Me and Mrs Critter Wines had 3 months there. Flew into Sydney and spent a few days there, then headed south to Bowral for a few days, then headed to Northern New South Wales (Byron Bay area) for a few weeks. That was all visiting family of Mrs Critter Wines (Mrs CW). From there we flew west to Perth and made the area our base for 2 months (of course we spent time in Margaret River too). Just enough time to do a quickie wine. What made it extra special was that Mrs CW has a house in an intentional community in Fremantle. So I did a class on winemaking.
A few enthusiastic members of the community gathered for an informal workshop. As they welcomed us so warmly, and it was around Xmas, it was only fitting to buy in the gear and put on the workshop as a gift. It was great to find that home brewing is popular there, so finding a homebrew shop was a breeze.
We made 2 wines. One a straight up quickie wine from apple juice and grape juice. The other was a quickie wine base but with mulberries added during secondary fermentation. The mulberries came from the tree on the intentional community, which made it special. I was overly concerned that trying something new could produce disappointing results, so I pushed for doing the straight quickie wine first. The delight was that the experienced brewer got it wrong ... the straight forward quickie wine was a little disappointing. Tho it was bottled and sampled at the earliest opportunity and waiting two weeks longer would have probably made all the difference.
The smell of the mulberry wine, which was conditioning at the time, was simply delicious! How fitting that something so much a part of the community should be the better brew. How brilliant too - for the confidence of the potential future brewers - that they should trump the "teacher".
Sadly, I cannot remember the recipes and methods, and I've misplaced my notes, but nothing was very different to my usual stuff. Yeast, I do remember, for both brews it was Vintner's Harvest MA33. The mulberry wine was made on the lees of the first brew. The mulberries had been frozen and when added to the base brew at secondary fermentation stage after defrosting.
The two brews were each 3 gallons, and I'm definitely adding them to my total for 2012 brews. It still leaves me short of my target 50 gallons for that year, but I reckon all that time away is a good enough excuse.
All that remains to be said is a huge thanks to all who make Pinakarri the wonderful place that it is.
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