Been putting off taking care of my wine for the past week or so, but finally got 'round to it.

Three bottles of chocolate wine on the left, four of rhubarb-apple wine on the right. In back is my second attempt at blaand (fermented whey) and an experiment with storebought cran-raspberry juice and the same wild yeast I use to make bread with.

#winemaking #wine #countrywine #blaand

So I racked my blaand project a few minutes ago, which was pretty cool. For those unfamiliar, that's an old Viking drink made from fermented whey. Usually from cheesemaking, but I used the leftover from making Greek style yogurt.

So far so good, at least. It smells very much like wine, and it seems to be roughly 10% ABV. Not terribly strong as wines go, but definitely in the range. Probably quite sweet too, might have to adjust that next time.

#winemaking #wine #blaand

My #blaand attempt continues do do unexpected things.

About a day into fermentation and it's starting to take hold with a bit of foam on the surface. Which is a good sign. What's weird is instead of the bubbles rising from the bottom like you'd usually see with wine, there's a layer of solids only 4 or 5 cm below the surface.

I expect that's due to the same buoyancy of the whey, which also caused the weird hydrometer reading. But who knows.

#winemaking

Trying out making blaand, a Viking beverage that's basically fermented whey.

It's either going to be brilliant or awful. One or the other.

One weird thing, even though I did put a fair amount of sugar in, the hydrometer reading was literally off the chart. I think there's a natural buoyancy to the whey that throws it off.

#winemaking #blaand