Spring has got busy and there suddenly so much to do.
I've been busy brewing. Last Saturday was Zinefest (28/09/13), a celebration of diy culture. I ran a workshop on how to make you're own booze. It was really a workshop as much as come sit in the corner with me and grate pumpkin and we can talk about brewing, or other things in life in general. It was pumpkin because that's what was in abundance from the undisclosed magical perfectly good food squandering land where someone I don't really know collected it and saved it from being wasted. I also have a lot of apples to use to make an apple wine but I ran out of time on Saturday.
The whole zinefest was an inspiring celebration of people's creativity, ingenuity, thoughts, expressions and empowerment of just doing what you want to do. My friend had come down as she is the designer of White Fungus, a magazine that started extremely low key, diy zine style and is now an international art magazine. It was also great to catch up with people that I know who I'd normally just have a casual conversation with but instead this time we were given a forum to share ideas and show each other our creations.
My workshop seemed to work well as it demanded participation from people, and I know personally that I enjoy events where I participate rather than just observe and consume and move along. I talked to a lot of other brewers and bounced ideas off them. I surprised a lot of people about how easy it is to make wine and what materials can be used such as the pumpkin. I also just had a lot of fun.
So the pumpkin wine is steeping at the moment, all the raw, grated pumpkin is collected in a large barrel then left to stew with sugar, root ginger and yeast for 5 days then I will strain it and put it in the glass demijohn for the next 6 months.
I ran out of time to do the quick apple wine but I will do that this Friday and by then I should have rescued a few more apples from dissipation and be able to brew 20Ls.
Oh yeah, during Zinefest we sipped away on my nettle beer/wine. It was good. Certainly not a flavour of beer but it was drinkable and people enjoyed it. A question I was often asked was what is the percentage but I can't use my hydrometer so it's just surprise percent. I like it that way.. time for self-regulation.
It's school holidays now so I'm going to rest lots, do an assignment and hopefully put down my dandelion wine brew.
Postscript. This pumpkin wine overflowed and became a dreaded slime of doom. I have seemingly rescued it but I've learnt about using correct utensils (big enough brewing buckets) and not making wine in shared spaces in case of accidents. I'm not so excited about pumpkin wine but I made a quick apple wine which should be ready just as the school year winds up which is convenient. Also about to get my dandelion brew down. All the elderflowers are in season and I'm thinking of buying yet another demijohn to put that brew on but I don't know if I really need 6 demijohns with the potential to have 40 litres of wine on the go.
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