Archive for February, 2007

Some readers will know I have a son that is now four years old. David has accompanied me in the past to vineyards in Niagara to pick up fresh juice for winemaking, and has “toured” vineyards, looking at all the “wine juice berries.”

Some will also know that I have a Maltese puppy who’s name is Rudy. David and Rudy get along awesomely, most of the time.

Today was a day where I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Cooking up some stuff – but also doing some racking – and starting a new wine. I recently picked up a R.J. Spagnols “Restricted Quantities” Malbec kit – which I’ve started a review of, here.

First, David and I racked the Petit Chenin and Barolo I started last week. The we started a couple of loaves of bread like this. Then, David and I decided to start the R.J. Spagnols Malbec kit this evening.

David was quite helpful, stirring up the reconstituted juice prior to taking a specific gravity reading, and then helping to stir in the bentonite mixture. But – he also stuck his finger into the must and licked the residual juice and decided it was yummy.

So yummy, he wanted more. So we’ve decided to go to the grocery store tomorrow to buy some grape juice. Rudy the puppy also seems to have a sweet tooth; he seemed to enjoy discovering – and then licking – the splashes of the sweet juice that were on the floor before David and I cleaned them up. Rudy would have cleaned them up himself, I’m sure – the way he was lapping away with his tongue – but a clean kitchen is a good kitchen – and poor Rudy never did get to finish his licking.

The last several posts here have mostly been about the recent meads I started, and of course the sweet mead I am attempting using White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast (# WLP720).

To summarize, I started a batch of sweet mead on the 28th of January. I had misread the “Best Before” date on the vial of the liquid yeast and the date on it was for last year.

I went ahead and made an activator while keeping my mead safe for a couple of days with added sulphite, hoping the yeast would still be viable. Then, I went ahead and pitched the yeast on the 3oth of January.

This morning, the 1st of February I was fully prepared to observe no yeast activity and pitch a package of 71B-1122 that I had on hand. But to to my joy, there was definitely yeast activity in the sweet mead batch! A good aerating stir produced lots of foamy CO2 on top as well.

I did not take a Specific Gravity reading this morning – I’ll do that in a few days and watch the progress over the next ten days or so.

I guess when some say that this liquid sweet mead yeast takes a while to get going, they mean it!

I’ll continue to update information on this sweet mead as the fermentation continues.