hey Fee - how was your wine?

[the.fee.fairy]

oooh both of those sound nice! Do you have recipes?

[chadspad]

I think this is the plum that I used Fee

6 lbs plums
3-1/2 lbs fine granulated sugar
Water to one gallon
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
1/4 tsp grape tannin
wine yeast
Put water on to boil. Wash the fruit, cut in halves to remove the seeds, then chop fruit and put in primary. Pour boiling water over fruit. Add half the sugar and stir well to dissolve the sugar. Cover and allow to cool to 70 degrees F. Add acid blend, pectic enzyme, tannin, nutrient, and energizer, cover, and wait 12 hours before adding yeast. Recover primary and allow to ferment 5-7 days, stirring twice daily. Strain, stir in half remaining sugar to dissolve, syphon into secondary, and fit airlock. Rack after 30 days, add remaining sugar, stir well to dissolve sugar, top up, and refit airlock. Rack every 30-45 days until wine clears. Wait two additional weeks, rack again, stabilize wine, and bottle. This wine can be sampled after only 6 months. If not up to expectations, let age another 6 months and taste again. I have aged plum wine up to four years and the result was exquisite, but that was only because the wine got covered with blankets and was forgotten. I suspect it was ready long before it took on its heavenly quality. [Author's notes and adaptation from Dorothy Alatorre's Home Wines of North America]

They were purple plums and the colour of the wine is a deep pink - its beautiful and the taste of the plums has really stayed in. Has to be the best Ive made to date.

[chadspad]

The elderberry was a bit of a mixture of whatever I had! Would be nice warmed as the flavour of the cloves is very distinct.

200g elderberries
500g apples
1 quince
1100g pears
1 banana
900g ginger
pinch cloves
1.3kg sugar
citric acid
pectolase
yeast & nutrient
tannin

Usual method, pour boiling water on all chopped up fruits and sugar, dissolve sugar. Wait for it to cool and add citric acid, tannin, pectolase. Once lukewarm add yeast & nutrient. Leave in primary for 7 days stirring twice daily. Place in demi-john and allow to ferment. I did top-up with suagr water for this but Im sure u dont have to.

Have since made 2 batches of elderberry, strawberry & blackberry with varying amounts of fruits - the colour is magenta!

[the.fee.fairy]

Nice. Thankyou. I've got lots of empty demijohns now that i've finished bottling the wine, so i think its time to make some more!! (don't know when i'll get to drink it...).

[chadspad]

Yes Ive got 5 spare after todays marathon bottling session! Going to make some mead next, Ive got a huge bag of damsons in the freezer, pears & apples ripening nicely, raspberry jam wine & tinned strawberry - that takes me back to full capacity again lol. The coconut is ready to bottle and is yummy.

[the.fee.fairy]

I'm planning for lavender, sloe gin, elderberry and plum at the moment.

There are damsons about too, so i might have a go at making some damson wine as well.

I've made Mead before Chadspad. Its really nice! There's the recipe that i used somewhere on the boards. Its come out like a medium mead. I was hoping for a dark moniack style, but it came out much lighter, like a medium mead style. I think next time i'll put some black teacle in it too, and possibly some cloves and spices - i'll probably stick to the chai spices actually. They'd make nice mead...

[chadspad]

Just been rereading your recipe for the mead Fee. Have bought 4 500g jars of honey so thinking Im gonna go for it. How many times did u actually rack it Fee? Debating whether to put some fruit flavouring in or not - oh decisions, decisions lol

[the.fee.fairy]

Twice i think. Not many times - i'm a bit impatient like that...

It doesn't actually produce a whole lot of sediment. And its not dark like moniack... But it is nice!!

[chadspad]

was just about to start when my friend turned up with a bag full of pears so have made pear & raspberry jam wine instead. Mead next, definitely lol. Was thinking of adding some black cherries to it but then again, I might not lol

[the.fee.fairy]

I've been wanting to try jam wine - i've got a recipe somewhere for strawberry jam wine.

Thanks for the reminder!!

[chadspad]

No worries

[chadspad]

Have made the mead. Its due to be racked, perfectly clear and pretty much ready to drink I do believe! Its got a sweet flavour, not unpleasant, and once u know its made from honey u can definitely taste the honey if that makes sense. Im definitely glad I bothered!

As for the jam wine, its got hardly any flavour but then I did use cheap jam and there endeth the lesson I reckon. U gets out what u puts in!

I did make some damson wine, following my plum wine recipe and its fabulous. The plum and the damson are the best wines I have made to date. Beautiful pink colours too. I dont think theyre overly strong in alcohol, probably about 10% which I think is the secret to them being really easy to drink.

[the.fee.fairy]

Sweet!


Leave the mead for a few months (i think mine has been bottled for about 5 months - - made it to be ready for Christmas) and it will taste so much better!

My mystery wine turned out to be a hit - its really fruity, and bizarrely tastes of peaches, even though there were no peaches in it!

haven't tried to coconut yet
The chai wine im leaving for a while. At the moment, its not too tasty. It tastes a bit chemically - very odd, so i'm going to leave it to mellow.
The coffee wine is really really really strong! I think i was worried about it not tasting of coffee...i was dead wrong!! It almost tastes like it needs to be mixed with baileys to make an alcoholic caffeine kick!

I bought the lavender to make lavender wine...and that's as far as its gone.
I've got to go and get some sloes (thankfully, i have a secret tree...) for the sloe gin, and i've got apples to make apple wine and cider with. I've got 7 demijohns sitting empty. I've got two weeks off work...this seems to fit perfectly!!