Peach Wine #3 and Apple Wine #2

Racked the peach wine into a carboy this evening. It has a somewhat funky smell, very yeasty, but I think it'll turn out good. It has a nice ruby color, heh.

I stirred up the Apple Wine as well. I'm a little worried about the amount of apples in the bag, and the amount of juice in the bucket. Seems like a lot more apples then juice... I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out. Since I'm going to Orlando tomorrow, I won't be able to rack the Apple wine until like 9 days since adding the yeast. The recipe calls for racking after 5-7 days, so hopefully that won't be a problem as well.

Party On!

From Blogger Pictures

Peach Wine #2 and Apple Wine #1

I added the yeast to the Peach wine on Sunday around midnight ish. Agitated the fruit tonight, and the yeast is definitely working... smells yeasty and peachy, heh.

Started the Apple wine as well this evening. I used five pounds of sugar and 10 1 gallon zip lock bags full of apple chunks. I had 12 1 gallon bags in all, but they wouldn't all fit into the 5 gallon fermentor, which is really just a bucket.

It was pretty crazy trying to add all those apples... can't wait to taste that wine.

Party On!

Lemon Wine #4 and Peach Wine #1

Racked the Lemon Wine into another carboy this morning, and added the KMETA and Sorbate. So hopefully it will clear, or mostly clear in two weeks like the instructions say. I gave it a taste, and it's not bad... quite lemony so it will probably need some sugar at the end.

I also thawed the peaches I got from class yesterday, and started on the peach wine. I used 8 lbs of sugar instead of the recommended 10. Maybe it will be a little dryer... either way the peaches sure smell good.

Party On!

From Blogger Pictures

Lemon Wine #2

Added the last bottle of lemon juice, yeast energizer, and yeast nutrient to the lemon wine. The recipe says to stir the stuff regularly, and the class instructor also said to do that, but today was the first time I stirred the bucket. The airlock has been bubbling quite nicely so I think everything is okay.

The developing wine smells really good. A little yeasty, but quite lemony too, heh. Looking forward to trying some when it's finished.

Cheers and,

Party On!

Beer and Wine #2

It was bottling time for the batch of beer we made on the first night of class. It was an American Pale Ale, and the taste was pretty good. The bucket filled about 44 bottles, which is quite a lot.

In the wine class we started a sweet peach wine that should be pretty good. We sampled a sweet and dry muscat wine that the instructor had made in January. It was pretty good I liked the dry one better.

I'm excited to bottle the kit I purchased that we brewed last week. The sample we siphoned out tasted pretty stinkin good.

Party On!

Lemon Wine #1

Did the first steps in creating a nice lemon wine. If all goes well it should be done by our wedding. I tasted some on the first day of class, and it's freakin awesome! Hope mine turns out as good as what I tasted. If not there's always try number two, heh.

If you've never boiled 16 cups of sugar in 8 cups of water, I suggest you give it a try... it's interesting :-). If this works as expected it's going to be awesome!

If you can't tell I'm pretty excited about trying to make wine, and getting back into beer making.

Stay tuned for more.

Party On!

Beer and Wine

Yo,

Last night was my second attendance of a wine making class, and a beer brewing class setup by a local community college. They are separate classes, but have a lot in common both with the people teaching them and between the similarities in the processes.

Anyway, last night we started a batch of blackberry wine. They said it will be pretty dry, but they added an awful lot of sugar to the mix. At least to my near sited, untrained, and somewhat roving eye it was a lot of sugar. I say roving because the wine class is held at an art gallery/home brew supply shop in a very small town about forty five minutes from where I live, and at odd times during the class I catch myself zoning out about something unrelated in the gallery.

It'll be very interesting to see how the blackberry wine turns out. In the beer class we brewed a batch of American Pale Ale from a home brew kit that another student purchased for this weeks class. I'll be purchasing one for next week... not sure which style to go with at this point, but it'll probably something the gallery has in stock and looks good.

The brewing process started at about 8:30, and we got done right at 11:00. Pretty late for a Tuesday, and caused a little anxiety with the Fiancée. So glad she's very understanding, heh :-).

I bought a home brew kit and a plastic carboy last night as well. Going to try and make a Lemon Wine that should be done for the wedding in November...

Party on!