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Posted: |
Jun 10, 2016 - 5:42 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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TG, it just so happens that I have bottled the sloe today! And in my opinion it's wonderful!
Now, you must understand that my wife and I only really like dry wines. Which is great, because everything I did last year from berries has turned out just the way we like it. I took the decision to use only 1 kilo of sugar per gallon of everything I made, even when the recipes were for sweet wines. And they all turned out good. Of course a pear (they have a fair bit of natural sugar) I did was the least dry, actually quite mellow, but the rose hip was very acidic. You could feel the enamel of your teeth stripping away! But we're fine with this. My wife is especially fond of sour tastes.
The sloe, even though it had obviously finished, with not the slightest bubble coming through the air trap, was cloudy. So for the first time I used a finings system. It worked perfectly and produced crystal clarity (ok I got those last two words from The Outer Limits!).
Sloe gin doesn't actually interest me (even though lots of people I know have done it) because it's simply about putting bruised sloes in a bottle of gin with sugar and shaking it. Here we're producing our own alcohol from scratch.
I think the haze I got is typical of plum type wines, from what I've read (and I haven't done plum so far). Sloes are like tiny, very bitter, plums. But because it really had fermented totally out (the reason why I've done 1 kilo of sugar with everything - it's not too heavy a job for the yeast to cope with), the finings had no trouble in sorting it out pretty damn quick. Cleared it in less than two days.
Most of the wine I make is from the hedgerows. I love the idea that apart from a bag of sugar it's virtually free. Ordinary fruit I tend to do if someone gives me their windfalls, or gluts of stuff they have growing in the garden.
The sloe wine? It's a nice light wine with a light red colour, and dry. Lovely!
Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I note your contempt for sloe gin  - them sloes don't prick themselves, tha knows!
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Tha knows?! Ay-up, here I am in Barnsley and somb'dy on an international site uses a Yorkshire accent on ME! Then a quick glance at his profile and find he's a Wetherby whaler! It's a small world after all.
Well, I might well have a go at Sloe gin if I have any sloes left next time. I should have. There are tons of sloe bushes on t'old pit stack next to where Elsecar pit once stood. I didn't know about these until tipped off by a friend last year. By the time I got up there, a lot were gone, but I had ample because of the amount of bushes, which apparently were planted purposely years ago, together with hawthorn in between each one forming a hedge.
First time I'd ever seen sloes never mind used them. But I often think about using leftover amounts of these hedgerow fruits to make syrups which can then be used with a clear spirit such as gin or vodka, and tonic to make an instant hedgerow flavoured alcoholic drink...
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We've done some home brewing, with mixed results, some was good, some was bad and some was undrinkable.
Our biggest problem was the wife's parents being strict teetotal and liable to make our lives miserable if they caught us with alcohol in the house so everything had to be done in secret.
So we had demijohns hidden behind the TV, behind the sofa and latterly in our bedroom(until the fumes became too strong) if the family came round (which mercifully wasn't very often) we'd run round squirting fresh air spray in all the rooms to try to deaden the smell and put the blame on the dogs.
We never had a demijohn explode, a few bottles went off with a bang once, that's when we decided to stick with buying the ready bottled stuff, it's easier than having to scrub gallons of wine/beer off your carpets and furniture.
It's less likely to lead to divorce as well.
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We've done some home brewing, with mixed results, some was good, some was bad and some was undrinkable.
Our biggest problem was the wife's parents being strict teetotal and liable to make our lives miserable if they caught us with alcohol in the house so everything had to be done in secret.
So we had demijohns hidden behind the TV, behind the sofa and latterly in our bedroom(until the fumes became too strong) if the family came round (which mercifully wasn't very often) we'd run round squirting fresh air spray in all the rooms to try to deaden the smell and put the blame on the dogs.
We never had a demijohn explode, a few bottles went off with a bang once, that's when we decided to stick with buying the ready bottled stuff, it's easier than having to scrub gallons of wine/beer off your carpets and furniture.
It's less likely to lead to divorce as well.
Great story!
Burst bottles usually one of two things. Bottling too soon with wine, and in the case of beer not using bottles that can withstand the pressure that builds up during secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is what we need to have a the fiz and head we like to experience. For beer I always used plastic fizzy drink bottles with no disasters. Their made to stand the fiz. Better still was my pressure barrel, again as the name implies it's made to withstand that pressure.
In the case of wine, it stays in the dj until it's absolutely stopped shoving the slightest bubble through the air lock.
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