Secret Santa 2013

[Crastney]

W4 - the wife's white.

Drank this last night with my wife and brother in law.
She said it tasted better than she expected. BiL said that it actually tasted like wine.
A bit dry for my tastes but very drinkable, and as the maker said in his letter, it goes well half n half with lemonade.
Forgot to take photos, but very clear, light coloured wine. Maker started that it was a wow, which was then back sweetened with 10cl juice per bottle, to bring abv down to 13% ish.
It reminded me of a gevertztraminer (sp?).
Maker professed to not being a wine drinker and not liking it himself, and asked for advice - I'd say that this is already quite good, maybe use less sugar to start with to get a lower abv, and then possibly force stop the fermentation early, to leave it sweet, rather than back sweeten.

Secret Santa was a good idea, thanks for organising, and thanks for a nice wine.

 

[Kinleycat]

W4 - the wife's white.

Drank this last night with my wife and brother in law.
She said it tasted better than she expected. BiL said that it actually tasted like wine.
A bit dry for my tastes but very drinkable, and as the maker said in his letter, it goes well half n half with lemonade.
Forgot to take photos, but very clear, light coloured wine. Maker started that it was a wow, which was then back sweetened with 10cl juice per bottle, to bring abv down to 13% ish.
It reminded me of a gevertztraminer (sp?).
Maker professed to not being a wine drinker and not liking it himself, and asked for advice - I'd say that this is already quite good, maybe use less sugar to start with to get a lower abv, and then possibly force stop the fermentation early, to leave it sweet, rather than back sweeten.

Secret Santa was a good idea, thanks for organising, and thanks for a nice wine.

Thanks for the review crastney, w4 was my "effort".
Glad you managed to get it down :thumb: and like I said in my note I will be taking your advice on board in my attempts to make a drinkable wine for a more wider public than the good lady's half wine half lemonade palate!! :lol:
This was from batch four (I think) and had been the best to date from what others have told me.
Batch five (White) and batch 6 (rose/blush) have again been tweaked in order to make a more acceptable effort.
I'm thinking of upping the fruit juice level and lowering the sugar level next time around.
Thanks again and hope you've had a great Christmas and new year!! :

 

[alanywiseman.]

Firstly apologies to the brewer of 7W for the last review.

7W was a Bilberry and Redcurrant wine. The letter that came with it said it was young (fermented in August) and to be careful incase it has restarted in the bottle. There was absolutly no pressure in the bottle at all and the wine was perfectly degassed. It was a lovely deep red colour with a rich red berry aroma. I found the wine too sweet for myself (guessing it had a SG of about 1.020) and felt like it detracted from the lovely flavour that was present. The wine was fairly high in tannins but that is not surprising given the age but I think this will turn into a fantastic wine given time.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[alanywiseman.]

And now on to 6W which I sampled yesterday.

Liver, asparagus and honey. Three things in this world that I really do not like. I was a little disapointed to see honey mentioned in the note that came with my bottle.
However, I cannot let personal taste get in the way of science!

The note reccomended serving at room temperature so that is what I did. It was beautifully clear and had that slight viscosity of a desert wine.
There was a light fruity aroma comming from the glass and I was relieved to find no trace of honey. A taste gave quite an intense blast of fruit, almost cider like. It was sweet but had none of the honey tang that you get in a mead. The honey was there but it was so mellow and smooth it complemented the fruit flavours rather than overwhelming them. The flavours lingered in the mouth with no nasty after taste.

This is a very pleasent drink. One to maybe be sipped at the end of an evening, by the fire, like a glass of Port. I couldnt drink lots of it in one sitting but I look forward to having my second glass tonight.

Well done.

Thank you for the lovely review :thumb:

This was a Joes Ancient Orange Mead from storm the castle. I think it is now coming up to about a year old. It is:

1 Orange cut up into 1/8ths (skin and pith included)
2 cloves
1 Cinnimon Stick
2tsp nutrient
3lbs honey
1tsp bread yeast

Load all of that into a DJ top up with water and shake to mix (no heating). Then pitch yeast. Leave till the oranges dop to the bottom of the DJ (about 3 months) before bottling. Be carful as the yeast does not settle well and stirs up very easily.

Sorry that you got a mead though, I thought it made a lovely Christmas tipple :thumb:

 

[Boatbrewer]

Alanywiseman.

I was actually really pleased to have had this wine to sample. It has made me think again about mead which normally I would dismiss without giving it a proper taste. What you have produced here is an excellent drink.

I also like the idea that it is an 'old school' type of recipe.

 

[alanywiseman.]

