This turned out rather better than early indications suggested. Draft 1 was disappointing, but after a little salvage operation, it actually tastes rather nice, even if I do blow my own trumpet a little here. My next ventures are Parsnip Wine, Clove and Ginger Wine, and Rose Petal Tea Wine, and also some beer. All this is being carefully recorded in my klog. 21st century people have web logs. I have a book log – a klog. When this term enters the OED, remember, you heard it here first.
(Looks around furtively): I’m surreptitiously turning found into a sublog (a twig) on home made wine. Clove and ginger and rose petal are blorping like billy-oh. Parsnip – not a whimper. I suspect my yeast has an eating disorder.
Another twig entry. Research into home made wine problems indicated that my parsnip problem could be due to
– too much carbon dioxide
– not enough oxygen
– too much sugar
– dodgy yeast
– not enough nutrient
So, on Friday evening, I tipped the parsnip wine into a bucket and gave it a stir, then diluted it (to deal with the gas problem), and added some water (to deal with the sugar problem), some fresh yeast and some nutrient. I also left the airlock off overnight, putting some cotton wool in the top of the demijohn to prevent contamination (apparently this is meant to work, but I would have thought bacteria would be small enough to find its way through cotton wool). Yayyy result. The airing cupboard is now doing a passable rendition of the frog chorus, with three demijohns of home made wine going blorp blorp blorp in turn.
Cotton wool prevents flies getting in and bringing bacteria with them. You’re right it doesn’t give a bacteria-proof barrier for long, but it stops the most direct route of entry – flies.
This turned out rather better than early indications suggested. Draft 1 was disappointing, but after a little salvage operation, it actually tastes rather nice, even if I do blow my own trumpet a little here. My next ventures are Parsnip Wine, Clove and Ginger Wine, and Rose Petal Tea Wine, and also some beer. All this is being carefully recorded in my klog. 21st century people have web logs. I have a book log – a klog. When this term enters the OED, remember, you heard it here first.
(Looks around furtively): I’m surreptitiously turning found into a sublog (a twig) on home made wine. Clove and ginger and rose petal are blorping like billy-oh. Parsnip – not a whimper. I suspect my yeast has an eating disorder.
Another twig entry. Research into home made wine problems indicated that my parsnip problem could be due to
– too much carbon dioxide
– not enough oxygen
– too much sugar
– dodgy yeast
– not enough nutrient
So, on Friday evening, I tipped the parsnip wine into a bucket and gave it a stir, then diluted it (to deal with the gas problem), and added some water (to deal with the sugar problem), some fresh yeast and some nutrient. I also left the airlock off overnight, putting some cotton wool in the top of the demijohn to prevent contamination (apparently this is meant to work, but I would have thought bacteria would be small enough to find its way through cotton wool). Yayyy result. The airing cupboard is now doing a passable rendition of the frog chorus, with three demijohns of home made wine going blorp blorp blorp in turn.
Cotton wool prevents flies getting in and bringing bacteria with them. You’re right it doesn’t give a bacteria-proof barrier for long, but it stops the most direct route of entry – flies.