Fall 2022 I had far too many apples to deal with, so I tried making cider.
That turned out well; but fall 2023 the tree gave me almost nothing, so I decided to try making mead instead, and use up the nanking cherries.
My traditional mead (made mostly for the learning experience) is almost three months old, I'm just waiting for it to clarify. After the second racking, I think I've got too much headspace in the carboys; hopefully it won't oxidize, but time will tell.
I have a two-month-old nanking cherry melomel near the end of primary fermentation (starting to stall at 14.9% ABV). I'll apply what I learned with the trad and try to manage headspace better, and maybe add sulfites to keep the spectre of oxidization at bay.
My mistake with the melomel was not putting the fruit in a bag. I now have a bucket with three gallons of pulpy melomel, with floaty bits on top, and fruit sludge on the bottom. Racking this without plugging the siphon is going to be interesting.
As with gardening, brewing is slow. It takes weeks and months to discover one's mistakes.
That turned out well; but fall 2023 the tree gave me almost nothing, so I decided to try making mead instead, and use up the nanking cherries.
My traditional mead (made mostly for the learning experience) is almost three months old, I'm just waiting for it to clarify. After the second racking, I think I've got too much headspace in the carboys; hopefully it won't oxidize, but time will tell.
I have a two-month-old nanking cherry melomel near the end of primary fermentation (starting to stall at 14.9% ABV). I'll apply what I learned with the trad and try to manage headspace better, and maybe add sulfites to keep the spectre of oxidization at bay.
My mistake with the melomel was not putting the fruit in a bag. I now have a bucket with three gallons of pulpy melomel, with floaty bits on top, and fruit sludge on the bottom. Racking this without plugging the siphon is going to be interesting.
As with gardening, brewing is slow. It takes weeks and months to discover one's mistakes.