Time to check the Hard Cider – to see if it was fully carbonated! So we grabbed a couple of our Erdinger Beer Glasses! …
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The result? The carbonation was perfect! And, the flavor? Wow!! Not as sweet as we thought it would be, which is a good thing! And, downstairs it went for another 4 weeks of aging … It should be ready to drink in mid-May.
April 20, 2020
I decided to try our Cucumber Infused Vodka in a martini … WOW! Ya gotta like cucumber though! 😃
April 15, 2020
We keep this vodka in the freezer, so it gets ice crystals in it …
April 15, 2020
After starting our mead in late December, and aging it downstairs for 3 months, it was time to bottle it!
April 18, 2020
Here Brian is re-racking it …
April 18, 2020
Then filtering …
April 18, 2020
All bottled … 35 ½ 750 ml mason jars!
April 18, 2020
Named and labeled …. Maggy’s Mead!
April 18, 2020April 18, 2020
And the result? Wonderful! We did a taste comparison between Maggy’s Mead and our Limp Mint Mead (bottled at the end of last July) … we couldn’t really taste the mint, but it did seem to effect the color… the Limp Mint Mead is a deeper color. And the taste? Maggy’s Mead is milder, perhaps just because it hasn’t aged as long. Maggy’s Mead is now downstairs…
April 20, 2020
The Pinot Grigio, which we started on Apr 7th, was racked into a carboy for stabilizing and clearing; then carted downstairs for 3 weeks.
April 20, 2020
And what’s happened to that beer, you ask??? Brian checked it for carbonation — it wasn’t quite fully carbonated, but … Brian said “it was light and refreshing, with a crisp, clean taste, like a gopher running across the snow-top with a bald eagle fast on his heels! It awakens the palette to a dance of Mexican jumping beans!” 🤣
April 20, 2020
We let the beer carbonate for another week upstairs, then it joined the cider downstairs to age for 4 more weeks. It should be ready to drink at the end of May.
While the hard cider has been carbonating, we finalized the name and created labels … Winter Blues Hard Cider!
April 6, 2020
Not apple though, it’s … Bumbleberry!!
April 6, 2020
Then it was time to prime and bottle the beer …
April 6, 2020
As with the hard cider, we used 22 oz glass bottles… and filled 33 of them! That’s the equivalent of 60 x 12 oz bottles of cerveza!!
April 6, 2020
Then it was into a warm, dark place to carbonate! Here it sits with the hard cider …
April 7, 2020
On to another batch of wine! We are repeating the Pinot Grigio kit, and in mid- to late May we’ll have a taste comparison (brand new to ~ 9 months old).
April 7, 2020
The cerveza gets a name! Corriendo La Tuza Cerveza!! And it gets a label!
April 11, 2020April 11, 2020
So, what’s the story behind the name? Well, we have these little ground dwelling critters that like to run around on the snow once it warms up a bit. The dogs like to catch them too, but that’s a story for another day!
Running Gopher! In Spanish! Corriendo La Tuza Cerveza! 😆
We also started a beer kit in March!! Mexican Cerveza!!!!!
Brooke & Kyle were over the day we started our beer, and were of tremendous help! Thanks Brooke & Kyle!! But, sadly, once again, no pics!
On Day 5, after the bulk of the fermentation was done, we racked the wort into a carboy for secondary fermentation …
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It is clearing up, and continuing to ferment.
March 29, 2020
It will sit in secondary for several more days. Then we’ll prime it and bottle it. Just like with the hard cider, we’ll add dextrose so that the beer will carbonate in the bottle.
And the name of this beer? You’ll have to wait and see!
We started our first hard cider kit in March — Mixed Berry Hard Cider! Sorry Susan, this one’s gonna be a bit too sweet for you!
First step … fermenting in the Primary Fermenter … it starts out as apple cider (juice) …
March 14, 2020
Next we racked it into a carboy to “rest” …
March 21, 2020
17 days after we started, we Primed and Bottled! Priming the hard cider meant that we added some more dextrose (sugar), and the mixed berry flavoring and a sweetener. The dextrose was added because we are carbonating the hard cider in the bottle … the remaining yeast “eat” the sugars and CO2 is given off, but it’s trapped inside the bottle!
March 29, 2020
We used 22 oz (a little bigger than a UK pint) glass bottles with caps, and got the equivalent of 60 x 12 oz (355 ml) “regular size” bottles.
March 29, 2020
The hard cider is sitting in the dark, carbonating away … we’ll check on it in a couple weeks, then move it to the basement to age for another month.
We had a bit at the end that wouldn’t fully fill a bottle, so we carbonated it with our Soda Stream, added some ice, and had a taste test! The verdict? Lovely! A bit sweet, but that will lessen as the dextrose is used up, and most definitely “immature”, but that will improve over the next 6-8 weeks!
One day while we were in Texas… on the way back from Waco … we stopped at this cool spot. There was a bar and several food trucks … the bar served from all the trucks and the trucks used the bar for alcohol! What a great concept!!
