Selfsufficientish.com

Otherwise known as the garage starting the country wine season today with two gallons of Elderberry and bramble wine,
we have a couple of gallons of chardonnay just bottled, a gallon of rhubarb from the garden ready to rack and a couple of gallons of blackcurrant wine just maturing in the bottles.
tomorrow i'm making a gallon of Sloe Vodka that i foraged a few days ago that have been rested in the freezer.

Chuckled at the title. On another forum the cellar is where the moderators go to confer upon suspicious posters - over tea and biscuits of course.

maybe you could start a new trend Flo

Flo wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 9:05 am Chuckled at the title. On another forum the cellar is where the moderators go to confer upon suspicious posters - over tea and biscuits of course.

TEA AND BISCUITS!!
That's it, I'm off to offer my mod services to this other forum, we don't even get a glass of water on this one.

The cellar

That's beginning to look like a small supplier for the local pub

Its just amazing how it disappears

That looks like a great set up, Russ. If only I had a garage, or a cellar for that matter.

I started off in the kitchen but Jane did start to complain a little when she was unable to bake comfortably
but a few years down the line i am lucky to have the garage (cellar)

roll on retirement and time to do this stuff!

Weedo wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:42 pm roll on retirement and time to do this stuff!

Same here!

I must admit i really enjoy my retirement, 45yrs in forestry was wonderful, hard work but i woud'nt change a thing

OK, I seek enlightenment and knowledge. I have been trawling through the various boozy links posted and have a couple of questions.
1/ what is the difference between cider an apple wine? the many recipes looked at seem to use the terms interchangeably for products with similar recipes?

2/ Some fruit wine etc. recipes require 2 years to drinkability??????

Weedo "what is the difference between cider an apple wine?"
I've often wondered this too; I'm sure someone will enlighten us.

Two Years? Two Years!!?? They must be kidding.

I have had some which seem not very nice but I haven't immediately thrown away. Then I come back and taste again a month later and found less unpleasant. Then tasted again a few weeks later and decided it was worth drinking. So I know maturing can work and shouldn't dismiss it, but two years seems a bit excessive to me and possibly pretentious and sometimes pointless but I may be wrong.

Most of mine gets tasted at each racking and when it's transferred for medium-term storage to a couple of two litre fizzy drink bottles. When it's pleasant to drink, I consider it 'fair game' or 'finished' and it becomes part of my mythical 'cellar' (wine ready for consumption). Those which aren't too nice (see above) don't get consumed quickly and therefore have the chance to mature. Mostly those which start out disappointing do improve but if they're very pleasant to start with, I never imagine them improving further and don't want to risk deterioration. I have kept some longer (blackcurrant, I think) and they were probably less pleasing after a year or two. (Still, mine never (well, rarely) actually get put into pretty wine bottles with a nice cork and label!)

My wine is mostly quite drinkable in 6-8 weeks (two months, not two years!