Bottling Again

Tonight I'm emptying demi-johns cos I need 6 empties. Tonight's effort will get the total up to 5. So it was decision time and this is what I went for

1 gallon of Elderberry & Blackberry wine. Started August 2009. My hunch was that this would be best left for around another year due to the elderberry content, but best does not always mean that it isn't just fine a little early, and curiosity got the better of me, especially as I have 3 gallons of it! So the verdict is really quite yummy! It's a bit like the commercial Rioja (2007) that we opened last night. Tho it is a bit lighter coming in at 12.4% ABV compared to 13.5% for the Rioja. It's a little velvety, plenty of body, fruity, a little astringent, medium/dry. If I called it "Rioja light" then I think that would be fair enough. Happy? YEAH! It's a proper red and for a country wine that means you don't have the abundance of options that homebrewers have for whites and rosés. I don't make many reds and I'll make this again!

1 gallon of the 2010 Quickie Elderflower. This is the last of the 5 gallon batch. It's very pleasant table wine. If you get on with Elderflowers then it's the business. Certainly done the job well of be something we can quaff while we wait for the good stuff to age. And the good stuff (3 gallons of it) hasn't been touched as a result.

1 gallon of 2009 Blackberry, from the brambles in the garden. A big rosé that I love. It's one of my favourite homebrews. Great flavour and feel and throw in foraging for free ingredients, top notch fun quality homebrewing. I just noticed while searching for the link, that I haven't written this one up. So I'll get onto that. In my opinion it's a must for the homebrewer who has blackberries around and about. A wild bramble will make sharper wine unless you pick very fussily, but neverthless it's still good stuff. Cultivate a bramble tho and it'll have less fruit to support, which means bigger fruits, more sugar flavour etc.

No piccies today, sorry, hic ;-)

Fast Ferment

When I moved the Muscat wine from primary to secondary it seemed to have done it's usual and momentarily stopped pushing gases through the airlock. However next morning it was the same, very very slow. I added a pinch of nutrient to each DJ to see if there was any change. Two days later, no change. I was wondering if I had my first ever stuck ferment and the thick layer of sediment also urged me on. So I racked it and in doing so got a sip. That was informative, this taster was NOT sweet! So I measured the gravity, 1001. Wowzer, that was a fast ferment, especially in a cool house. Far too soon to guess at the wine's final qualities, it's pretty sour but there are no off tastes.

Now it's back to the familiar routine of waiting patiently for a sediment and the start of clearing, then racking, degassing and stabilising. I expect it'll drop a few points in gravity in the next few weeks.

The moral of the story: DON'T PANIC

Primary to Secondary

Piccie time!

 

Tonight I moved the Muscat (grape) Wine to Demi-johns. Still amazes me that these smelly, dirty dishwater coloured, cloudy liquids turn into delicious wines.

Bottling Woohoo

Last night I kept up the steady progress and bottled 3 gallons of rosés, 2 gallons of Oaked Rosé discussed in the previous entry and 1 gallon of Cheapskate Rosé Light. Tonight myself, Mrs Critter Wines and a friend did the taste test; they taste very similar. Our friend couldn't tell the difference. Us critters thought the cheapskate was a little sharper or more acidic. Neither better nor worse, just a little different. And because you keep reading my blog here's a very boring picture of most of the bottles!

Would You Believe ... More Racking

Just managing to keep up with my aim of racking and bottling daily for a few days. Late last night I pulled out some DJ's to see which were ripe for racking. Found the oaked rosés and got cracking. I have a bit of a cold/flu thing lingering so the taste buds and nose haven't got back to their usual raggedy best yet but they are not far off. But wow did I get a surprise!

I formulated the recipe myself, which was exciting and a timely challenge having never done so before. Usually I take an existing recipe and tweak it to my tastes. But these were my own, not saying no-one has done anything like it before of course, the recipe is simple enough.

Anyway, the wines have a great feel in the mouth, a level of astringency that compliments the acidity, infact I think it would be fair to say the balance altogether is spot on. I can't discern the oak flavours tho. Possibly it's because I'm not accustomed to it and don't know what to "look" for. Possibly because of the tail end of that cold/flu thing. Both acids work well and the difference between the wines is only marginal. One a little fruitier, the other a little crisper, a good comparative experiment to have done in the long journey of educating myself on wine-making.

I wouldn't say it's the best wine I've ever made, but there may have been no better. It all comes down to your mood and setting I reckon. So if you have never played with brewers oak chips then i heartily recommend this wine when you feel experimental, especially if you like to keep the whole process simple (wines from cartons of juice).

Racking Again

I'm hopeful that in between other things I can do some racking and bottling over the next few days. Last night I started with 3 gallons of Elderflower wine. This batch the one made traditionally, that is to say not a quickie brew. Should be ready to drink in the near future. Which is a good thing as I need empty DJs now!