Sunday, January 8, 2012

Messing around

The fermentation of the kiwi melon pino grigio seems to be doing fine.  It looks like I will be racking it around the 18th into the secondary if all goes well.

The "Smash" is done and ready to be bottled.  Lucky helped me brew this batch when he was visiting.  Lucky and I call it Smash because well, it gets you smashed as we found out.  It is an old recipe from my great grandpa and is a type of wheat malt/wine.  It has a very deep brown color and it smells very sweet (and tastes absolutely amazing before you put the yeast in) until its fully fermented.  Then it smells more like a mild whiskey.  Basically, it consists of malted wheat (I used red malted wheat from Briess), white and brown sugar, raisins, and water. It takes about 7 weeks until you can bottle it up and drink it.  It also definitely changes flavor over time too, going from a lighter crispy flavor to a deep earthy flavor. 

It is great stuff and this time I had enough raisins (for tannin and a bit of color) so I am interested to see if it tastes any different than the last time I brewed up a batch.  I just have to go through with the filtering process, which is always sticky mess with this stuff for some reason.  I think I might try racking it and letting it clear up a bit before I bottle it.  Last time I still had a bit of murky stuff in the bottom of the bottles.

I think I might mix up some more "Apple Pie" if I go to the store tomorrow.  I made a batch before Christmas and took most of it home with me over the holidays so it didn't last long.  Apple Pie is typically made with moonshine, but there is a legal way to do it with high ABV grain alcohols like Everclear.  It tastes so smooth and just like eating a piece of apple pie.  There are quite a few recipes for it online or you can get in touch with me if you need one. 

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