My other brews........

[Phantom]

As well as a little hooch! I also make country wines and mead.......
Mainly mead, but the country wines are usually when the fruit is in season and free! Though I also will try to get to the local PYO\'s for fruit.....
Can\'t wait as it looks like the black currants are nearly ready to go, and the rasps have started to turn as well.......
My meads? well I notice I\'ve been getting a bit anal about them. Like I now know where to source some \"Lalvin D21\" yeast - which is a \"Maury\" yeast and the same strain that was used originally by the late great Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey).
Plus I\'m more than happy to dig about to find \"good\" honey - a lot of people think it\'s just a case of getting the cheapest supermarket crap, but that just makes, in most cases, a mediocre mead (unless you try the \"JAO\" recipe). I can take a bloody long time for it to come good, and takes forever to age........
Hence it\'s handy to make a bit of hooch to have something to drink in the meantime - in fairness, if I didn\'t make it, I certainly wouldn\'t be drinking the commercial equivalents......... I can\'t afford those.......

[foRUM warrior]

i would be very interested to know how you do brew your own phantom, as atm i am just using the can mixes

[Ancient1]

Among other things, I too have produced mead, some many years ago.

I am reminded of an occasion when I used Australian honey. This, plus New Zealand honey often has been produced by bees using Eucaliptus blossoms. Whilst the Eucaliptus flavour and smell is hidden in the honey, any brew containing it is heavily and undrinkably flavoured with Eucaliptus. Avoid honey from these places.......excellent honey but not from mead.

[Phantom]

i would be very interested to know how you do brew your own phantom, as atm i am just using the can mixes

What? you mean that you only do "kit" type wines foRUM warrior ?

Among other things, I too have produced mead, some many years ago.

I am reminded of an occasion when I used Australian honey. This, plus New Zealand honey often has been produced by bees using Eucaliptus blossoms. Whilst the Eucaliptus flavour and smell is hidden in the honey, any brew containing it is heavily and undrinkably flavoured with Eucaliptus. Avoid honey from these places.......excellent honey but not from mead.

Yes, that's a tip that I'm familiar with Ancient1. Not only do I avoid "Australian" honey as it often has the eucalyptus in it, but I also avoid "Leatherwood" honey, as Leatherwood, is apparently, related to Eucalyptus....
don't mind the eucalyptus for nasal congestion snags in the winter (actually quite partial), but I certainly wouldn't want to drink anything that might have been flavoured (inadvertently or not) with it......

[foRUM warrior]

What? you mean that you only do "kit" type wines foRUM warrior ?

only beer kits atm but i would like to try doing a beer from start to finish