Fermentation on the homestead v2 (Page 2 of 2)
It smells really good, though "faint". Pears don't have a strong scent anyway but it does smell good. I checked on it earlier today and there were two gnats in it. Fished them out and checked on the apple wine too. Those are all doing well.  A few minutes ago I pitched the yeast and folded it in like I did with the peach wine. This is much more fluid than the peach wine was. There is a bunch of solids in this, but nothing like the thick layer I had to work through with the peach wine.    ETA: Already running as of 1517 today! 
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| I need to start this process. I've had all the equipment but need a couple more things like the yeast. I just haven't put aside the time to learn the process and make sure I have everything needed before starting it. |
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I think I'm going to brew some IPA on Saturday, I'll try and remember to take some pics. I currently have a gallon of peach/apple hard cider in the fermenter which should be done in a couple of days. |
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Today was racking and secondary racking day! I finally got around to it and we had church cancelled tonight due to the ice everywhere so I had the time suddenly available to me. I started with the secondary racking of the spiced wine. After cleaning and sanitizing everything as usual, I used the new transfer pump and mesh strainer head to pull from the carboy. Since I'm doing secondary, I let it get really down into the spices.   Sample pulled mid-transfer.  What was left in the carboy, not much!  Then it was on to the pear wine. This has a nice solid layer on it similar to the peach wine, but much thinner and able to get through much easier than the peach.   I started with the fine strainer tip and wasn't able to leave it on. The solids were too much for it so I switched to the larger strainer that I used in the cider mix.  Again, knowing I'm going to do a secondary racking with this one, I went ahead and sunk the strainer of the transfer pump into the sediment.  Here you have my current three batches. Far right is regular apple wine but where I accidentally used 12 pounds of dark brown sugar for fermenting instead of the normal 6. Middle is the spiced apple wine. Pear is left.  I did pull some pear for sampling too. I'm looking forward to it! |
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Last night my wife and I sampled the spiced wine and the pear wine. The spiced wine is too "hot" as is. The mulling spices I used were enough for 1 gallon and I did just over 3. Either I infused too long or they are just hot (clove mostly). I'm thinking I'm going to dilute down that batch with some from the apple wine batch on the right. It should help mellow out the spice. Other than being too hot, it is pretty good. We also sweetened with a tbsp of sugar for the sample I pulled. The pear wine sample was sweetened with 1.5 tsp of sugar. It was smooth and faint in flavor. It was nice but les "fruity" than we are used to with peach and apple. Of course, pear isn't a strong fruit in its own. I think with the right amount of back sweetening it will be solid for those nights a light fruit wine is on order. As it is now, it is a bit too dry for us. It is certainly one that should age really well. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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I need to do secondary racking for the pear wine and bottle the apple and spiced apple wines. I just haven't gotten to it yet. Soon. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
I did dishes last night. Tonight I expect to bottle the two batches of apple wine and secondary rack the pear wine. I was dreading doing the dishes and that was dragging this all out. It isn't that bad, but hours standing over the deep sink is just not fun at all. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
The spiced wine is a hit. To be clear, my wife said "This is the best wine I've ever had in my life! If you don't want yours, just pass yours over to me!"  This makes me really happy! Yep, it was bottled today. After doing the dishes last night I prepped for doing the spiced apple wine today. Sadly, I ran out of corks and wasn't able to bottle the regular apple wine while I was in the mode tonight. 200 corks are on order though! Campden tablets and Potasium Sorbate in the mortar, sugar on the table. Then mixed in the bucket. Using my new transfer pump has made this process so much easier! Thank you Brundoggie!    This is me adding roughly 3 gallons of regular apple wine to the spiced wine batch. The spiced being only about 2.5 gallons and REALLY spicy felt like it needed to be "watered down". As you read up top, my wife loves it so it was a great choice.  I don't like the metal hook on the end of it for filling the bottles though. It was pretty cumbersome reaching down in the sink and hooking on the bottles. I ended up taking it off and using my hand near the end of the tube. This helped pinch off the end to keep it from dribbling all over the bottles while moving from one to the other while filling.  Then time to cork! I dunked the corks in sanitizer and let them drain off in the bucket lid. Then ran them through with the floor corker.  Then I washed, rinsed, and sanitized the now empty carboy to secondary rack the pear wine. I grabbed a sample of it too while I was at it. Oh, and I did clean the pump/tubing before switching wines.   The finished spiced apple wine getting sampled. Behind it are Elderberry cuttings from our pruning that are growing and getting ready to be planted or given to friends.  I do enjoy this spiced wine, but I'm not as much of a fan of it as my wife is. If you like spiced cider or spiced rum you would probably love this. I mean, it is REALLY good. I'm just a fan of the more subdued flavors of the regular apple wine. This stuff "is a mouthful". So many flavors hitting all at once. One night we will try running it through the steamer wand on our espresso machine to see how it is warm/hot. My wife melted into her chair at the thought of that when I proposed it as an option. She also told me to CLEARLY document the whole process so I would be able to replicate it completely in the future. Oh, and that we cannot give any of this away. 
