It feels like winter, a far cry from last November; last year we didn't really turn the heating on until about Christmas because it was still warm. Not so this year, as we've already had our first snowfall, extremely early. Luckily it hasn't been consistently frozen, but hovering around 5-7C. Cold enough, though! But now's a good time to drink some homebrew and keep warm. So what's going on, brew-wise?
Elderberry
As previously mentioned, I re-fermented last year's elderberry wine to make it more alcoholic. It's now bottled up, to age for at least another six to twelve months; we won't be drinking it just yet. Although I might still have one bottle of two-year-old elderberry left, tucked at the back of the cabinet.
Elderflower
I made about 9L of elderflower brew, both as wine and champagne. The champagne is long gone (it's meant to be drunk after about six weeks). The wine is still hanging out in demijohns, but I think it might be ready to bottle up; not sure we have enough bottles for it, to tell the truth. I have a lot, and I already made a substantial dent in my bottle stash with the elderberry!
Rhubarb
I have just 4L of rhubarb wine, still in the demijohn. Since racking off the elderberrywine, I have a free demijohn, and need to use up the bag of frozen rhubarb (from a friend's garden) still in the freezer to make another 4L. Better get on it! It's supposed to age like the elderberry before drinking, but we might not be able to wait that long.
Cider
We left it a bit late, but managed to pick enough apples to fill a 4L demijohn with cider. We--husband, six year old and I--picked them from a wild tree we know and we have a juicer which we drag out once a year just to make cider. I probably won't bottle it up until early summer, and if we can wait that long, it'll be for next winter's drinking. I think there might be one more bottle of last year's cider too.
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