Sharing What We Love To Do
A little bit of fermentin’ and craftin’!
We were so lucky on Monday (April 25th) to have Brooke and Jude come by for a visit!!
We were bottling our second cider kit, so Jude decided to join in!
After lunch it was out for a visit with the ponies and a quad ride! …
First time up on a horse! Briar is so good with everyone who wants on his back!
Jude’s not so sure at the moment …
Now he gets to stand for the first time on a pony!! Well, stand with a little help from Grampa!! …
Matchin’ camo dudes! …
And Jude The Dude Hard Cider it is! …
Last month we saw this bird flying around our pasture, and into our neighbour’s pasture. At first Brian thought is was a type of hawk; then he realized it was a falcon. I did a little lookin’ around on the internet… it’s an Immature Prairie Falcon. Neither of us had seen one here before!
I was happy I had the big camera with the zoom lens with us!! And I was pleasantly surprised I was able to get as many good photos as I did… he was a FAST flyer!!
Even though we were a fair distance away (about 100 yds or so in this photo), he seemed to be keeping an eye on us!
Taking off! …
He touched down a bit further away (about 200 yds), and was content to sit there for a few minutes. But he still seemed to be watching us! 😆
And, now he’s going to keep an eye out from every bottle of our newest port! 🤣 …
Brian spotted this badger from about 300 yards away while we were out running the dogs. We hung on to the dogs, and got closer, to about 150 yds from him. It took 2 shots, but Brian got him!! One less vermin to dig HUGE holes in the pastures! The badger holes are terribly treacherous for horses and cows. And the badger eats lots of gophers, which is helpful, but… if the gophers get too depleted, then the raptors (eagles, hawks & falcons) won’t have the gophers to eat and then they won’t come around.
Brian estimated him to be about 30 lbs …
And, he became immortalized on one of our Beers!
What did we do with him? We’ve taken him to a taxidermy friend who is going to mount him for us. At the moment, the hide is still at the tanner’s (apparently, they are quite oily, so need a partial tanning before they can be mounted). So, stay tuned… once he’s mounted, we’ll post some more photos! We’re looking forward to being up-close-and-personal with him without the risk of those teeth and claws!!
In September 2020 we bought a new smoker, and are having a blast with it!! It has re-invigorated barbecuing, and we’re trying all sorts of things on the smoker. As well as all the meats, fish and shellfish, we’ve smoked vegetables, chocolate chip cookies and Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies!! And we make our own rubs (stay tuned for more posts on our rubs!).
And in September 2021, we tried Smoked Sangrias!!!! 🍷 🍓 🍊 🍋 🍷 WOW!!
We smoked the fruit …
Then grabbed a jar of our own Sangria …
And joined some friends to share and taste-test!! …
It was a hit!! And definitely a “Re-Do”!!!
… why, continue Merry Making!!! It was time to bottle the wine and port, and start a new kit – another Pinot Grigio kit!
The wine and port were re-racked and filtered before bottling. Here, Brian is filtering the wine …
The wine’s all bottled up …
The port had a couple additions after filtering … a bottle of Metaxa was added, as well as the Essence Bag from the kit (a syrupy, sweet, port flavoring).
We decided to go with bottles for the port this time. We bought 375 ml Bordeaux bottles, and after we filled all 30, we had enough port left for 3 x 500 ml mason jars. We corked the bottles (left) and put on shrink sleeves (right) …
And then we named and labeled them!!
Long Shadow Port! …
And Blue Moon Montepulciano! …
Both require a minimum of 4 months of aging, but taste-testing while bottling indicates both are a HIT!!!
After a couple month break, we started up our Merry Making again in the middle of October – three kits, different brands/styles from what we’ve done before.
A new port kit (left) – hoping to get a bit closer to commercial ports; a new red wine kit (center) – a montepulciano, with 100% un-concentrated grape juice; and a brown ale kit (right) – a Winter beer for Brian …
Adding yeast to the port …
Mixing up the wort …
After a couple days, the brown ale wort was racked into a carboy for secondary fermentation …
Then the port was racked into a carboy for secondary fermentation …
At the end of the month, the port was ready for stabilizing and clearing. It was re-racked into a carboy …
The montepulciano was also ready for stabilizing and clearing …
Then the port and the wine went downstairs for 3 weeks until they finished this latest process!
