Winemaking project: Pictures page 6!

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My recipe booklet says something like, "Don't tell your friends what this one is made from when you serve it to them...they'll be surprised!" And, "Also makes a great cooking wine." So that was enough to convince me that I need to make it. I will make some vinegar from it, and that is also why I want to bottle it in smaller bottles, so if I really like it for cooking, I can have a smaller space taken up in my fridge. You have goats. You know what I'm talking about!

 

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Raspberry SG: 1.065 today. The stuff just won't calm down! It needs to be 1.030 in order to go into the carboy. I need that primary to start the peach batch....I did notice that it gets extra active after I stir it, so I will be more diligent about stirring tonight and tomorrow. The numbers indicate how much of the sugar has been converted into alcohol by the yeast. The ferment needs to be "calmer" so as not to overflow the carboy and make a mess.

Onion and watermelon....I will go and add the yeast in a few minutes. I will split a packet between the two batches. I finally remembered to check the SG before adding yeast. Onion SG: 1.135!! Alcohol potential of 18% if I remember correctly. Yowza. No wonder "your friends will be delighted!"

Watermelon SG: 1.090, alcohol potential of 11%.

Gotta go check those numbers....

 

[Wifezilla]

I tasted the grape mead I bottled last week. It is slightly sweet but still has that "rocket fuel" after taste that only goes away with time

Mead is excellent but it isn't for the impatient!

 

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I seriously want to make your spiced mead with the oranges....recipe? Just the ingredients will do, proportions...I can use the method in my book. I will be picking up my honey soon, maybe even tomorrow.

I am impatient, but out of sight, out of mind....dad and I talked again about picking up that big wine rack and building our wine/root cellar. I will take lots of pictures on Monday so he can see if it can be taken apart and put in the car. It is an hour away and we don't have a truck, but I am there every other Monday, so I will try to remember to bring the camera with me this Monday.

 

[Wifezilla]

I use this recipe but I do NOT use the bread yeast. I use champagne yeast.
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?/topic/6114-a-quick-mead-joes-ancient-orange-and-spice/

 

[noobiechickenlady]

That onion wine sounds like a real adventure. It looks like I might get to try some of these, since my 2 gallon jar is available again.

I went home last night wanting to check on the apple "hooch" I made as an experiment earlier in the year. I'm still collecting wine bottles, so I was using the jar (which came with a lid, woo) to age the batch. DH dumped it out while I was at work this past weekend. He got the decluttering bug and "It was just sitting there!" It was aging...
So we had another "Don't touch my ferments, pleeeeeeease!" conversation. Haven't had one of those in a while, I guess he forgot

Ohgoshyes, free. I really, really need another fridge! Or two!

 

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Thanks, WZ!

Noobie, dh pulls those stunts on me now and then. Boy, that would really.... DH threw out a mozzarella that I'd JUST MADE. He said he thought it was lard. Well, what are you doing throwing away LARD???? And why did you leave the moldy sour cream in the back of the fridge?

Good thing he is cute.

 

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Got my honey today! Mead will have to wait. Every container I own that is suitable is in use.

Yesterday I strained the raspberry and put it into the big carboy, filled a gallon jug, and another gallon jug is filled halfway. Does this stuff grow or something? It was a five gallon recipe, and everything seemed to add up to about five gallons....oh, well, it already has a lot of sediment, so as I rack it, I will top up the big carboy and eliminate at least one of the smaller jugs.

It was quite a job to strain all those raspberries. That is what I get for using a method where the fruit floats around in the water/sugar/yeast mixture. But I squeezed off about a gallon or more of pale raspberry pulp that I put into a big bowl and set on the counter to dole out to the critters. It was glubbing by morning....a spent a few minutes trying to figure out where the cartoon noises were coming from. It was still fermenting away.

Mya is a mean drunk.

I gave her two generous scoops with supper last night and she went back to the goat pen and started bashing everyone in sight. Sheesh! I only gave Ginger a bit, and the pigmies each got a small amount. I didn't dare leave them vulnerable to mean ol' Mya. Fortunately she only doled out a bonk or two apiece. The babies were already safe in their stall.

She got a little glob of "hair of the dog" with her breakfast. There was more tonight, and more tomorrow for both meals. I'm not giving anyone too much again. It is probably contributing to the delinquency of a minor, as no one out back is over 21...

I just peeled a gazillion peaches frow OFG!) and started a five gallon batch of peach to go with the smaller batch I made earlier. Mashed 'em with a potato masher and put all the ingredients in together....about 13 pounds of peaches after peeling and trimming ($20), 10 lbs of sugar ($5.40), water, and tomorrow, a packet of yeast ($1). Since I had to buy everything, it will be a more expensive batch at about a buck a bottle.

I was thinking today about that old-fashioned drink....oh, what is it called....the one made with vinegar and molasses....and was thinking how good it would be made with vinegar from one of the fruitier country wines. I wish I'd washed the peaches first and started a batch of vinegar from the skins. Oh, well, I'm pretty overwhelmed with the current projects.

I saved the pits....anyone know how to grow peach trees from the pits? Is it worth a try?

 

[FarmerDenise]

We put our peach pits in the compost and the chicken yard (usually the peach is still attached and the chickens free the pit). In the winter we spread the chicken yard compost and other compost around the field. In late spring, if we pay close enough attention we find peach sprouts all over the fertilized field
Sometimes we dig them up and pot them to give away. We also have planted some of them. This year we had first fruit from some of the trees and they were good.
They don't neccessarily come true to the original peach, so if you don't have lots of room to spare, you might want to buy nursery trees. I don't remember how long it took for the trees to produce fruit. I think around 4-5 years. The trees are still rather small. I have to protect them from the goats. They LOVE peach leaves and peaches.

 

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I figured I'd do something like that, but in an area where the goats can't get to the sprouts. Maybe in a small section of the front foundation gardens.