing the yeast we used, since I didn't have the original yeast from the recipe on hand, to make it:

Cinnful Cyser for the Holidays
1 gal Randall's O Organic Apple Juice
4 cinnamon sticks
2.5 pounds of clover honey
3/4 c. clover honey
.5 t. pectic enzyme
.5 t. nutmeg
.25 t. nutrient
K1V-1116 yeast

we made two batches of this, exactly the same, called part I and part II. Today we mixed everything together except the yeast.
I O.G. 1.123
II O.G. 1.127

10.05.06
Pitched the yeast for Cinnful Holidays.

10.11.06
Racked the Cinnful Holidays to secondaries over 4 cinnamon sticks each.
I S.G. 1.065
II S.G. 1.067

11.2.06 (Bottling Day)
Bottled JAO. 10 375mL bottles, 21 750mL bottles
Bottled Ginger Peach Wine 5 750mL bottles
Bottled Ginger Peach Mead 4 750mL bottles, 1 375mL bottle

Before I do anymore bottling I need more corks. I used 100 corks in almost exactly one year (since I got the corks and corker as a birthday present last year). I didn't bottle 100 bottles, but it was close.