Buck Update...

I was due for some monthly wine maintenance this weekend, so it's a good time for some progress reports. We'll start with the Buck, or prison hooch. I have to confess I didn't have high hopes that it would improve much over the past 6 weeks, and it didn't. I did back-sweeten one bottle with 3 sugar packets, which should be pretty close to 3 tsp of sugar, then did a side by side taste comparison of the two bottles. The unsweetened hooch still had a fairly strong alcohol taste and not much else, somewhat like drinking rubbing alcohol. The sweetened version tasted a lot like sweetened rubbing alcohol. Really though, maybe that's being a little unfair to both, they unquestionably contain alcohol, and in sufficient quantities would be more than adequate to take the edge off a bad day in jail (is there really any other kind?) The sweetened version did go down a little smoother, for my tastes it would be worth using the little bit of sugar required to improve the drinking experience. This was also a very limited trial with only a small subset of available ingredients, it could well be that other recipes would yield a tastier result. All in all, we did manage to confirm that is is not only possible but fairly easy to make a fermented beverage with ingredients readily available in prison, which was the major goal of the exercise. I don't think I'll go out and mash up a bunch of honey buns or oatmeal cookies just yet, but I may be sufficiently intrigued to at least consider following this up with another batch at some point. For comparison I also tasted the control batch of fruit cocktail wine, and while it was better than the prison version it was still cloudy and tasted a little thin. I added some sparkelloid to help it clear, and once I give that a few weeks to do its thing I will stabilize and sweeten it. I think it might have value as a fairly cheap and easy to make wine cooler type party drink, somewhat of a higher quality out-on-parole version of the Buck, but if I make it again I will use more fruit to give it a little more body. I have to say this was a fun little experiment, and I will be searching out other fringe-type winemaking activities to try. If you have any ideas, give me a shout.

I also racked a lot of other wines I have in various stages of production. I continue to be impressed by the carrot wine, it is very clear, has good color, and the taste is really coming around. This one is a definite keeper. I'm a little less impressed with the beetroot, the color has faded somewhat to more of a muted reddish color from the original bright purplish-red it started out as, about the color of a glass of Cheerwine without the bubbles. It also still retains an earthy taste, but it still needs to age a good while yet so I am hopeful that will diminish over time. The black cherry chocolate is on schedule, clearing nicely and the taste is starting to come around. I may add another round of chocolate nibs to enhance the chocolate flavor, I think it might need to be a touch more pronounced in that area. The sweet potato is beginning to clear, still way early in the process but so far so good. The 5-gallon batch of blackberry is looking good, clearing well and has good color. I hope to get that one in the bottle by summer, it's a good poolside drink when chilled.

Sake is next on the agenda, I'm excited about trying that one. Details to follow!