Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

It’s Beer Thirty FReepers! Time For The Homebrewing / Wine Making Thread #22 November 23, 2012
Free Republic | 11/23/2012 | Red_Devil 232

Posted on 11/23/2012 4:16:14 PM PST by Red_Devil 232

Good afternoon/evening FReepers. Yep, it is Beer Thirty Time Once Again!

Happiness is a bubbling airlock! And a Cold Brew

 

BEER


Photobucket

My Cranberry Mead I started a year ago this month

Good evening/afternoon brewers and winemakers. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Wife and I popped the top on another swing top bottle of my Cranberry Mead to have with our Turkey dinner and all the fixings. It is really a very nice and tasty honey wine. This has surprised my wife; she could not believe I really made it and that it tastes good. She rarely drinks and does not enjoy my homemade beers or any beer for that matter.

I am hoping that the 5 gallons of my apple cider I started a week or two ago turns out to be as good and she can enjoy it also. I plan on letting it sit and age for about six months before bottling.

I hope all of you and your Brews and Wines are doing well. Stop by and share what you are brewing or let us know what your favorite brew, wine or spirit is.


TOPICS: Hobbies
KEYWORDS: beer; homebrewing; weekly; wine
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

1 posted on 11/23/2012 4:16:27 PM PST by Red_Devil 232
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: quantim; spinestein; 5Madman2; DTogo; Horatio Gates; Ribeye; decal; B Knotts; doodad; hemogoblin; ..

Ping to the Homebrewers and wine makers list!


2 posted on 11/23/2012 4:18:23 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: quantim; spinestein; 5Madman2; DTogo; Horatio Gates; Ribeye; decal; B Knotts; doodad; hemogoblin; ..

Ping to the Homebrewers and wine makers list!


3 posted on 11/23/2012 4:19:10 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232
Your mead looks tastey. Here's what I had forIMG_3579 Black Friday.
4 posted on 11/23/2012 4:26:39 PM PST by Hotmetal (Home from the sandbox.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232
That's very, very red.

I'm reconfiguring for the winter months, and have nothing going right now.

/johnny

5 posted on 11/23/2012 4:38:36 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

I had blackberry and pear cider for thanksgiving. It turned out pretty good. The batch last year was good at the beginning and then got a bit skunky after a few months.

Hope to begin bottling more wine in a week or so when we see if they start to clear out a bit better.


6 posted on 11/23/2012 4:46:34 PM PST by pennyfarmer (Romney is a cresent wrench when you need a hammer. Sure it might work, but do you want to chance it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper

Yes it was very red when I started it and it mellowed out to a nice light rosé.


7 posted on 11/23/2012 4:48:12 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

Can you describe the taste?


8 posted on 11/23/2012 4:53:22 PM PST by Jayster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jayster

It dose not have a very distinct Cranberry taste but is nice, like a rosé or white wine.


9 posted on 11/23/2012 5:01:08 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

Thanks!

Off topic but I had mentioned it earlier....like Spring

I grew 8 varieties of Hops this year for the first time and all did very well.

From what I understand after the first year, the plants do so much better with established roots etc...
I ordered Plants and not Rhizomes. Much much better.

Looking forward to next years crop.


10 posted on 11/23/2012 5:08:17 PM PST by Jayster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

Well, our family had the “day after Thanksgiving feast” at the farm today. With the drought, I can’t find Mustang grapes in our area. Both my BILs had their home brewed beers for us to drink.

My younger sister’s husband had a really smooth, slightly dark beer similar to Shiner Bock. I got a buzz after two, but knew it would be over three hours before I got on the road home. I’ll try to get his beer recipe and post it here.


11 posted on 11/23/2012 5:26:20 PM PST by Arrowhead1952 (0 bummer inherited a worse economy in 2012 than he did in 2008.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

If you were going to be an interstellar colonist, and you wanted to go into this business, how much equipment and what variety of supplies would you take with you?


12 posted on 11/23/2012 5:28:38 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

I cracked the first bottle of my Sathana’s Ers, a Belgian-style ale, tonight. Intense cherry flavors, not from cherries themselves, but from a handful of cherry wood chips, soaked in bourbon. Excellent flavor and body, but I think it’s going to need a few more weeks in the bottle for more conditioning.


13 posted on 11/23/2012 5:40:08 PM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

Your mead looks lovely! Do you have to prep the honey in any special way? I’ve thought about doing a mead, but have never gotten around to it.


14 posted on 11/23/2012 5:51:02 PM PST by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232
FWIW, I read a book on wine history recently that cites a fairly recent paper by a Cornell researcher that says the best way to store "novelty wines" for best aromatic flavors is at 28F with no more than 9.5% alc.

OTOH, the advertising ditty "How's it served?/Good n' Cold" was probably to dampen what various and haphazard aromatics Thunderbird did have...

15 posted on 11/23/2012 6:03:06 PM PST by Calvin Locke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232
Sipping a Belgium triple I bottled Sunday. Very tasty and 9%.

I bought 3 kinds of spiced wheat beers (My favorite type of beer)on Wednesday and proceeded to try all 3, one of them being a bomber. I then decided to try one of my triples and promptly began slurring and went to bed early.

Today I traded 12 of my home brews for 3 bottles of home made wine my Moms friend makes. Mom described them as $50 dollar a bottle quality so I look forward to trying them but feel as though I should save them for a special occasion.

My local home brew store is having a 15% off sale tomorrow so I'm going to brew up 10 gallons of spiced wheat. I've already given away and/or traded 30 bottles of my triple...so far.

16 posted on 11/23/2012 6:03:31 PM PST by Manic_Episode (Some days...it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

No prep for me just heat the water so the honey will dissolve nicely. Add a yeast nutrient because the honey does not provide the basics for the yeast to multiply and do their job. Add a quality ale or wine yeast and wait. Honey wine!


17 posted on 11/23/2012 6:07:29 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

I brewed my first batch almost three weeks ago.

I’ve got Caribou Slobber (Moose Drool knockoff), still bubbling after three weeks.

A friend brewed up a Brewer’s Best Scottish Ale. Hers is done fermenting, and is cold crashing for bottling on Sunday.

Another friend wanted in on the act, so we brewed up a high-gravity Maibock. I don’t have lagering capability, so we used an ale yeast instead.


18 posted on 11/23/2012 6:15:51 PM PST by Monitor ("The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-front for the urge to rule it." - H. L. Mencken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

I was speaking to someone who worked in the Food Science Dept of our town’s university. Since wine-making is now a big deal in OR they have a few faculty who are ‘experts’. One commented that the honey needs to be pasteurized to eliminate bacteria. I suppose that’s the professional outlook, but wondered how necessary. One of these days I’ll get around to trying a mead. In the meantime, we’ve still got pears & white grapes in the freezer waiting to start. I’ve been so depressed by the election results I haven’t felt much like doing anything. Except maybe crying into an earlier vintage... ;-)


19 posted on 11/23/2012 6:24:03 PM PST by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

I did not have raw honey so used pasteurized. I have a feeling it would not make much of a difference with honey. I used one pound (gallon) of honey to four gallons of spring water and a few pounds of fresh frozen Cranberries (crushed and blenderized).


20 posted on 11/23/2012 6:39:21 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson