Today.....

Well had a bit of a session today.

I racked the "Winter Mead" (well really it's either a metheglin or a melomel as it's got both fruit and spices). It's been 14 days since I mixed it, so now it's in a "secondary fermenter" I have to leave it for 56 days - I say secondary fermenter, the recipe is actually for 4 US gallons a.k.a. 12 litres, but my turned out a bit more. Not sure why, but I actually managed to fill the 12 litre container that I'd prepared plus 4 1 pint milk bottles (handy as the top of the bottle is the same size as a "normal" drilled stopper). The bit I tasted, was very "fruity" and quite sweet, I'll have to see what it's like at the end of the 56 day secondary ferment.

Then I racked the "tinned Strawberry" off the lees. The sediment was rather weird i.e. not very "yeast like" at all, but that doesn't matter. It tasted a bit like an alcoholic version of strawberry ice cream syrup - I might have to try to "restart" the fermentation with a champagne yeast to see if it will ferment out all the sugar - there must be some remaining (I presume) as it's quite sweet.

Then I bottled the batch of "turbo cider" that I made, it was the second one. The first being made of just cheapo tesco's apple juice and yeast, the one I bottled today also had a pound of honey in it. I tastes like the first one but with more alcohol.

finally I degassed and back sweetened a bottle of the first mead I made last year (last year ? I think it's about 18 months old now). It wasn't bad though, much better than I'd thought.

Right, I'm off to my brothers' place as it was his birthday during the week and I'm gonna take him a bottle of rum!

TTFN