It is a dead simple recipe and that was the first mead I made but I think what I dislike about commercial meads is that they are too sweet and pungent.

 

[mwestin]

Thanks alanywiseman! No worries - it's nice to get someone else's feedback, just glad it didn't blow up in your fridge.

We shared some with another friend the other day and i think i agree with you, it is definitely on the sweet side which takes over (and i am quite happy to drink sweet wines), i can't remember what we drank it with, but it was sweeter than i remember, and i reckon your estimate on the gravity is about right. The reason for still being around 1.020 is the fermentation stopped and due to lack of knowledge never got restarted.

It was only a small batch so more juice has been acquired and am going to make a 25-30 litre batch as i'm quickly finding a single demijohn batch is no good for anything that has promise for ageing. Therefore going to try to replicate something similar to it but ferment it out to a lower gravity and if it stops, try to re-start it.

We really enjoyed the swap, it's a great idea and thank you to the organisers.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

The last few comments made interesting reading for me as I will be starting a batch of JAOM in about 2-3 weeks using orange blossom honey.

One thought: the JAOM recipe is for 3Lbs honey per gallon, equivalent to about 1.1kg sugar, about the average amount for a gallon of table wine. That should give a starting SG of ~1085 and, assuming it ferments down to ~993, it should finish at ~12% ABV. If the SG is around 1020, the ABV will be ~8.5%, much lower than I suspect you wanted.

Assuming you used bread yeast, rather than wine yeast, that might be the problem. Bread yeasts have been selectively bred (no pun intended) to become efficient producers of CO2, not for alcohol tolerance or quality of flavour. They are also descended from ale yeasts, which usually have a lower tolerance for alcohol than wine yeasts. It may be that 8.5% was the maximum tolerance for the yeast you used, and that a wine yeast would give a better result.

 

[alanywiseman.]

The last few comments made interesting reading for me as I will be starting a batch of JAOM in about 2-3 weeks using orange blossom honey.

One thought: the JAOM recipe is for 3Lbs honey per gallon, equivalent to about 1.1kg sugar, about the average amount for a gallon of table wine. That should give a starting SG of ~1085 and, assuming it ferments down to ~993, it should finish at ~12% ABV. If the SG is around 1020, the ABV will be ~8.5%, much lower than I suspect you wanted.

Assuming you used bread yeast, rather than wine yeast, that might be the problem. Bread yeasts have been selectively bred (no pun intended) to become efficient producers of CO2, not for alcohol tolerance or quality of flavour. They are also descended from ale yeasts, which usually have a lower tolerance for alcohol than wine yeasts. It may be that 8.5% was the maximum tolerance for the yeast you used, and that a wine yeast would give a better result.

THe recipe was designed with bread yeast in mind. The point is that it should finish sweet and not be overly strong so that it matures quicker. with a wine yeast you will get a very dry mead that will take longer to mature out as will. The bread yeast also adds a 'breadyness' to the mead that is nice. Let us know how your varient turns out.

 

[Grumpy Jack]

Well it's a case of better late than never and I can only apologise for the delay in posting my feedback but, without going into details, it's been an extremely difficult Christmas & January and I've been unable to drink or to really get on line. I hope that the brewer who sent my bottle is not too upset at the delay but they deserve the feedback for their efforts and I repeat my apologies. I have finally been able to drink and to savour a drink in the last ten days.

So here goes with the review of cider C1:
Tasting notes tell me it's a kit which has been enhanced by brewing short and replacing some of the water with apple juice.
There's no carbonation to speak of but in my experience that's par for the course on cider kits.
The nose is a little harsh initially but then you get a real hit of apple and it's rather good.
Now, the flavour is quite a good strong apple flavour, with a background taste that's more like a light calvados... There's a definite stronger alcohol flavour which doesn't come through with the effect that you might expect, but which really enhances the flavour, otherwise I think that it would probably be a quite thin brew. It's a deceptive, easy to drink pint, but with a good flavour. The decision to make enhancements to the original kit definitely makes for a better drink.
Half an hour later, I can say that I really enjoyed this pint and perhaps that in itself is the mark of a successful brew; regardless of what else I come up with... Thank you!

 

[godfrey]

A belated Happy New year to everyone....
and my apologies for the very very late reply !

I have just opened the first of my two Santa's
W11 strawberry and mango hippy juice

the wine is superb!
and I will certainly be having a go at tea bag wine myself in the future...

the wine is super clear rose colour
on the nose you can smell the strawberry :party:
the wine is delicate and sweet with complex fruity notes.
compliments to the vintner who produced this delicious beverage :clap:

I will try to review my second santa soon !