Selfsufficientish.com

I have 2 lotsof elderflower wine, ginger wine, cider, apple wine/ cider (100% apple juice + sugar), apple wine

I'm tempted to start a beer kitbut need more small plastic bottles before I start ..

Blackberry & Elderberry wine ... sloe gin & vodka

Just 1 gallon of mead. Happily bubbling away since a week.

Tasted some mead I bottled in April 2006 last week. It has turned out nicely. Didn't care for it when it was younger. Now beautiful golden colour; nice sweet mead, but not cloying. Hope this one turnes out well too.

Have asked Compleat meadmaker as a gift for my Bachelor of Communications graduation next Saturday. (Yey, I got a degree and I'm not even 40 years old yet!)

After reading that book I'll be most probably getting more mead starting. They have really cheap honey at our supermarket (Euroshopper, Albert Heyn, for the other Dutch among us). That gives a person the chance to experiment without going broke.

Jandra

Fermenting atm:
* 9 gal or so of cider
* 6 gal of apple wine
* 6 gal of ginger and apple wine

(last two are experimental, labelled as Witches Brew )


Maturing atm:
1 gal coffee wine (black as sin and about 6 months old)
1 gal red grape wine (M&S fresh grape juice, again about 6 months old)

2 gals elderberry, strawberry & blackberry (gorgeous magenta colour)
1 gal marrow rum
1 gal coconut
1 gal pear & raspberry jam
1 gal plum & pear

sloe gin
flibblehooch (vodka and whatever fruit i can lay my hands on)


not bad for a woman being investigated for raised ALTs in her blood...
(so far my gp has ruled out hepatitis; and this is all i can find on raise ALT http://www.hepc.org.nz/index.php/Liver_Function_Tests)

mrsflibble wrote:sloe gin
flibblehooch (vodka and whatever fruit i can lay my hands on)

lol ... sounds like my kind of brewing ... just added damsons to gin ...

my liver is still working after all these years

oh i have Pear, and strawberry liqueur stashed, mead mellowing

and damson vodka, and cassis in the making too.

five gallon of beer - from a kit bit we fiddled with the recipe putting honey lemons and limes in it as well as some sugar - tastes lovely as well

1 gallon of wine, made from kit as well but I am going to strip my elderberry tree down the allotment in the morning so I shall add elderberry to the list by tomorrow night

Fermenting:

Nothing at the moment!! Must make some Lavender though.

Maturing:

Mead
Coffee
coconut
Mystery (sounds a bit like flibbehooch but i fermented it instead of adding it to vodka!)
Chai


Can't wait til xmas - they should all be matured and ready by then!

Fee - Mr C.J.J.Berry suggests that white wines are left to sit for 1 year and reds for 2 years - I take it yours are not gonna last that long lol

Elderflower Champagne
Rowanberry Wine
Rosehip Wine
Cherry Wine
Elderberry Wine
Mead
Bramble Wine

Cherry Brandy
Damson Wine.
Elderberry being started today

chadspad wrote:Fee - Mr C.J.J.Berry suggests that white wines are left to sit for 1 year and reds for 2 years - I take it yours are not gonna last that long lol

Not a chance!!

The mead will have been sitting for about 8 months by christmas - i don't think i can keep my sister away from it much longer!!

She wants to drink the mystery wine already, so i can't see that one lasting too long.

I might have to give the coffee wine a year at least, it needs to mellow, and the same with the chai wine. The others will be left as long as i can, but madam keeps wanting to taste them...

My first attempt is clearing now, red grape!! I'm sooooo excited! It's a lovely rose colour and doesn’t smell of vinegar!!
I've seen a pumpkin and ginger recipe somwhere, I'm going to give that a go over the weekend, anyone tried this?