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Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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I finished bottling the regular apple wine today. I'm now just secondary racking pear wine. I need more apple juice so I can start the next batch. For now though, mixing in the tablets, sugar and potassium sorbate:   Then transfer to the bottles. The pump does make it much easier, though I need a foot switch for the outlet. I'm having to reach. I could possibly get a hose clamp, but I don't want to over pressurize the tubing or burn up the pump.  I forgot to get a picture of the spiced wine's clarity. It looks good after one day. 
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Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Yeah. I was going to clean it up when I saw it, but since it is killing so many of them I'll leave it there for now. We haven't taken the plants out of the basement yet so they still have everything they need to live. My airlocks look pretty nasty from them too. The venting attracts them and the vodka kills them.
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: The spiced wine is a hit. To be clear, my wife said "This is the best wine I've ever had in my life! If you don't want yours, just pass yours over to me!" This makes me really happy! Yep, it was bottled today. After doing the dishes last night I prepped for doing the spiced apple wine today. Sadly, I ran out of corks and wasn't able to bottle the regular apple wine while I was in the mode tonight. 200 corks are on order though! Campden tablets and Potasium Sorbate in the mortar, sugar on the table. Then mixed in the bucket. Using my new transfer pump has made this process so much easier! Thank you Brundoggie! https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2050_20260324.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2051_20260324.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2052_20260324.jpeg This is me adding roughly 3 gallons of regular apple wine to the spiced wine batch. The spiced being only about 2.5 gallons and REALLY spicy felt like it needed to be "watered down". As you read up top, my wife loves it so it was a great choice. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2056_20260324.jpeg I don't like the metal hook on the end of it for filling the bottles though. It was pretty cumbersome reaching down in the sink and hooking on the bottles. I ended up taking it off and using my hand near the end of the tube. This helped pinch off the end to keep it from dribbling all over the bottles while moving from one to the other while filling. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2057_20260324.jpeg Then time to cork! I dunked the corks in sanitizer and let them drain off in the bucket lid. Then ran them through with the floor corker. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2060_20260324.jpeg Then I washed, rinsed, and sanitized the now empty carboy to secondary rack the pear wine. I grabbed a sample of it too while I was at it. Oh, and I did clean the pump/tubing before switching wines. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2061_20260324.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2063_20260324.jpeg The finished spiced apple wine getting sampled. Behind it are Elderberry cuttings from our pruning that are growing and getting ready to be planted or given to friends. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_2068_20260324.jpeg I do enjoy this spiced wine, but I'm not as much of a fan of it as my wife is. If you like spiced cider or spiced rum you would probably love this. I mean, it is REALLY good. I'm just a fan of the more subdued flavors of the regular apple wine. This stuff "is a mouthful". So many flavors hitting all at once. One night we will try running it through the steamer wand on our espresso machine to see how it is warm/hot. My wife melted into her chair at the thought of that when I proposed it as an option. She also told me to CLEARLY document the whole process so I would be able to replicate it completely in the future. Oh, and that we cannot give any of this away. So pleased your wine turned out good! 
