Waiting For Your Fruits

4/03/2011

This is the part that totally sucks. You get your must going. You get it into the primary fermenter. You wait, then get it into the secondary fermenter. You wait then rack it, test it, and taste it. At this point you get a really good idea what you will end up with. Now you have to wait for a very long time before bottling happens. This is the waiting that really sucks. You get very few bubbles but as long as they are coming the fruit is not ready. All you can do is keep out of it and not sip away at what will be your finished product. You just have to keep in mind that what you are waiting for will be better than what you have in the brew shelf.

My brew shelf is my desk. Not my computer desk. That is on the other side of the room. My desk is where I deal with paper work and all that needs done off the computer. The room is already naturally dim and few lights. I kinda like the cave feel. I guess this is where they get the whole “Man Cave” from. Who knows. I do know it is nice to sit there dealing with whatever needs taken care of and I get to look up and see what it is that I am working for. The only issue with this setup is with the primary fermenter. The room smells like CO2 for days. I can tell you that this smell is not like that of bread being made. It is a acidic smell. There is nothing like it I have ever smelled. I am not saying that it is a nasty smell but I am saying that by the time it gets into the secondary fermenter I am sick of the smell. I am glad warm weather is here. Now I can open the window and the gas gets pulled or pushed out of this room. I would rather smell the sweet country than the smell of CO2.

The image today has not been pulled form the internet. That is taken on my back deck. It is the elderberry wine that I have so much hope in. This is the bottle of liquid gold that has inspired me to start a two gallon version. The flavor is that of wine and I can understand why there are songs about this. I am having a hard time waiting and not grabbing a measure of it every so often. I use the term measure to equal to a shot glass. You would not think that a measure is that much but when you do measure after measure it all adds up. I keep thinking that by waiting I can enjoy a chilled glass of wine and not a room temperature measure that is only a teaser.

We all hate waiting on something that we know is about to be something good but we have to. I plan, at this point, to start getting the equipment to start five gallon shots at this. Looking at only five bottles per gallon is kinda bleak when you think about the months that goes into each shot. I am glad that I did start with gallon shots instead of five gallon shots. The mistakes that I made are easier to stomach. I would have hated to throw out twenty five gallons of mistake instead of the five gallons that I did throw out. However, now that I have an understanding of how to make wine I think I am ready to go for the five gallon shots so when I get it right I get twenty five bottles of wine and not five. But I am a few months away from that investment.

Until next time keep it bubbling.

Chuck