Wild Brew Part Two!

Blackberry Spice Bush Mead

It was finally time. A month had gone by and it was time to bottle my Spice Bush Amber Ale and my Blackberry Spice Bush Mead. The Wild Blackberry Wine was still bubbling pretty steadily, so it gets to ferment a while longer. These are the intoxicants my daughter and I learned to make at Tim MacWelch's Wild Brew 101 class last month.

I broke out the plastic tubing and siphoned off the ale and added the priming sugar. Yes Tim, I was very careful to add exactly the amount you said so I didn't make beer bombs instead of beer. (Wouldn't  blowing up that fantastic ale be a terrible case of alcohol abuse?) In about a week, I'll chill them and try not to drink them all before my daughter gets a chance to visit and drink hers. I am fairly certain drinking her share is wrong.

The mead was next up for bottling. I did taste a little bit as I was bottling and it was very good. It will be even better after aging a while. It also looks lovely in the bottles.

In the spirit of wild brewing, I decided to build on Tim's class and also started a batch of peach wine today. It is currently in a five gallon bucket starting stage one of fermentation. I think it is going to turn out well. The must is mostly white peaches with a few yellow peaches to add a little variety to the flavor. One of the great things about making my own wine is that I can leave out the sulfites by pasteurizing the fruit to kill the wild yeast.

By the way, it takes a long time to pit and chop up 13 pounds of peaches for five gallons of wine, but I am fairly certain this is a very valuable survival skill!

Can I drink NOW?