7/23/07
Update!  Here’s what the mead looked like after RUM.



It’s still bubbling in that lefthand picture.  The bucket on the right probably holds seven gallons.

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Lavena is an accomplished vintner.  I’ve enjoyed her products several times, and she’s complained about adjusting to a different agricultural rhythm, here at 30dN.

So I commented the other day – "It’s cheap peach time, you know."  So last Sunday, I brought a box of Chilton County (between Montgomery and Birmingham, 209 miles) peaches and a bag of lemons, and she proceeded to direct Melbrigda and Cato and I through the process.

Basically, you find all the large glass, stainless and enamelware (‘with no chips’!) in your cat-danderless house and run them through a chlorine bath.  Then you boil 20 lbs of honey, 20 lbs of distilled water, and peel 20 lbs of peaches.  The peaches came out at 11.75 lbs after getting naked and gutless.  It all went in a giant foodsafe plastic bucket with some magic stuff overnight.  Oh yeah, there was skimming of scum off the honey.  At some point this week, L added the yeast, and it went bubbly with glee at all the food to eat.

Hopefully we’ll get to rack it, which means put it in a special bottle with a special valve that lets the yeast burps out (a fermentation lock) either before we go to RUM or just when we come back.  Then at some point it goes into bottles.  We’re guessing we’ll need 24 bottles at this point, but it’s hard to know exactly.

I think all this is very cool.  Since I plan to replace most of my hedges with blackberries, and have two plum trees now, a lemon tree, and a couple of grape vines – winemaking is in my future for the long term, I think.  Just have to wait for the elderly cats to kick off.