Looking Back on 2014

So I didn't hit my target volume of wine in 2014, I came quite close tho.

A highlight was making a big batch of a quickie wine that i dabbled with the previous year, passion fruit. It was a very nice quickie, as good as any straight-up quickie i've made previously. By straight-up i mean nothing added to the quickie base as in elderflower or green tea & ginger wines.

It was a good year for making various blackberry wines too. One of which was particularly good.

The orange wine formulation and method is coming along nicely. It's no longer so sweet but remains a sweet wine and maintains it's strength. In my early days i used way too much sugar, which didn't completely ferment. These days i'm still using enough "excess" sugar to deliver a sweet wine but it's not overkill. I think my most recent recipe or 2 have nailed it now.

Each year's orange wine will be a little different tho. This is because the ratio of various citrus fruits changes depending on what's available to me, and the fruits must also fit my pretty limited budget. However it always works out with a great balance of similar and complimentary flavours.

Of course Elderflower wine was the usual biggest brew. It remains a firm favourite with friends and people who have a distrust of homebrew quality. It also remains a favourite of ours personally, and making a lot means it's our everyday wine.

And talking of favourites another batch of green tea & ginger was made and again delivered in trumps. If possible the next time i make this i'll use the same green tea.

2015 was another quiet brewing year. But that's for a number of posts i'll be writing soon.