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Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Tag cuz threads drop off and I hate to see this good thread go away.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
| I have blackberries I put in the freezer several years ago, at least 3 years ago if not 4. It a deep freeze that is non-frost free. Will the quality of the juice from the berries be degraded and not suitable? Just wondering if I should toss them and use new berries when I finally get around to starting this hobby. |
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Originally Posted By SWIRE:I have blackberries I put in the freezer several years ago, at least 3 years ago if not 4. It a deep freeze that is non-frost free. Will the quality of the juice from the berries be degraded and not suitable? Just wondering if I should toss them and use new berries when I finally get around to starting this hobby. If it were me, I would thaw out a good sample of them and try them. While being freezer burnt is a thing, if the fruit still tastes good you should be able to run with it. Worth a shot anyway. If it doesn't taste right though, it will certainly carry over into the wine later. |
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| I REALLY need to bottle my pear wine. I just haven't stopped to do it. At least it is aging nicely in the carboy. :p |
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Originally Posted By SWIRE: I have blackberries I put in the freezer several years ago, at least 3 years ago if not 4. It a deep freeze that is non-frost free. Will the quality of the juice from the berries be degraded and not suitable? Just wondering if I should toss them and use new berries when I finally get around to starting this hobby. @SWIRE if they're too far gone and not good enough for wine you might try making vinegar out of the berries. A berry vinegar would be easy to make and ought to be fantastic in salad dressings. Do I know for certain the less-than-perfect taste won't affect the vinegar? No. But it's a decent bet. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @SWIRE if they're too far gone and not good enough for wine you might try making vinegar out of the berries. A berry vinegar would be easy to make and ought to be fantastic in salad dressings. Do I know for certain the less-than-perfect taste won't affect the vinegar? No. But it's a decent bet. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By SWIRE: I have blackberries I put in the freezer several years ago, at least 3 years ago if not 4. It a deep freeze that is non-frost free. Will the quality of the juice from the berries be degraded and not suitable? Just wondering if I should toss them and use new berries when I finally get around to starting this hobby. @SWIRE if they're too far gone and not good enough for wine you might try making vinegar out of the berries. A berry vinegar would be easy to make and ought to be fantastic in salad dressings. Do I know for certain the less-than-perfect taste won't affect the vinegar? No. But it's a decent bet. That sounds really good. |
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Originally Posted By Brundoggie:That sounds really good. Originally Posted By Brundoggie: Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By SWIRE: I have blackberries I put in the freezer several years ago, at least 3 years ago if not 4. It a deep freeze that is non-frost free. Will the quality of the juice from the berries be degraded and not suitable? Just wondering if I should toss them and use new berries when I finally get around to starting this hobby. It really does sound good! My first attempt at Apple Cider Vinegar failed. Mostly because I completely ignored it and didn’t put enough of a mesh over the top. Gnats bred in it and it wasn’t something I was willing to touch. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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So far I haven't touched the berries. The Kroger store had screwed up an ad for meat prices but were honoring so I was checking to see how much freezer space I had and what I could clean out. I found a work around and was able to leave them there. Not sure what I would do with a berry vinegar or the process but I do most the supplies for wine making available to try. I will plan on getting new berries this year and get the rest of the wine making supplies setup. Pretty sure all I need is to pick which yeast I want to and I think get a clarifying agent. |
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| I still haven't gotten to bottling the pear wine. I got hit with an extreme summer cold thing and just don't have it in me to bottle. Never mind that I probably shouldn't be trying to do food processing while feeling like garbage. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: I still haven't gotten to bottling the pear wine. I got hit with an extreme summer cold thing and just don't have it in me to bottle. Never mind that I probably shouldn't be trying to do food processing while feeling like garbage. That's OK, the longer it sits undisturbed, the better it will he. |
