Racking off Miller’s Gate + Elderberry

Wine,

500D_1805I’d been worrying about the wine not clarifying, but didn’t want to open the demijohn to let oxygen in.  Lack of patience got to me and I decided to rack it off in to my little half demijohn and one bottle, leaving the rest for testing.  My wife and I both had a little sip of the dregs.  It tasted of… cheap wine (and much better than the orange filth from years ago).  Hopefully it will improve with ageing – at least that is the theory.  Since (ignoring the £15 bucket,  £3 yeast, £2 finings…) it cost 10p for about 5 bottles it really is cheap wine.  It is good enough to drink the half bottle with dinner and can only (hopefully) improve.

I also racked off the elderberry and topped it up with water.  I didn’t keep enough to taste properly, but from the drips I think it will be OK.

New cider batch thanks to the folk of Newport

Cider

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A clarion call to my village via Facebook turned up nearly enough apples for another demijohn full of fresh juice and another go at cider.   I washed them and chopped them, removing the bad and rotten bits, then put them through our borrowed scratter (smasher up of apples).

I then pressed them in three batches and poured the juice in to a sterilised demijohn before adding a crushed campden tablet.  Now to leave for 24 hours (patience!) before testing the specific gravity and deciding what I want the final product to be like.

Temperature Panic

Wine

After buying the brewing belt yesterday because it was so cold, I wondered idly about the correct temperature today.  I couple of websites later (e.g. Winemaking Temperatures) and I found that the optimum temperature for making white wine is in the 7-15 °C range.  So my 16°C yesterday was perfect, or possibly a bit too hot.  And the steady 24°C I have been congratulating myself on is WAY too hot.  If it is a white wine.  I am guessing that quince wine is a white, so I have switched the belt off for now, but it will come in useful later with beer etc.

I think the idea is that the higher temperature drives off some of the delicate flavours.  Since “delicate flavour” is how I would describe quince, I hope it is not too late.

Cheaty Cider Testing

Cider

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This is the second go at the cheaty cider.  It has been in the fridge for a few days and is rather delicious.   Sweet, a bit yeasty (it really needs a good few days in the fridge) and with quite a nice alcoholic buzz after one glass.  Lovely.

Looks: 3/5 (a bit cloudy)

Taste: 4/5 (still a slight yeastiness, but sweet too)

Buzz: 5/5 🙂

Arduino and heating belt thoughts

Geekiness

Arduino

It was cold today so I bought a heating belt (made in NZ of all places).  I was was looking in to making my arduino UNO in to a temperature controller and found loads of comments about how they can control pumps too.  Pumps?  I looked in to it and found this lovely quote about what they can be used for.

“(transfer) hot wort from the lauter tun to the kettle”

So that’s clear then.

via BT – Souping Up Your Brewing setup.