HB HB HB
Blackberry Wine:
We sampled the Blackberry wine last Friday, it was ok. It was a bit astringent, but definitely tasted like wine! I'll let this mature for a while longer before trying some more. Hopefully it will improve, as I feel I've puta lot of effort into this.
Sloe Gin
This is moving along nicely, the berries are steeping their lovely pink-ish hue into the liquid. It still smells very harsh at the moment, but then it's only a matter of days into the project, not months as the recommended maturation period is.
Orange Wine,
On Monday I took a hydrometer reading on this, to see how it was going. The airlock had really slowed down, and there was quite a bit of sediment att he botton of the demijohn. It had dropped to .994, meaning we've got a wine of around 13% strength! So I've racked to a clean demijohn, added a crushed campden tablet and put it back under airlock. I understand I'll need to leave this for another couple of weeks, rack again, add finings to clear the liquid, then bottle a couple of days later.
We tried the wine, it is definitely a wine, but at the moment still has quite an orange-y aftertaste. I like it!
Woodfordes Great Eastern Ale.
I bought this kit over 2 months ago, excited about it as my first 2 can kit. Due to the house move, breaking a FV, buying a new FV and doing various other brews/DIY I hadn't got around to popping this in a tub until Monday. I cranked it out, warmed up the cans in hot water, and poured them into the FV with some hot water. At this point I should have stirred and dissolved the goo into the 3 litres of hot water, while the FV wasn't full. I didn't and topped up straight away with cold water. This meant that I had a full FV, with goo still at the bottom. It's hard to stir 23 litres of liquid with a thin plastic spoon, trying to mix the goo at the bottom, so next time, don't forget!
Anyway, 24 hours later the fermentation was well under way, I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, as it's my first ale, otherwise I've done 4-5 lager kits. I understand this is not the normal way round - normally it's the ale drinkers who get into homebrewing. This seems like it could be a potential error, as most people claim their first kit, usually a bitter kit, is disastrous, as they buy the cheapest, nastiest bitter kit they see (not on purpose, just that's what they go for) and then they end up with 40 pints of nasty bitter to put away.
I'm kinda glad that I got a lager it, as it showed me that this was not as tricky as the forums say it is. This makes me feel like I'll be a more well rounded kit brewer as I'm happy to flit between lager and ale. It also gives me more scope I think as I decide what to try next, though I think I could rack up quite a few things to try!
Next on the list is a cider & lager kit to brew up to take away with my family on our week long trip to Centre Parcs. Though 80 pints might be pushing it a bit, I'll have a think about what to do.
I could take some of the Great Eastern Ale, knock up a cider which my mum, SWMBO, me, sisters and boyfriends will all drink, and knock up a premium (ish) lager for me, my dad and one of sisters boyfriends. I think that may cover all bases, and I will rpobably end up with a decent stash at the end of it.
It's all about forward planning as I can see now I'll have to crank another one out for Christmas fairly soon, if it's to condition away ready for the end of December!
Ooh 'eck!
We sampled the Blackberry wine last Friday, it was ok. It was a bit astringent, but definitely tasted like wine! I'll let this mature for a while longer before trying some more. Hopefully it will improve, as I feel I've puta lot of effort into this.
Sloe Gin
This is moving along nicely, the berries are steeping their lovely pink-ish hue into the liquid. It still smells very harsh at the moment, but then it's only a matter of days into the project, not months as the recommended maturation period is.
Orange Wine,
On Monday I took a hydrometer reading on this, to see how it was going. The airlock had really slowed down, and there was quite a bit of sediment att he botton of the demijohn. It had dropped to .994, meaning we've got a wine of around 13% strength! So I've racked to a clean demijohn, added a crushed campden tablet and put it back under airlock. I understand I'll need to leave this for another couple of weeks, rack again, add finings to clear the liquid, then bottle a couple of days later.
We tried the wine, it is definitely a wine, but at the moment still has quite an orange-y aftertaste. I like it!
Woodfordes Great Eastern Ale.
I bought this kit over 2 months ago, excited about it as my first 2 can kit. Due to the house move, breaking a FV, buying a new FV and doing various other brews/DIY I hadn't got around to popping this in a tub until Monday. I cranked it out, warmed up the cans in hot water, and poured them into the FV with some hot water. At this point I should have stirred and dissolved the goo into the 3 litres of hot water, while the FV wasn't full. I didn't and topped up straight away with cold water. This meant that I had a full FV, with goo still at the bottom. It's hard to stir 23 litres of liquid with a thin plastic spoon, trying to mix the goo at the bottom, so next time, don't forget!
Anyway, 24 hours later the fermentation was well under way, I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, as it's my first ale, otherwise I've done 4-5 lager kits. I understand this is not the normal way round - normally it's the ale drinkers who get into homebrewing. This seems like it could be a potential error, as most people claim their first kit, usually a bitter kit, is disastrous, as they buy the cheapest, nastiest bitter kit they see (not on purpose, just that's what they go for) and then they end up with 40 pints of nasty bitter to put away.
I'm kinda glad that I got a lager it, as it showed me that this was not as tricky as the forums say it is. This makes me feel like I'll be a more well rounded kit brewer as I'm happy to flit between lager and ale. It also gives me more scope I think as I decide what to try next, though I think I could rack up quite a few things to try!
Next on the list is a cider & lager kit to brew up to take away with my family on our week long trip to Centre Parcs. Though 80 pints might be pushing it a bit, I'll have a think about what to do.
I could take some of the Great Eastern Ale, knock up a cider which my mum, SWMBO, me, sisters and boyfriends will all drink, and knock up a premium (ish) lager for me, my dad and one of sisters boyfriends. I think that may cover all bases, and I will rpobably end up with a decent stash at the end of it.
It's all about forward planning as I can see now I'll have to crank another one out for Christmas fairly soon, if it's to condition away ready for the end of December!
Ooh 'eck!
posted by Garry at 4:31 pm
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