Thanks to all of you who come here, De.rmot and whoever you are, and for whatever reason. I have reached 100 + visits on the counter. And the counter is set at the lowest level, like one person browsing different pages DOESN'T up the count with each new page, neither with each refresh. And the same person visiting twice doesn't up the count unless someone else has visited in between - regardless of whether that is minutes, hours, days, weeks or months.
So here's to us (raises glass) reaching a small landmark together!
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Quickie Elderflower Brew
The Quickie Elderflower wine is coming along nicely. It stopped fermenting a while ago and while I dilly-dallied about getting around to racking etc it has nearly cleared. Today I finally got around to racking and stabilising. There were 5 gallons in total, here's 4 of them.
It's tasting good too, and so it should do 'cos this is meant to be a quick one, I'm hoping it'll be ready in a couple of weeks (started 12th June). Tho I do expect it will improve noticeably over the subsequent 6 months or so.
So why did I want a quickie brew? I just love Elderflower wine and as it took me years to getting around to making it it still feels very new to me. The result is that the wine ends up getting rationed ... never a good thing! This year I hope we can enjoy a bottle whenever we fancy one and still have some left when next years brew is ready to drink. Without doing the quickie brew (late addition of flowers & light table wine style) it's all just too labour intensive to make an appreciable quantity.
It's tasting good too, and so it should do 'cos this is meant to be a quick one, I'm hoping it'll be ready in a couple of weeks (started 12th June). Tho I do expect it will improve noticeably over the subsequent 6 months or so.
So why did I want a quickie brew? I just love Elderflower wine and as it took me years to getting around to making it it still feels very new to me. The result is that the wine ends up getting rationed ... never a good thing! This year I hope we can enjoy a bottle whenever we fancy one and still have some left when next years brew is ready to drink. Without doing the quickie brew (late addition of flowers & light table wine style) it's all just too labour intensive to make an appreciable quantity.
Monday, 12 July 2010
Improved Mint Wine
First time round the mint wine was very much an experiment, proof of concept if you like. It worked well enough to warrant a proper run, so 2 gallons got put on in November last year, made with mint from the garden. Varieties included Garden (70%), Apple (20%) and Moroccan (10%). OG was 1089, FG 993 gives 13% ABV.
The result is a medium wine, typical white wine colour, light golden/straw. Clear as a bell. The mint flavour is quite delicate, as is its cooling effect. I suspect this wine will be a great one for clammy summer evenings. I'm also keen to find out how it goes with food, a mild curry perhaps. I reckon we'll drink it chilled, maybe even with ice!
I'm pleased with it, and we have plenty of mint in the garden again this year so more will be brewed soonish. Here's the recipe. In the meantime the 5 and 1/2 bottles left and the full DJ yet to be bottled, will just have to keep us going through this summer!
And here is a gratuitous picture of some of my bottled mint wine.
The result is a medium wine, typical white wine colour, light golden/straw. Clear as a bell. The mint flavour is quite delicate, as is its cooling effect. I suspect this wine will be a great one for clammy summer evenings. I'm also keen to find out how it goes with food, a mild curry perhaps. I reckon we'll drink it chilled, maybe even with ice!
I'm pleased with it, and we have plenty of mint in the garden again this year so more will be brewed soonish. Here's the recipe. In the meantime the 5 and 1/2 bottles left and the full DJ yet to be bottled, will just have to keep us going through this summer!
And here is a gratuitous picture of some of my bottled mint wine.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Another Rosé
Apologies for the lack of posts ... good weather, good surf, bbq's ... what can I say.
Tonight I bottled a gallon of Blackberry & Elderberry Rosé. This was made from a 2nd run on the fruit after making the Blackberry & Elderberry Red. It's just over 10 months old and my patience couldn't hold out any longer. The good news is that it's not too young to drink.
I suppose some piccies would be good ...
