Feb 5th update

Well, as the winter mead didn't want to restart, I let it settle, mixed in a bit of spirits to prevent restart of fermentation during ageing and the racked it off.

It's powerful stuff. Of the 4 gallons I had that I tried to restart etc, after settling I had 3 full jars, with a bit left over. I managed to get about a pint out of it before the sludge started to pass up the syphon.

It took me 4 or 5 hours to drink the pint. Nice and slowly.

The next morning I had a rageing hangover. Something I don't normally suffer from.

Apart from that, I've racked off the mead I made for the "Winesathome" tutorial. It'd thrown a nice sediment and is starting to clear - I topped it up with "honey water" (50/50 honey and water) to exclude as much air as possible.

I also racked the "canned strawberry" that I had to restart. It's now tasting "wine like" rather than like slightly alcoholic strawberry syrup. I've racked the turbo cider I had going. That tastes a little weird, because I screwed up by using apple juice and peach juice. It should have been apple and pear. Ah well, I'll sort that next time. It is drinkable though.

I've also bought a cheap cider kit to see what that tastes/comes out like. It's only been going 3 days, but should only take between 7 and 10 days to brew. It's a bit "watch this space" so I'll have to wait and see.

TTFN!