February Wine of the Month Club

[ckvchestnut]

I tasted a bit of my blueberry peach port after leaving it on oak for awhile. Wow it's coming along nicely! I can taste a hint I smoky vanilla from the heavy toast Hungarian oak and the blueberry is forward with the peach on the finish. Actually after my glass was empty all I could smell in the glass was the peach - so weird! It's a pleasant light peach scent. Will try it one more time to see if I new to add a touch more of peach essence or if I'll leave as is and bottle. It has a lovely dark cherry or ruby red colour. I have high hopes for this in 6 months to a year! I'll try to take a pic of a glass of it shortly!

 

[vernsgal]

It sounds real yummy!

 

[ckvchestnut]

Hanks Kim! It is! I'm pretty impressed! I'm not much for sweet wines but this does taste very nice.

 

[the_rayway]

Well now, that is a sexy photo! Well done!

Don't forget to post successful recipes in the "Recipes" section of the Forum folks!

 

[LoneStarLori]

Wow.. Beautiful, I can smell the peach down here.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Thanks ladies! Will do! I'm going to wait a bit longer obviously to see how this matures and hopefully improves even more before posting it as an official recipe I guess! It was fun joining the wine of the month thread. I had too much on my plate for March by would like to join again soon!

 

[the_rayway]

Jasmine Tea Mead:
Racked off the lees after the dual clarifier did it's thing. A lot more lees than I had expected!

It's nice and clear and has a really lovely citrus smell when racking.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Wow! That looks awesome Ray! Beautiful clarity and colour! Cheers to you on that one!

 

[LoneStarLori]

Y'all are what my Mom would have called a "bad influence". Just when I thought I wasn't a fruit/mead person and not sure the 1 gal batches were worth my time, you go showing off these gorgeous. CLEAR batches.

 

[Jericurl]

These wines look terrific you guys!

I'm going to rack my Feb wine tomorrow and I'm hoping it looks as good as these do!

 

[the_rayway]

Y'all are what my Mom would have called a "bad influence". Just when I thought I wasn't a fruit/mead person and not sure the 1 gal batches were worth my time, you go showing off these gorgeous. CLEAR batches.

Are yours not clearing Lori? I've been using artificial 'persuasion' on mine ::

 

[LoneStarLori]

No. Mine are clearing just fine. I just get impatient waiting on one little gallon to be drinkable. To be honest, I haven't really tasted much of them. I'm just following Jack Keller's recipe that says to wait a year.
In the meantime, there's always those eight-week kits. Which I have plenty going



Sent from my iPhone

 

[JDesCotes]

Quick update on my tropical dragon blood I started.

Original recipe had mango, pineapple and honeydew. Word of warning: honeydew leaves a VERY strange taste which lingers on the tongue.

I bought some pineapple flavor concentrate which seems to mostly have masked that taste.

No sure how this one will work out... May end up as a "mixer" to be used with pops and juices but we will see in a couple of months, I'm not giving up on it yet!

 

[LoneStarLori]

Quick update on my tropical dragon blood I started.

Original recipe had mango, pineapple and honeydew. Word of warning: honeydew leaves a VERY strange taste which lingers on the tongue.

I bought some pineapple flavor concentrate which seems to mostly have masked that taste.

Honeydew? That's not even a tropical fruit. That recipe must have been created by a guy.. LOL Good move on the pineapple, that should prevail.

I haven't tried it, but it seems like I read on here a while back that watermelon is difficult to ferment and clear, so Honeydew probably has the same evil properties.

I'm sure yours will be fine. You have lots of other nummy ingredients.

 

[JDesCotes]

Yea the honeydew required ALOT of pectic enzyme to clear out and took until last week to be perfectly clear.

I'm looking forward to bottling this weekend

Oh and my reasoning behind using the honeydew was: "it was about to rot, but hadn't yet"

Better to use those fruit sugars for something rather than throw them in the trash

 

[LoneStarLori]

If it cleared this soon, then I think you are 'in the clear'. My dragon blood was a complete failure. It cleared just fine then started fermenting again after bottling. Tasted great though.

I gotta say "Ooops" for the guy comment on the recipe. I thought you used someone else's recipe. Color me embarrassed.

 

[the_rayway]

You're all too funny

Lori, your Dragon's Blood re-fermented? Boo-urns. My first skeeter Pee is nearly ready to bottle, and I'm nervous. Although, my basement is cool enough I think they would get through the summer anyways.

I'm in the habit now of plonking anything that's not going to get eaten before it goes bad into the freezer, and pouring off the juice from any canned fruit we open. You never know when you might need it!

 

[LoneStarLori]

I'm considering making Skeeter Pee. I am just not sure what to expect. Something tells me it should be carbonated.
Have you tried it? I'd like to hear some opinions.

 

[JDesCotes]

I'm considering making Skeeter Pee. I am just not sure what to expect. Something tells me it should be carbonated.
Have you tried it? I'd like to hear some opinions.

skeeter pee is AMAZING! I literally can't keep up production enough to match demand. It is a nice, light and refreshing white wine with a very subtle lemon flavor that lingers.

Whatever you do, do not drinking it thinking it will taste like mikes hard lemonade, it's 100% different and 1000% better!

 

[the_rayway]

Yeah, this is my first go-round with SP, so I have no idea what to expect. It's so popular though, that I figured it had to be good! Next up - Dragon's Blood!