The brown ale was ready for priming (for carbonating in the bottle) and bottling …
And the brown ale gets a name… Dirty Dog Brown Ale!! 😂 …
And where did this name come from? Have a boo back at our post from May 2nd “Katie & The Mud Hole” (under RTR)!
The Merry Making continues! In July we finished up the Shiraz. Here, Brian is grabbing some wine in the wine thief to check the specific gravity …
Filtering …
Bottling …
Tasting … YUM!! …
Sundance’s Shiraz!!!
June was a busy month for Merry Making… fermenting, racking, clearing & stabilizing, filtering, bottling; and for the cider, fermenting, priming and bottling!!
Here, Brian is racking our new hard cider into a carboy… this step removes some of the sediment from the first week of fermenting. It continued to ferment in the carboy for another 10 days…
Two new “flavors”! … the Pinot Noir was racked, stabilized & cleared, then sent to the basement for about 3 weeks; and the Shiraz was started …
The hard cider was primed and bottled! Priming means adding some dextrose (fine sugar) … there is still a bit of active yeast at this point, so the yeast eats the sugars and gives off CO2 which is captured because of the bottle cap; thus carbonating the cider in the bottle! And the name, you ask? You’ll have to wait until the end of the month (below!)😆
Next … the Sangiovese was re-racked, filtered, bottled and labeled … Scarlett’s Sangiovese!!! It turned out fabulous!!
And the Sauvignon Blanc was started!! …
Started back in mid-January, our Snow Eater Gerwurztraminer was FINALLY ready to drink!! The instructions in this kit said to wait 3-4 months after bottling before drinking… and we followed the instructions! 😬 Barb & Gregor joined us for our Taste-Testing!! Another GREAT wine!! This white is a little sweeter, so it makes a nice afternoon wine!
And in no time at all, we racked the Shiraz! And added the stabilizing & clearing packets; and downstairs it went for 3 weeks!
And the last of our kits, but not really the last, we started the Zinfandel … with Brooke’s help!! Mixing it up, checking the temperature (and checking Brooke’s temp too! 😆), then adding the yeast!
The Pinot Noir … Pucacho’s Pinot Noir … was re-racked, filtered and bottled! … with Brooke’s help!!
And the Sauvignon Blanc was racked, stabilized and cleared; then moved to the basement for 3 weeks.
And… the new hard cider gets a name! Burnt Legs Hard Cider! Someone got a wee bit of a sunburn on Beaver Lake earlier in June! 😆
Thanks for all your help Brooke!!!! It was fun to Merry Make with you!!
We’re continuing on with our Merry Making! If we’re hanging out at home, we may as well be productive! 😃
Here, Brian is re-racking our Sangiovese … then it gets the stabilizing and clearing packets. After the right photo was taken it went downstairs for three weeks! We’ll be bottling in June, so stay tuned for more about the name of this one!!
Next up… Pinot Noir!! We haven’t made this “flavor” before – we’re excited to try it!! But, we gots ta wait a while yet!
By the end of May we were ready to bottle our newest Cabernet Sauvignon! In this collage, Brian is re-racking, filtering, then bottling!
And it gets a name and labels! If Maggy can have a Mead, then Katie can have a Cab Sauv! 😃
We haven’t yet had a “Taste Testing” comparing Katie’s Cab Sauv to our Rainy Day Cab Sauv (bottled July, 2019) … but some day soon we will!!
And, our newest creation… we are so pleased with our Winter Blues Hard Cider that we started another batch, although a different flavor this time — Strawberry Lime!
Our hard cider had matured the same week our new pinot grigio was bottled, so that meant … Taste Testing!!! 😀 And, that means having good friends join us for their opinion… cuz it’s not near as much fun without friends around! 😀
First up … Winter Blues Hard Cider! … complete with a cheese board!
Then it was on to the pinot grigio … we’ve kept some bottles from the first pinot grig kit to see how it ages, and how it compares to a brand new batch.
So, we compared Flat Garden Pinot Grigio, bottled ~9 months ago in late August to our brand new Charlie’s Pinot Grigio, bottled a couple days ago.
A blind taste test was in order …
Flat Garden was a deeper colour, and had a deeper flavour. Charlie’s was milder. We were a mixed crowd when it came to which tasted “better”!
Taste Testing Thursday was a hit! We’ll be doing it again soon!