This is the freshly filled bottles. No heat-shrink neck covers yet, and the bottles will stay standing for 24 - 48 hours before they get laid down. The small plastic one is for me ... now as I write this. The small glass one is for Mrs Critter Wine's special reserve. The rest are all for sharing.
The wine has plenty of body for a big Rosé, infact its not far off being a Red, which makes the Blackberry & Elderberry Red an exciting prospect. ABV is 12.8%. It's fruity, med/dry despite fermenting down to 0.991. Has a nice edge but is far from sharp, infact its surprisingly smooth and I wonder how, or if, it will improve with time?
There will be plenty more 2nd run Rosés with these fruits! Recipe will follow in time ... do prompt me if you feel impatient 'cos both blackberry and elderberry season will soon be upon us and you may want to know how I did it.
Tonight I bottled a gallon of Blackberry & Elderberry Rosé. This was made from a 2nd run on the fruit after making the Blackberry & Elderberry Red. It's just over 10 months old and my patience couldn't hold out any longer. The good news is that it's not too young to drink.
I suppose some piccies would be good ...
There will be plenty more 2nd run Rosés with these fruits! Recipe will follow in time ... do prompt me if you feel impatient 'cos both blackberry and elderberry season will soon be upon us and you may want to know how I did it.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
A Good Few Days
As well as the great company mentioned in the last post, we at Critter Wines also got out to the coast on a hot, sunny, breezy day at high tide. It was local surfing, around an hours drive, and the surf was good. We both caught some nice rides and came home with grazed knuckles (from riding rides right up onto the beach) and big cheesy grins courtesy of mother nature.
So here I am, sipping Orange & Hawthorn Blossom wine and wondering if I should blog again with no images! And the answer that came back to me was yes. So thanks for reading on, but as a reassurance please know that I do aim to put up piccies often, so there will be more soon. Just now tho the brewing has gone quiet while chores and body-boarding fill up the spare time.
But like I said, I'm drinking and I want to pass on a tip that made this wine work.
The Orange wine I make, more accurately described as citrus wine, is very sweet and strong. It also has plenty of body and as you would expect plenty of acidity. So the whole thing balances out nicely. The recipe was inspired by CJJ Berry, and if you follow his recipe and method you'll also get a great dessert wine. I'll post my recipe and method soon.
This Orange wine is so big and sweet and strong that its a great candidate for blending with other wines that for some reason are not good for drinking as they are, but (and this is important) don't have any flavour faults. Some time ago I made a hawthorn blossom wine. It was my first try and the flowers I used didn't have much of a scent. The resulting wine is simply hooch. Its lack of flavour and body means it's just loopy juice that'll get you drunk but won't do anything much for your taste buds except burn them gently. So I blended it 50/50 with the Orange wine. I still have a cracking, strong, sweet, big dessert wine. But I don't have any waste Hawthorn blossom wine!
For those who like a sweet wine, but are not nuts about intense sweetness, this wine works so well! For those who want a full on dessert wine then the orange works better, but this would be satisfactory. I must say here that I have only blended wines a couple of times. Every wine that I have made before the Hawthorn Blossom had a time and place. So there was need to blend it, rather simply bring it out at the right time. I'd advise that as a way to go, unless you brew such vast quantities that you have ample to experiment with. In which case please feel free to advise me on blending. I'd also advise you not to blend a bad wine with a good one cos the chances are you'll end up with with a whole heap of bad wine. But a very neutral tasting wine is good for blending, whether dry, sweet, hot or thin. Just be sure to choose a partner that can take it, like big in all the areas that your disappointing wine is lacking.
So here I am, sipping Orange & Hawthorn Blossom wine and wondering if I should blog again with no images! And the answer that came back to me was yes. So thanks for reading on, but as a reassurance please know that I do aim to put up piccies often, so there will be more soon. Just now tho the brewing has gone quiet while chores and body-boarding fill up the spare time.
But like I said, I'm drinking and I want to pass on a tip that made this wine work.
