When you need to clear out last year's fruit from the freezer, but it's eleventy-billion degrees outside & too hot to even think of canning jam...make country wine.
First natural wine ferment batch of the season.
Peach, wild grape, strawberry, & blueberry.
This will ferment for another few days before being airlocked. Because I don't use added yeast, it ends up being a very low alcohol content drink. More akin to kombucha than wine.
Apple wine made with wild yeast.
Oddly I can taste the fruit juice base more than when I use wine yeast. Fully fermented to dry, and there's definitely alcohol in there. She's got a kick!
No off flavours in any case, and no carbonation or undue sediment, so I'm calling it a success.
My potions are too strong for you, traveller.
The start of the second batch of my annual apple-rhubarb wine. Technically you could call it that now, since there's wine yeast in there, but there'd be zero alcohol present. Give it a month or so.
Then a month to clear.
Then a year to mature.
Should be great next January, though.
Tomato wine, of all things.
It's got an unusual smell to it, which is...kind of vaguely tomato-ish? Nothing overpowering.
In fact, that's the theme of this wine. It's exceptionally mild, even though I bottled it only yesterday (this is the leftovers). No harshness at all, but no really dominant taste either. Perhaps once it's aged a bit it'll gain some character.
That's 4.5l each of carrot and parsnip wine in bottles. Probably needs a couple of months to mature but should be good when it does.
Starting a batch of strawberry wine.
I don't have *quite* as much strawberry as some recipes call for, but I figure you use what you can.
Next year, I might do this again but throw in some rhubarb too. This year's rhubarb is already earmarked for making rhubarb-apple wine this fall.
Hmm. According to the hydrometer I think my batch of chocolate wine is about done. Started at 1.130, and now it's down to 1.024, which is a respectable drop.
But I think I'll let it go another week, and if it hasn't dropped significantly from there it'll be ready to be racked for clarifying. Can't be too sure when you're not using chemical agents to stop fermentation after all.
Managed to actually stay on task and racked the two batches of rhubarb-apple and a half-batch (2L) of apple wine into fresh carboys. Also remembered to degas, which is important.
Now a few weeks of clarifying and making sure fermentation is completely done, and I'll have a good 8 bottles of wine to sit aside until next winter (or even the following summer).
LJ
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