One more batch named in honor of a colorful term I learned from Still Game. This has a different Georgia gallberry honey than batch 218 from our pre-pandemic road trip in 2020, plus two different apple juices. I started this in a 2-gallon bucket, then moved it to a 3-gallon carboy with black currant puree and more juice in secondary.

This wound up being the very first batch we bottled at our house... 15 months after brewing. The batch came out bone dry as usual, but Patrick absolutely nailed his recommendation for backsweetening. Y'all, this. Shit. Is. Delicious.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 1,386 g (48-oz container) gallberry honey from Zeigler's Honey in Stockton, GA
  • 1 gallon Musselman's premium apple juice in primary
  • 1/2 gallon Trader Joe's honeycrisp cider in primary
  • 3/4 tsp Wyeast beer nutrient
  • 1/3 pack Cellar Science Clos wine yeast
  • 3 lbs 1 oz Vintner's Harvest black currant puree, added in secondary
  • Another 1/2 gallon Trader Joe's honeycrisp cider in secondary
  • Another 0.6 gallon Musselman's premium apple juice in secondary
  • 1 lb white sugar, dissolved in 1 cup hot water and added at bottling to backsweeten

Process

Tossed everything in a 2-gallon bucket, agitated, and pitched. SG was 1.110.

On 5/16, I moved this batch to a 3-gallon carboy on top of the black currant puree. I then topped it off with TJ's honeycrisp juice and as much of the Musselman's juice as I could fit reasonably. Fermentation took off again quite enthusiastically, although calculating gravity and thus ABV will be largely impossible due to the fruit puree.

On 7/27, I racked the batch off the fruit sludge to help it clarify more.

On 7/4/22 (yes, a year later), I dissolved a pound of white sugar in hot water and racked the batch onto it, then bottled. Final gravity after backsweetening was 1.01. I have no blessed idea what the ABV here is, but after all this time, this batch is beautifully clear, bodacious, and complex, with massive but pleasant black currant flavor. As I sit here with a preview glass writing this, it's one of my very favorite things we've brewed in a long while.