Happy New Year, etc!
Happy New Year folks! Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year's holiday! I wish you all a wonderful 2022 with all the gusto life has to offer. Now back to the grind!
Several status updates due for current fermentations. I racked the carrot, beetroot, and black cherry chocolate wines this week, and results are looking strong overall. I was especially impressed with the carrot wine, it is crystal clear and the taste is starting to resemble a nice dry white, kind of like a Sauvignon Blanc maybe, but a little less complex. It is a really attractive straw-orange color with a pleasant bouquet. This could become a regular if it finishes out as well as it started. With carrots being pretty reasonably priced, I think I will shortly be starting a 5-gallon batch to get a jump on it, at this point the risk is pretty low. Usually I tweak a recipe slightly from batch to batch just to change things up a little, but I may leave this one as is, I'm that pleased with it.
The jury is still out on the beetroot wine, it is nice and clear with a bright reddish-purple color resembling, well, beets, but the taste is still a bit earthy. The earthy taste is not surprising, that was one of the comments I saw fairly frequently when researching this wine and the majority seemed to indicate it would fade as it aged. I am hoping a few months in bulk aging will soften the taste because it looks like it should taste better than it currently does. I'll hold off on a larger batch until this one has more time to mature.
It's way too early to get a good feel on the black cherry chocolate mead at this point but it appears to be going fine. It is clearing well and I think I am satisfied with the level of chocolate flavor. I don't want the chocolate overpowering the black cherry, so we'll see how it goes in the next month of so. I may end up adding more chocolate nibs to enhance that flavor profile just a touch if I decide it needs it but there is no rush on that, meads need quite a while to mature.
New in the fermenter is a 5-gallon batch of blackberry wine. I just added the yeast today and the weather is supposed to be colder for the next few weeks, so it will need at least a week in primary fermentation, likely longer. Fermentation takes longer at cooler temperatures, but longer fermentation times are often better for bringing stronger flavors from the fruit and I have plenty of time. Thought about making these berries into a nice port-style wine, I really like a good port, but that takes more berries per gallon and in the end I decided I'd rather have 5 gallons of blackberry wine than 3 gallons of blackberry port! Blackberry wine rivals blueberry for my personal favorite, so much so that I will be planting more blackberry bushes in the early spring so I can keep plenty of berries in the freezer.
I haven't forgotten about the sweet potato wine, that is on deck to go into the primary as soon as the blackberry is ready to rack. More on that to follow soon. Happy Monday!