The Orange wine I make, more accurately described as citrus wine, is very sweet and strong. It also has plenty of body and as you would expect plenty of acidity. So the whole thing balances out nicely. The recipe was inspired by CJJ Berry, and if you follow his recipe and method you'll also get a great dessert wine. I'll post my recipe and method soon.
This Orange wine is so big and sweet and strong that its a great candidate for blending with other wines that for some reason are not good for drinking as they are, but (and this is important) don't have any flavour faults. Some time ago I made a hawthorn blossom wine. It was my first try and the flowers I used didn't have much of a scent. The resulting wine is simply hooch. Its lack of flavour and body means it's just loopy juice that'll get you drunk but won't do anything much for your taste buds except burn them gently. So I blended it 50/50 with the Orange wine. I still have a cracking, strong, sweet, big dessert wine. But I don't have any waste Hawthorn blossom wine!
For those who like a sweet wine, but are not nuts about intense sweetness, this wine works so well! For those who want a full on dessert wine then the orange works better, but this would be satisfactory. I must say here that I have only blended wines a couple of times. Every wine that I have made before the Hawthorn Blossom had a time and place. So there was need to blend it, rather simply bring it out at the right time. I'd advise that as a way to go, unless you brew such vast quantities that you have ample to experiment with. In which case please feel free to advise me on blending. I'd also advise you not to blend a bad wine with a good one cos the chances are you'll end up with with a whole heap of bad wine. But a very neutral tasting wine is good for blending, whether dry, sweet, hot or thin. Just be sure to choose a partner that can take it, like big in all the areas that your disappointing wine is lacking.
Sunday, 4 July 2010
What a Good Night
Throughout the week I've glugged my way through a few bottles of wine, and I haven't blogged .... naughty me! But tonight a neighbour dropped in and we opened a couple of bottles. So as best as I can reliably describe opinions here we go ...
We started off with a commercial Aussie Shiraz from Margaret River. Delicious, fruity, medium, soft, easy drinking. Served at room temp. Meanwhile a blackberry wine was being hurredly chilled in the freezer followed by the fridge. The blackberry was well received as a big rosé (more body than is typical of a rosé), tho a touch sharp. Having despatched that, and with the clock marching on, a dessert wine was suggested. So the Orange & Elderflower was rolled out. This went down a storm. Described as being very much a dessert wine, elderflower dominating, citrus giving a frizz like feel, plenty of viscosity, loads of body, ample acidity for balance. Not typical of a dessert wine cos of the citrus edge and the flower bouquet but nevertheless completely at home as a dessert wine.
So I feel good! The blackberry wine was simply an on the pulp wine, but made with blackberries from a trained and pruned cane. The Orange & Elderflower was a 50/50 blend, that largely resulted from the better half suggesting that it would work. I'll post recipes in time. I hope you stay tuned, our neighbour has a palate that I trust but to say more than that could be seen as bragging. Which leaves me in a pickle cos now I have said too much already!
We started off with a commercial Aussie Shiraz from Margaret River. Delicious, fruity, medium, soft, easy drinking. Served at room temp. Meanwhile a blackberry wine was being hurredly chilled in the freezer followed by the fridge. The blackberry was well received as a big rosé (more body than is typical of a rosé), tho a touch sharp. Having despatched that, and with the clock marching on, a dessert wine was suggested. So the Orange & Elderflower was rolled out. This went down a storm. Described as being very much a dessert wine, elderflower dominating, citrus giving a frizz like feel, plenty of viscosity, loads of body, ample acidity for balance. Not typical of a dessert wine cos of the citrus edge and the flower bouquet but nevertheless completely at home as a dessert wine.
So I feel good! The blackberry wine was simply an on the pulp wine, but made with blackberries from a trained and pruned cane. The Orange & Elderflower was a 50/50 blend, that largely resulted from the better half suggesting that it would work. I'll post recipes in time. I hope you stay tuned, our neighbour has a palate that I trust but to say more than that could be seen as bragging. Which leaves me in a pickle cos now I have said too much already!
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