Batches 221 and 222 were my very first brew day at our lovely little house. We moved in in the fall, but between moving and endless house projects, we never had time to dust off the brewing equipment. This batch was largely motivated by a small box of lingonberries in the freezer, which I'd spotted at a local store in the fall. Of course, 1.35 lbs of berries is a goofy amount for a 2-gallon batch, so I'll have to reassess what else to put in this once all the flavor has definitely been extracted.

This batch went through a terrible series of punny names. My initial brewing notes refer to it as Lingonberry and Chill; by the time I put the label on the bucket, it was The Lingon Empire. Patrick finally won the day with Lingon Blood Wine, as he damn well should.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 4 lbs 10.5 oz Kirkland clover honey
  • 12-15 g total of Fermaid O, added one third at a time at pitching on 4/1, on 4/5, and on 4/9
  • 1/2 pack Mangrove Jack M29 French saison yeast
  • 1.35 lbs of frozen lingonberries purchased at Everett's Meats
  • 11.26 oz IKEA Sylt Lingon lingonberry spread

Process

Added the honey, first batch of Fermaid O, and 2 gallons of Saint Paul tap water to a bucket, agitated, and pitched. SG was 1.104. I added more Fermaid O four days later and again another four days later. This batch was very slow to start fermentation, so on 4/5, I also inoculated it with a baster full of must from the vigorously fermenting batch 222.

On 7/4, I racked the batch onto the frozen lingonberries. Gravity was not read, although based on flavor, it should be around 12% as usual.

At some later date, I tried found that the batch tasted pretty indistinct, so I racked it onto a warmed jar of IKEA lingonberry spread to amp up the flavor. I bottled it sometime in the fall of 2023 and didn't attempt to calculate ABV due to the various additions.