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Tea wines are lovely, and easy to make. I’ve discovered, however, that these are not well-suited to evening imbibing because of the caffeine content (though it makes for productive wee-hours writing – yikes), so I figured why not try making decaf tea wine?
Continue reading “Winecraft: Tranquil Tea”
A couple of months ago, I made a batch of pineapple peel wine and added a yeast slurry that just didn’t seem to take off. It had been refrigerated, slowing the activity. Sometimes, sluggish yeast never really takes off, so I grabbed a fresh container of slurry from the shelf and pitched it in. Then I realized that it wasn’t actually wine yeast…it was bread kvas yeast!
Autumn is the season of squash. Sure, squash is available at other times of the year (like the eponymous summer squash and overabundant zucchini), but for sheer variety, fall can’t be beat. All manner of gourds – decorative and edible – beckon from grocery store produce shelves and market tables. Time to get creative and preserve some of these gems!
So I found myself with some pineapple that was quickly approaching the “past its prime” stage and banana that had ripened more quickly than expected…seems like the perfect time to make wine!
My experimental wine – an apple juice base with some fruit cocktail thrown in – is finally ready for tasting! Will it be “prison wine”-esque or worthy of fine crystal?