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Much less socking to report today
Nov. 30th, 2003 11:12 amHands were too tired most of yesterday to do much knitting. But I got a little done. A couple more cable repeats, and then I start the ribbing.
The kitchen has that peculiar, overripe fruit smell of new wine this morning.
Decanted and bottled the strawberry and wild cherry meads yesterday. Got 3 large bottles and 3 small of the strawberry, and 3 large and 4 small bottles of the wild cherry. I did sacrifice a small bottle's worth of mead from each batch; just too much sediment. The strawberry will probably settle out more. Didn't sweeten either batch; they're a bit sharp now, but I bet in 6 months they won't be. (small bottle = beer bottle size, large bottle = wine bottle size)
Also decanted the pear wine into its secondary fermenting vat, to get it off of the dregs. It's still very very cloudy. I'm hoping it'll clear itself in the next month or two, otherwise I'll have to get creative with it. It's also a rich dark honey brown color--we'd processed the juice iwth a juicer, which got hot and caramellized some of the juice, and that has colored the whole batch. I think I may spice some or all of this batch. The pear butter I made from the same pears benefitted greatly from a bit of cardamon, and I bet this will too, once it's aged a few months and I can get a better idea of it's flavor.
Going in to Leavenworth to play Xmas carols at the Art Center this afternoon. By was dutiful and went last time, so he gets to stay home today. He's got leatherwork to do, anyway.
The kitchen has that peculiar, overripe fruit smell of new wine this morning.
Decanted and bottled the strawberry and wild cherry meads yesterday. Got 3 large bottles and 3 small of the strawberry, and 3 large and 4 small bottles of the wild cherry. I did sacrifice a small bottle's worth of mead from each batch; just too much sediment. The strawberry will probably settle out more. Didn't sweeten either batch; they're a bit sharp now, but I bet in 6 months they won't be. (small bottle = beer bottle size, large bottle = wine bottle size)
Also decanted the pear wine into its secondary fermenting vat, to get it off of the dregs. It's still very very cloudy. I'm hoping it'll clear itself in the next month or two, otherwise I'll have to get creative with it. It's also a rich dark honey brown color--we'd processed the juice iwth a juicer, which got hot and caramellized some of the juice, and that has colored the whole batch. I think I may spice some or all of this batch. The pear butter I made from the same pears benefitted greatly from a bit of cardamon, and I bet this will too, once it's aged a few months and I can get a better idea of it's flavor.
Going in to Leavenworth to play Xmas carols at the Art Center this afternoon. By was dutiful and went last time, so he gets to stay home today. He's got leatherwork to do, anyway.
