Homemade Labels

However much I like the peel and stick labels you can get for wine kits, it's much more fun to make your own.  I like to employ children to help with this.  They love it.

First, ask the young person to draw something related to the type of beverage.  When they finish, scan the image and then make up your label in Powerpoint by inserting the image and adding text.  Resize the label and print!

To stick the label on the bottle, I simply use glue stick.  It keeps the label on just fine.  When you are finished with the bottle's contents, it's very easy to wash the label off because glue stick is more or less water soluble.

It's that easy.  Take a look at the mead that was bottled a few days ago.  The label adds a sort of professional touch.  (Also, notice how clear the liquid looks.  The fine solids have settled out!)

Sunnyside Mead 2014

It's a Learning Curve

For a number of reasons, I waited until today to rack and stabilize the rhubarb wine.  This was partly due to just being busy, and partly a conscious decision to let this fermentation go to virtually 100% completion.  This afternoon, the bubble rate was about one every four minutes.  If that's any indication, then this fermentation was awfully close to being 100% complete.

The racking went smoothly.  I took a specific gravity reading (0.990), which would correspond to 16.3% alcohol.  Hmmm.  This is pretty strong stuff!  I also took a small amount in a glass for tasting...

Oh dear.  It's rhubarb mouthwash.  The last time I tasted the wine, at the first racking, there was still some sugar present, and it was delicious.  The acidity of the rhubarb and the residual sugars balanced each other and gave some nice flavours.  At this point, all the sugar is gone.  There is no more sweet!  It's just pure acidity.  This is a dry, acidic wine, probably only good for marinating fish or something like that.

So, what would I do differently next time?  In hindsight, I should have stopped the fermentation and stabilized it a few days after the first racking, when there would have been some sugar left to balance all the acid from the rhubarb.

In any case, I went ahead and stablized the wine.  When I added the potassium metabisulfite, I noticed a colour change.  This compound certainly appears to be causing a bleaching of the colour (see below).  It remains to be seen whether this is reversible, like it was the first time:  http://randomfermentations.blogspot.ca/2014/05/rhubarb-wine-beginning.html

(1) Rhubarb wine after racking and addition of a small amount of postassium metabisulfite (left).  The photo on the right was taken about 1 minute after the first one.  Notice the colour change.

This really is a bit of a bummer.  I put a lot of work went into making this rhubarb mouthwash!  On the other hand, I learned a good lesson:  Listen to what your taste buds tell you!  If the alcohol level is close to where it should be, and it tastes good, then it's time to rack and stabilize.

Just like many things in life, there is a learning curve to this.  It's important to continue and try to get it right the next time.  My rhubarb plant has grown back (it's gigantic), so I have the materials to start again.  Next time, I'm going to listen to my taste buds.

Bottling the Mead

Mead v.1 was ready for bottling about a week ago, but I could not find time to bottle it.  May and June are always a crazy time at universities, so there have been a lot of demands at work.  Also, we've been working on a deck at home, which has used a lot of time on the weekends.

This morning, I had waited long enough and decided to go for it.  First, I siphoned the mead from its 3 gallon carboy into another one. Why did I do this?  There is a fine precipitate sitting at the bottom of the carboy  the result of clarifying the liquid.  It is easily disturbed, and during the bottling step, there can be a lot of movement of the siphon tube.  By transferring the liquid to a separate container first, it is easier to avoid disturbing those fine solids.  It has certainly worked out well in the past.  But this time, I managed to slightly disturb that precipitate and some of it got into the liquid.  It wasn't much, but there was a slight turbidity to the mead that I ended up bottling.  This is frustrating because the liquid was crystal clear before, and it was an avoidable mistake.  I just hope it settles out over time.

I used my auto-siphon to fill the sanitized bottles (pictured below).  The end result was fourteen 750-mL bottles of mead!  There was little extra, so I put it in a separate bottle and placed it in the fridge.  (This was so I could see what it tastes like when chilled.)

(1)  Bottling.  I don't really need to wear rubber gloves 

for this, but I was sanitizing with bleach solutions, and it was 

easier to just leave them on!

Several hours later, I am writing this with a small glass of chilled mead at hand.  First of all, this stuff is strong - certainly stronger than most wines.  You may recall that I estimated the alcohol content to be 15% or so.  It is obviously sweet, with a mild honey taste, and a hint of oak and cedar.  There is almost no acidity, and the finish is surprisingly clean.  And, yes, it is better served chilled, just like most dessert wines. 

When my wife tried it, she immediately looked up at me with her eyes wide, and said, "Yummy!"  This brings me to an important observation: this mead is ready to drink.  One doesn't need to age it for months and months before uncorking a bottle and pouring a glass.

My daughter asked if she could help make labels.  She drew a nice picture of a commercial bee hive.  From her artwork, I thought the name "Sunnyside" was appropriate.

(2)  Homemade bottle label.

Yesterday was summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.  If only I had bottled this a day before, I could have celebrated the longest day like the ancients - with a glass of mead!

Rhubarb Wine: Interim Satisfaction

Twelve days ago, I started the rhubarb wine.  I've been out of town for half of that time.  Today, I got around to checking on the progress.  When I opened the lid on the plastic bucket and looked at the surface, I could tell that fermentation was on the tail end.  There just wasn't a lot of "activity" in terms of bubbles.  I quickly sterilized a 3 gallon carboy and my auto-siphon and got to work racking the wine into a carboy.

Some observations:

1. Specific gravity = 1.012.  The initial s.g. was 1.097.  Therefore, the approximate alcohol content at this point is somewhere between 13.0 and 13.5 %.  (It's getting close to being done!)
2. The colour!  There is a nice peachy pink colour now.  I thought the colour had been totally  bleached by the campden tablets, but there might be something else going on.
3. The taste!  (Naturally, I tested it!)  There was no tartness at all, just a mild rhubarb flavour, along with a gentle grape taste from the concentrate that I added.  This has the potential to be a very nice dessert wine.

Front: Rhubarb wine, with some colour.  

Back: Mead, just prior to adding kieselsohl.

Mead v.1 has been sitting in a carboy for about 12 days as well, and there was a nice build up of lees at the bottom.  I racked it into another carboy and then added the kieselsol, which is step 1 of the finings.  And, I sampled the mead too.  It's getting better!  The taste has mellowed out a little and I think it will be really nice when it is chilled.