What's Cooking Today??

I did mine a little differently - I cheated sorta. I washed the beets but did not peel them. Then I pressure cooked the beets using a bit more water in the bottom of the cooker than usual. That literally "sweated out" a lot of colour and taste. After straining off the juice to use for the wine, I slipped the skins off the beet roots and they still had lots of flavour left for eating too! No waste at all. And it seems incredible because beets were recently on offer at $5 (about 2.5 of your pounds) for a 5 kilo bag. So I'll get at least a two or three more meals from them and I'll freeze the juice to use later.

Loads of fun and cheap too! It is happily bubbling away down there.

Now, when I put the hyrdrometer in it to see the starting point, it wouldn't even drop down to zero. None of them would sink to their base point. They all floated high out of the mix.

It will be interesting to see just how far it sinks. I don't want to produce something that can be nicknamed Beetroot Blotto in a Bottle !

 

and.....@CanadianLori we also have the bonus of using the beetroot that infused for the wine for us to eat, either by stir fry the cut up pieces or cooking them in salted water. The demijons are bubbling away now.

 

And my post again confirms that when I ask for a recipe, it is not just idle curiosity. I do try the ones I ask people to share. And my requests are in earnest

I'm looking forward to tasting your wine recipe

 

@CanadianLori Today I decanted one of the beetroot demijons. If was so clear I decided to bottle straight away. It is a bit drier than normal but the colour is a beautiful clear red. Not deep but good.

 

I thought "demijons" were a type of thermal underwear.

 

we tried some of our cherry plum wine, tasted okay but sour. would be better carbonated and in summer, maybe will make cocktails with it or something.

 

Mine is still bubbling. I did notice the bottom is quite "sludgy" and thick so I'm a little puzzled about next steps. My hydrometer finally sunk to the zero so I'll know how much further it goes when the burping stops.

As I say, I'm a little bit purplexed..

 

@CanadianLori yes we had sludge at the bottom but that is normal. It is the remains of the yeast with remains of the "fruit" that has been added. We have found that the beetroot finishes a lot quicker than other wines. Not sure why. But the fermentation had stopped and all was crystal clear (even though our pear wine wasn't!).. Love your comment "purplexed".

 

Well it is almost purple