I flagged a little this month, mostly due to other, secret projects that I’m very excited about. More on that later… :)
I cracked open a colonial American Apple Beer, which was a curious experiment. For those familiar with brewing, the water that goes into the wort is replaced by apple cider, which ups the sweetness and gives it a subtle fruity flavor. I also incorporated the yeasty sediment into a wonderful bread, and the spent grain into an apple barley pudding that was amazing with some whiskey whipped cream.
Other projects:
I started a batch of Dandelion wine on St. George’s day, as is traditional. I quickly swore that I would never make this again until I had a fleet of small children to separate the yellow petals from the bitter green parts, but I recently tasted a two year old bottle of a friend’s dandelion wine that was just amazing. I’d love to try his recipe, as well as a version where I see if there are enough good natural yeasts on the dandelion blossoms to ferment the batch. For science!
I also managed to squeeze a new batch of Violatium into the calendar. When I made it before, I had left on the green stems, which threw the flavor of the whole thing off. This time, it turned into a delicate, violet-hued wine that is just sweetened to taste, and oddly enticing. I hope that it will last until my next informal brewing competition in late July.
I’ll be giving my Gose (salted beer) another try this week, and possibly adding in some seaweed for a proper Iron Islands brew.
New Brews:
