A catch up Rack n Bottle Day!

Well it's been quite a while since I did any thing in the Brewery, took a little time out today to catch up on a few jobs.

The main aim of  the day was to check and rack Alex's Mead that we made back in September 2014. I checked the SG during transfer and it's now at 1.050 down so a current ABV of 9.3%, drank the sample as you do to make sure that all was okay and it's very good.

While I was  there I also Racked the Elderberry Wine, that was made a while ago as well, August 2014. It had quite a bit of sediment so it needed doing. Sampled this wine which I make each year and yet again it's beautiful fruity wine. I really should make a lot more each year.

As I already had the cleaning and bottling gear out and ready, I decided to bottle up a couple of wines that had been sitting in their demijohns for quite a while and where now lovely and clear. The first to be bottled was the Rhubarb wine that was made nearly a year ago, the one with banana added. Then bottled up the Apricot Wine that was made with the little apricots that Les at work gave me.

Ended up with 5 and a half bottles of Rhubarb (we'll drink the 1/2 bottle tonight) and 5 bottles of Apricot, one of which is ear marked for Les for letting me have the fruit. The Rhubarb came is as a Medium wine and the Apricot as a Dry wine which are now all labeled up and in the Cabin Brewery.

Started the Allotment tidy up

With not a lot growing down the plots, I have not been down there much over the last couple of months. Got down there today for a check over and start the preparations for this years harvest. The Garlic is doing well, hoping for a bumper crop this year as we are now getting low on garlic in the store cupboard.

All three types of garlic are shooting above the ground with nearly every one that I planted showing signs of life.

Got the greenhouse tidy and removed all of last years chili plants. Weeded the green house beds and had a good old clean up.

Dug over a couple of the beds ready for this years crop, but there is still plenty to do. As always at this time of year the Allotment looks a bit tatty, but it won't be long now before things start growing again.

Started the Chillies and some Toms.

Planted this years chillies and sweet peppers today (New Years Day) as I have done for the last few years.

I have still bags and bags of frozen chillies in the freezer, jars and jars of pickled, dried and powdered chili, so this year I have sown less hot peppers and more sweet peppers.

In fact the Capsicum list this year is a total of three, Jalapeño, Sweet Yummy (Snack Bite), and Ancho Poblano. So really no really hot peppers at all this year. I do have a over wintering Ghost Pepper.

The Sweet Yummy peppers are all grown from seed save from last years crop,  so free  plants this year, hopefully they are true to form as they where grown next to Orange habaneros.

Sown the seeds this year in a tray with just compost instead of the coir pellets I normally use. Just to see if works it works out better.

I have also started of some Tomatoes, Craigella a little early maybe, but the packet did say from January onwards.