Mom tried their “Effen Good” cocktail … Effen Cucumber Vodka, lime, simple syrup & soda (Mom skipped the jalapeno). What a refreshing drink!!!! So, we just had to try our own …
We did some googling, and a new vodka favorite arrived at Redtail Rise! …
… Cucumber Infused Vodka!!!!
March 12, 2020
We infused vodka with english cucumber for 3 days … and that was strong enough! Wow!! Great flavor!! We’ve put the jar in the freezer, googled recipes using Cucumber Vodka, and now we’re just waiting for Summer!
Once we got home from Austin, it was time to bottle the white and red wines we started in January.
First up, the white… here, Brian is bottling, after we re-racked and filtered it …
March 9, 2020
And the name of this fine creation? … Snow Eater Gerwurztraminer!! Do you remember how to pronounce it??? Guh-voorts-truh-meener!! After two months I finally have it in my head! 🙂 And, where does “snow eater” come from???? Chinook means “snow eater”, so now you know our weather while we were making this wine!
March 10, 2020
What we didn’t realize until we were racking the gerwurztraminer into secondary… it won’t be ready until late June!! It needs to age a bit more (this is the first kit that we’ve had to age in the bottle). So … we haven’t had a proper taste test yet!!
Then it was on to the red … this is Pomegranate Wildberry Wave – our Sangria. Here, Brian is filtering it.
March 9, 2020
And the name for this one??? Texas Sangria!! It spent most of it’s crafting time all alone while we were cavorting around Texas!
March 10, 2020
We had a partial bottle so infused it with a lime, a small orange (a California mandarin) and 1/2 a lemon.
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And here’s the whole works … 23 x 1 L Mason Jars (~ 31 x 750 ml bottles) of Snow Eater Gerwurztraminer; and ~ 24 x 1 L Mason Jars (~ 32 x 750 ml bottles) of Texas Sangria.
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And the results? Wow! What a wonderful Sangria!!!! After two hours of infusing the fruit we removed it … the Sangria was plenty infused!! After a couple days in the fridge, it tasted a bit bitter, so we’ve decided we’ll add the fruit as we serve it!
On the last day of January, we continued on with our “Merry Making”!
The Gewurztraminer (Guh-voorts-truh-meener) was finished fermenting, so we racked it into a carboy. The Wine and the Mead went downstairs for clearing (if you look closely, you can already see sediment is dropping out onto the bottom of the carboy) and for aging …
February 1, 2020
We’ll bottle the Gewurztraminer in early-mid March — it will be ready to drink in July. We’ll bottle the Mead in mid-April. The taste-tests will have to wait a while yet!!
We brought in (from our storage shed) another shelving unit from Mom & Dad – Wow! what great shelves!! Thanks Mom & Dad!! We rearranged our creations and equipment, making room for next creations to come!
February 1, 2020
Speaking of “next creations”… we started our “Sangria” for the Summer! This Pomegranate Wildberry Wave will make a great base for Sangria… we’ll just add a wee bit of citrus, possibly some soda water, and ice cubes!!
February 1, 2020
The “Sangria” will be racked mid-February and bottled along side the Gewurztraminer in early-mid March.
We spent a cold, Saturday afternoon “Making Merry”!!
First up… our Red Ball Sangiovese was ready to be bottled. Why Red Ball, you ask? Well, when we were checking the Specific Gravity one day (so the lid was off), we bumped the Birch Tree and knocked a red Christmas ball into the wine! 😬 Oops! But, a name was born! 😃
What we learned when we started this wine is that Sangiovese is the main grape in Chianti! Chianti is one of my favorite wines!! 🍷🍷
First step was to re-rack it. Then we filtered it. Here’s Brian just as the filtering is getting going …
January 18, 2020
Had to have a wee sample! WOW! What a great wine!! …
January 18, 2020
A little over half-way …
January 18, 2020
Then we bottled it! … almost 23 L ( ≈ 30 x 750 ml bottles)
January 18, 2020
Next, we racked the as-of-yet-unnamed Mead into a carboy for aging …
January 18, 2020
Then we started a new wine!! This time a German Gewurztraminer (pronounced “Guh-voorts-truh-meener” … yes, we had to look up how to pronounce it! 😃
Both the Mead and the Gewurztraminer are in the Office, one aging and one fermenting.
January 18, 2020
As the Mead ages, the solids will drop out and it will clear. We’ll move it downstairs this coming week. In a couple months, we’ll re-rack, filter and bottle. And come up with a name!! 😃
January 18, 2020
The Gewurztraminer will ferment for about two weeks in the Office; then we’ll rack it and let it stabilize and clear for a few weeks, and… come up with a name! 😃
January 18, 2020
And finally, we labeled the Red Ball Sangiovese …
January 18, 2020
I also created new “Redtail Rise Kitchen Fixin’s” labels! Liking this version much better!
