Long night, and I'm short on sleep
Oct. 10th, 2003 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
treeskinBut, both meads are in secondary fermenters now, and most of the pears are processed into what I hope will be another batch of lovely pear wine. The kitchen smelled of honey wine and pears this morning.
The wild cherry mead is a glorious, clear garnet, with notes in the flavor that remind me of the chokecherry mead I made once upon a time. It's a more delicate flavor than I usually make, but I like it (or will once it's aged a few months). Five parts water to honey rather than four(which is what I used to use)makes a big difference--this one will accompany a dessert, not BE the dessert.
The strawberry started a clear orangey-amber color, until I tried to get the last quart or so out of the carboy. I'll have to filter this one before I bottle it. Note to self: next time you brew with strawberries, filter the damn things BEFORE they go into the brew! Decent flavor, though. Still a little sharp, but it ought to be presentable within six months.
By was a dear, and borrowed a juicer from his boss, to speed up the pear processing. And man, it did--3 hours to wash, chop, and juice the pears, where in the "bad old days" it would have been an all-day process. A lot of the pears were on the dry side (with the weather this season, no big surprise), and I think the juicer got warm and browned the juice a little bit. No big deal. It won't be quite the same as the first batch of pear wine, but ought to be close. I followed the same proportion of juice and sugar as I had written down from '95. I think I'll get more pears from Stan & Myrna, and try a batch with half the sugar, see how that changes it.
This weekend's agenda includes cooking the last of the pears into pear butter, since By also brought me jelly jars to put it in last night. Isn't he sweet?
The wild cherry mead is a glorious, clear garnet, with notes in the flavor that remind me of the chokecherry mead I made once upon a time. It's a more delicate flavor than I usually make, but I like it (or will once it's aged a few months). Five parts water to honey rather than four(which is what I used to use)makes a big difference--this one will accompany a dessert, not BE the dessert.
The strawberry started a clear orangey-amber color, until I tried to get the last quart or so out of the carboy. I'll have to filter this one before I bottle it. Note to self: next time you brew with strawberries, filter the damn things BEFORE they go into the brew! Decent flavor, though. Still a little sharp, but it ought to be presentable within six months.
By was a dear, and borrowed a juicer from his boss, to speed up the pear processing. And man, it did--3 hours to wash, chop, and juice the pears, where in the "bad old days" it would have been an all-day process. A lot of the pears were on the dry side (with the weather this season, no big surprise), and I think the juicer got warm and browned the juice a little bit. No big deal. It won't be quite the same as the first batch of pear wine, but ought to be close. I followed the same proportion of juice and sugar as I had written down from '95. I think I'll get more pears from Stan & Myrna, and try a batch with half the sugar, see how that changes it.
This weekend's agenda includes cooking the last of the pears into pear butter, since By also brought me jelly jars to put it in last night. Isn't he sweet?
