The Apple Wine, from last year!

So, OK the apple wine I made from a recipe in the "First Steps in Winemaking" book had, as far as I was concerned, finished.

It tasted very much like a quite syrupy apple juice, though it did actually have the "cidery bouquet" as suggested in the book - this is apparently because it's a very "high fruit" recipe.

Anyway, some of the good people from the "wines at home" forums have suggested that this might be because the fermentation had become "stuck", and that I should try to restart it with a high alcohol/champagne type yeast (I'm gonna try the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast).

It might work, it might not. If it doesn't, I might just top up the alcohol with some vodka for a dessert/aperitif type drink. Watch this space!

The orange and spice mead......

Just a "quickie" on this, I couldn't wait until this weekend to top "it" up, so I did that on Thursday evening. It didn't seem to affect it at all, because as soon as the fermentation valve was back in place, it commenced bubbling.

So it's now tucked under the small side table we have in the dining room, shrouded in it's newspaper (as previously mentioned). I'm gonna be able to leave it alone as once it's there, so it can "finish" with the dropping of the fruit.

Excellent.