Berry Blow Through

21/06/2011

Well, today I started another gallon of wine. No, I haven't actually made any wine past the first fermentation. Even the mead is still bubbling away. I started with 50% apple juice and 50% cranberry juice. I used Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast trying to keep as much of the fruit flavor as possible. Usually used to make white wine I decided to try it. After all everything that I am brewing right now is an experiment. Probably everything I will ever brew will be an experiment. I added enough sugar to bring my Original Gravity to 1.090 exactly. I did add a tea spoon of acid mix and a tea spoon of yeast nutrient. There, that is all the boring stuff. hehehe

I did finally see what some people experience. I had the foam blow up through the air lock and made a nice mess. I was working with my sanitizing agent and air locks. Every time I think I have it under control it foams up and attacks my air lock. I have replaced the air lock three times and every time the foam lowers down and I think it is safe to put on the next air lock and within 30 min to an hour it just does it again. I am kind of screwed at this point since I do not have a hose that I can attach to the bung and run into a bottle of water to deal with any over flow through the night. I don't usually go to bed early but my luck would have it that the night this is happening is the night I would like to sleep really badly. Well, you know what they say. No rest for the wicked.

I do like the smell of this must. I loved the smell of my cider but I was surprised how much I do like the smell of the cranberries. I will probably have to do a full 100% cranberry wine if this works out. I am not a real cranberry person. I don't eat them on holidays and really can't stand the idea of eating them even then. Yeah, when I was a kid I loved them but I probably ate too many one day and now I just don't want to eat them. I really only made this wine for my wife for when the baby is born. She loves cran-apple so I made her some cran apple wine. I am praying that the fruit flavors come through and it still has sweetness.

Ok, some updates on the other experiments I have going on. I have moved everything over to bubbler locks. I like these over the cylinder locks since I can count bubbles instead of burps. I am keeping the one cylinder lock I have for times like this when I have must foam coming up. More volume to them so they can take some of the foam without spilling. The bubbler locks are perfect for just watching the CO2 easier. The mead is starting to slow down quite a bit each day and by the end of this week I should be ready to rack it into another bottle and then we will look into clearing it up and bottling it. The Nuclear Hard Apple Cider a very nice and beautiful yellow and just a fizzing along. I just want this one to fizzle as long as it wants to. The piece of cinnamon has stopped flipping from the bottom to the top and I am fine with that. I am very concerned that there will be too much cinnamon flavor to it. Out of the three that I have going I can't wait for the NHAC. I will probably call it that on the label. Nuclear Hard Apple Cider. But I have a sense of humor also.
If the cider comes out as well as I think it will I am going to go buy two 5 gallon glass carboys and produce 25 bottles of the stuff. If I do this I will let it all age until Christmas and then pull out the whole bunch and go visit family. I will give away bottles of it and make sure everyone has some to during through the holiday. With everything my mother and her husband have been going through  since he had a bad motorcycle wreck they could probably use a few bottles to help heal the soul. My brother just needs to have a few drinks with me. We can use the holiday as an excuse. Guess I will need Leslie to be my drive home. ;)

Keep it bubbling!'
Chuck