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Still haven't gotten to the pear wine. * I'm really here just to be sure this thread isn't archived. That is a completely acceptable reason to be here.  Sometimes there is not content to post. But the thread is worth saving. Do that.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:That is a completely acceptable reason to be here. Sometimes there is not content to post. But the thread is worth saving. Do that. Not that I mind bumping it, but isn't there a way you mods can prevent archiving using your admin tools without pinning? |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
| I like that fermenter. Being able to see it ferment is kinda cool. I doubt I'll get one just because I already have the buckets and they are multipurpose for me with fermenting and sanitizing. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: I like that fermenter. Being able to see it ferment is kinda cool. I doubt I'll get one just because I already have the buckets and they are multipurpose for me with fermenting and sanitizing. It has its pros and cons. Biggest con is that it is heavy and hard to move when full. |
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I can see it as being really useful when I'm doing the real fruit type wines and have heavy sediment. Now that I have a transfer pump I don't know how big of a deal that really is/. I do put a wedge under the bucket for when it does the final settling before transferring, where with a conical I would have it built in. It seems like one of those things that I don't really need but would appreciate it for times it shines. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: I can see it as being really useful when I'm doing the real fruit type wines and have heavy sediment. Now that I have a transfer pump I don't know how big of a deal that really is/. I do put a wedge under the bucket for when it does the final settling before transferring, where with a conical I would have it built in. It seems like one of those things that I don't really need but would appreciate it for times it shines. The sediment dump out the bottom sorta works but a lot clings to the cone part and on at least one occasion the valve didn't seal completely and I had some seeping/dripping. It originally came with a "sediment ball" to attach to the bottom but it got lost in the move from Hawaii to NC. The ball helped but still a lot of sediment on the cone walls. I now only use it for mead and not ale because it will sit untouched for months before adding a clearing agent and then transferring to secondary. For secondary I transfer to a bucket, clean the original fermenter and add it back. For ale I use a stainless fermenter with a conical bottom rather than a bucket because it is easier to sanitize. I'm going to brew a batch of ale later this week or next week and will post pics of the process. |
an event "of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,"
Yesterday I walked by the pear wine and notices something wasn't right: My airlock is mostly dry and has been for a while from how far the vodka had evaporated below the airlock line. So, It made up my mind, called my hand, and put me to work doing dishes and bottling the wine. So I capped the carboy and started doing dishes. The airlock smelled horrible. The vodka and rotting bugs was far from pleasant. After capping it and getting the dishes done I started mixing like normal.    When doing the transfer I made sure not get the end into the sediment. There really wasn't much to speak of in this batch. The secondary racking did the job it should have.   Then on to the bottling. I printed the tube clamp a little bit ago and really love it. While standing there moving from bottle to bottle I realized I didn't need to reach that far for the transfer pump. If you notice, the control box has a really short cord. I grabbed an old 2 wire lamp cord and allowed myself to stand upright for the process. That was nice.   Then it was just on to corking. Same as before, dunk the corks and let them drip out on the bucket lid. Then shove them into the bottles with the floor corker.    This batch is really clear. On top of that, it tastes really good! It is a very faint pear flavor as expected since pear isn't a strong flavor anyway. So smooth. I'm looking forward to sharing this with the couple who sent us the Harry & David pear box. They also sent us a dozen wine bottles with shrink caps for the tops. I'm going to use that on them for their bottles.  |
