Finally got money, finally bought honey!
$93 for a 15 kg pail, unpasteurized 2011 clover from my local apiary... in the autumn I'll be going back for a pail of this year's goldenrod harvest.
Now, what to make... so many experiments to run... I don't know where to start! Probably with a bottle washing session so I can bottle some of the stuff that's been sitting around so I've got carboy space for new creations... I'm officially scheduling next Friday to be a wine day. Definitely have to get all those red currants out of the freezer before anything else, I've got enough collected from the last few years to do a 5-gal batch, but I think that'll be a wine, I'll make a gallon or two of mel with the second run though.
I definitely have to make a traditional because it's been so long since I've done one, but I need to decide how strong to aim for... I think maybe I want to make some at 10% and some at 15% concurrently and see how well the fermentations go, how well they age and how much backsweetening I'll need to do if they finish dry (which they should unless I run into pH probs but I've ordered the strips while I sort out what I'm doing about calibrating my stupid pH meter... I so need to make friends with someone in a laboratory). Then when I get the golden honey I'll repeat the same recipe with it...
My very long to-do list keep escaping me when I sit down to plan or start something though... so we'll start with keeping it simple. If I ever get everything bottled and have room on the shelves again, I'm definitely doing a yeast test...
$93 for a 15 kg pail, unpasteurized 2011 clover from my local apiary... in the autumn I'll be going back for a pail of this year's goldenrod harvest.
Now, what to make... so many experiments to run... I don't know where to start! Probably with a bottle washing session so I can bottle some of the stuff that's been sitting around so I've got carboy space for new creations... I'm officially scheduling next Friday to be a wine day. Definitely have to get all those red currants out of the freezer before anything else, I've got enough collected from the last few years to do a 5-gal batch, but I think that'll be a wine, I'll make a gallon or two of mel with the second run though.
I definitely have to make a traditional because it's been so long since I've done one, but I need to decide how strong to aim for... I think maybe I want to make some at 10% and some at 15% concurrently and see how well the fermentations go, how well they age and how much backsweetening I'll need to do if they finish dry (which they should unless I run into pH probs but I've ordered the strips while I sort out what I'm doing about calibrating my stupid pH meter... I so need to make friends with someone in a laboratory). Then when I get the golden honey I'll repeat the same recipe with it...
My very long to-do list keep escaping me when I sit down to plan or start something though... so we'll start with keeping it simple. If I ever get everything bottled and have room on the shelves again, I'm definitely doing a yeast test...