Recent content by heathenhawker

I tried a crabapple cyser/melomel a few years ago. Whole fruit with skin on, and used a raspberry honey I had gotten at the brewery supply. It came out a beautiful blush/pink color and aged into the most wonderful stuff I believe I ever made. Unfortunately I only made a couple gallons as it...

Started a trial one gallon batch of fruit wine made with about 3/4 Salal berries and 1/4 blackberries (that were growing next to the Salal). Put it together yesterday with some sugar, a campden tablet, yeast energizer, and some pectin enzyme. Brought the gravity to 1.09 today, and had a...

that was my thoughts as well. a good raw honey will have particles of stuff in it from the hive that could have been carried to the top by the foam. it could just be particles of something inert. I wouldn't worry about it.

I've done some research on making natural vinegars at home and directions for apple cider vinegars say that the film you describe is a "mother" of sorts. They don't really explain in any kind of detail though.

Just an fyi - this celery dandelion turned out amazing!!! I've been in the semi truck on the road with the hubby, and this has been sitting in my brothers wine room since it was bottled. Every time I get a chance to come by and visit we have a glass. It starts out with a nice, almost...

Well, get ready to cringe! :) The brew shop was closed on the day I went by so I didn't get the chance to get what i wanted, and I didn't really feel like driving all the way out there again so decided to see what i could do with what was around the house. The only yeast I could find was...

I have read that the white powder that develops naturally on many fruits contains wild yeasts, and that's what was used in ancient times. The ones I've seen mentioned most were grapes and juniper berries, but I'm sure others like blueberries and blackberries might work too. That's the first...

That looks about like an appropriate recipe, thanx!! I'm gonna have to get this started soon so it can be ready to bottle soon enough. I'll try to post updates. :)

Hey ya'll, I live in the desert but have been spending the winter in the Pacific NorthWet helping family in the house I grew up in and it's given me a bit of an opportunity to experiement. When I first got here in the Fall the Crabapple tree next door was packed with fruit so I got...

I would really love to see how this goes as well. Last year I got about 20 lbs of an old honey that had been sitting in buckets in an old mormons basement for an undetermined number of years. The number i was told was 15 years but judging by the looks of the honey it had to have been alot...

I grew up in Seattle watching my dad making fruit wines in 5 gal carboys. He always used fruit he grew in his own garden: blackberry, strawberry, rhubarb, plum, etc... One year he offered me and the girl next door money per flower to pick dandylions so he could try making a wine out of that...