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Not that I mind bumping it, but isn't there a way you mods can prevent archiving using your admin tools without pinning? I CAN do that. I can set it to not archive. There are several threads set that way and I will set yours. The trouble is that every time I do it, that makes new threads drop off faster because there is less space in our small forum. So I generally encourage people to bump their threads. At some point I (Or one of the other mods) go through and clean house. There is so much good information in here it's very hard to make the call to unclick that "don't archive" button once I've clicked it. So it's a balancing act, sort of. The more you can keep it bumped and active, the better.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:I CAN do that. I can set it to not archive. There are several threads set that way and I will set yours. The trouble is that every time I do it, that makes new threads drop off faster because there is less space in our small forum. So I generally encourage people to bump their threads. At some point I (Or one of the other mods) go through and clean house. There is so much good information in here it's very hard to make the call to unclick that "don't archive" button once I've clicked it. So it's a balancing act, sort of. The more you can keep it bumped and active, the better. Thank you. It isn't that I don't want to keep the thread active, it is more like I don't want to forget and making wine is a long process, especially after my first attempt got archived. I get the balance you have to have when making a choice like this too. I guess I never thought about it making other threads drop faster. We had a glass of the pear wine I just bottled and it is a very mellow flavor. Pear isn't a strong fruit anyway, so I wasn't expecting it like I would grape or apple. I'm very interested with how it ages. |
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I feel like a lot of people learn from threads like this, but sometimes there's not a lot of posts because folks either don't know what to ask, or aren't doing it yet to share their experiences. I want to share my fermenting learning but having trouble getting my act together. Takes a lot of time to make posts with pics. It's a labor of love to share like you are doing here. 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:I feel like a lot of people learn from threads like this, but sometimes there's not a lot of posts because folks either don't know what to ask, or aren't doing it yet to share their experiences. I want to share my fermenting learning but having trouble getting my act together. Takes a lot of time to make posts with pics. It's a labor of love to share like you are doing here. Thanks. It really is my goal to have this be a thread for others to learn from, including myself. Just so this doesn't feel too forgotten, I've not forgotten. I'm waiting on some dark brown sugar so I can make another couple of batches of Apple Wine. One will be spiced, but with a different brand of mulling spice. The current stock of spiced wine I have has really grown on me. I wasn't a fan really right off the start because the clove was so strong. I don't know if it that it has mellowed over the last few months or my taste has changed, but I'm really enjoying it now. We had some of it last night. I'm going to have to tweak the pear wine recipe a bit. It isn't bad, it just has too much tannin in it I think. It is great, totally enjoyable, just could use a tweak for my next batch. |
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| When I get home from London next week I really need to bottle the mead that is in final settle. With all the honey I harvested from my hive this year (2.5 gallons) I need to get more mead and mellomels started. I'm currently thinking of doing 1 gallon batches and mixing up what yeast I'm using. |
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| How about fermentation of vegetables? Anyone doing much of that? I've recently started with experimenting on some easy fermentation projects like sauerkraut and pickles, planning on making some fermented mustard soon. I have some milk on the counter in attempt to make some whey to use for that, it seems odd to let things spoil on purpose but I'm anxious to see how it turns out. |
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| Please do talk about it here! I want to get into more than just wine too. We have some cucumbers every year and pickling them is something we would like to do too. I want to learn more about fermenting good stuff beyond wine. |
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I have made a few apple wines. I don't really like dry wines, so I wasn't a big fan. They were mostly varities of apple juice and EC-118. I did have some success with store bought apple cider and Nottingham yeast. Finished product was similar to store bought non alcoholic cider (the kind sold in milk jugs) which is what I was going for. My favorite was fermented grape juice. It was similar to generic Concord dessert wine. Sweet, decent ABV, not for those with refined taste
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Originally Posted By 302w: I have made a few apple wines. I don't really like dry wines, so I wasn't a big fan. They were mostly varities of apple juice and EC-118. I did have some success with store bought apple cider and Nottingham yeast. Finished product was similar to store bought non alcoholic cider (the kind sold in milk jugs) which is what I was going for. My favorite was fermented grape juice. It was similar to generic Concord dessert wine. Sweet, decent ABV, not for those with refined taste Try using SafCider AB-1 and add some sugar (I use 1/4 for 1 gallon) to the must. |
an event "of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,"
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Ec118 My 1st apple wine went like this. 3 1 gallon jugs of juice. Pour out 1 cup or so out of each Add 1.5 cups of sugar to each one Add candied ginger slices Add a small chunk of cinnamon stick. Take my starting reading. Add the EC118 Shake. Put the airlocks on ( I've used vodka like you and also starsan). I thought that shit was gonna foam up and explode lol. I ended up with just around 17% at the end. With a wine that smelled like McDonald's apple pies I've done some other batches since...tried doing the quick an dirty concord grape wine. Problem I'm having is staying on top of my math and getting a better siphon set up. My wife helps but she jams the tip right into the sediment. I've got one bottle in the fridge.its maybe 6 months now. Not as dark as I thought it would be. What I really started playing with was force aging grain alcohol with different char woods and fruits. Still a work in progress as longer each one sits tge better they are getting. I started those in 23' I'm about at cheap Evan Williams rot gut lvl right now Haha you can see my failed grape run behind these. The middle is smoked cherry staves I made..rest are med and dark toast white oak.with some activated charcoal in them. The big bottle is 40% the other 2 are just over 100proof. Till I decide how I want to proof them down. Attached File |
i dont want my final jig in the belly of a squid.
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Thanks. It really is my goal to have this be a thread for others to learn from, including myself. Just so this doesn't feel too forgotten, I've not forgotten. I'm waiting on some dark brown sugar so I can make another couple of batches of Apple Wine. One will be spiced, but with a different brand of mulling spice. The current stock of spiced wine I have has really grown on me. I wasn't a fan really right off the start because the clove was so strong. I don't know if it that it has mellowed over the last few months or my taste has changed, but I'm really enjoying it now. We had some of it last night. I'm going to have to tweak the pear wine recipe a bit. It isn't bad, it just has too much tannin in it I think. It is great, totally enjoyable, just could use a tweak for my next batch. What are you thinking to reduce the tannins? Fewer peels? |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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KY, USA
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Originally Posted By Brundoggie: When I get home from London next week I really need to bottle the mead that is in final settle. With all the honey I harvested from my hive this year (2.5 gallons) I need to get more mead and mellomels started. I'm currently thinking of doing 1 gallon batches and mixing up what yeast I'm using. I would love love LOVE it if you would post your steps to mead making. I know the OP would probably welcome those here but if you prefer your own thread that would be cool too! I love mead, in principle and in practice, so learning how it's done well would really be of interest.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
Joined:
Feb 2007
Posts:
53639
EE: 0% (0)
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By TinSpinner: How about fermentation of vegetables? Anyone doing much of that? I've recently started with experimenting on some easy fermentation projects like sauerkraut and pickles, planning on making some fermented mustard soon. I have some milk on the counter in attempt to make some whey to use for that, it seems odd to let things spoil on purpose but I'm anxious to see how it turns out. This was my idea for participation in this thread too! I grew a bunch of cabbage this year (first time growing cabbage since I was a kid) just to make sauerkraut and we ate a bunch of the cabbage but a lot of it rotted in the garden. I just couldn't make it happen. I bought the little burpy lids and the pickling weights and everything, and they're all still in the box.  I will learn from you if you post your experience and will post mine when I do try. I REALLY want to try making kvass. Not beet necessarily but other veggies and fruits. Life has had a high suck factor this season, so along with the extreme heat and an unfortunate herbicide incident, everything garden has been lacking.  ETA: Sorry for spamming the thread OP!  Playing ketchup. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:What are you thinking to reduce the tannins? Fewer peels? In this case, just not adding in as much tannin as normal. With my apple wine I add wine tannin in and it really does help the flavor. I didn't add as much to the pear wine, but it still is a bit more intense than I expected. Then again, I expected the pear to be more intense. It isn't like when someone adds too much salt to mashed potatoes and you don't taste the potatoes, just the salt. It is definitely noticeable as opposed to a flavor enhancer when you add just enough. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
