sweasel.com

hmm kinda sounds like mead but idk. still sounds like it could either be very bad or really good….. 50-50 odds…

There’s no honey, so it’s nothing at all like mead, which by definition has honey as the primary fermentable (I’ve got 25 gallons in bulk aging downstairs as I type).

But with that said, elderberries are a common addition to mead–I’ve never done it, but someday I might. What the heck…I’ve made lucuma into mead, why not elderberries?!

It’s low alcohol content, so I’ll prolly have to add vodka to make it drinkable 😉

Dear GOD – 25 gallons!!??

Don’t need a quality control manager do you, by any chance, Nina? 😉

Party at Nina’s house!!

Cool. I was just taking pictures of the elder by my apt this evening. There are two bushes intertwined that seem like different varieties – one bloomed a couple weeks ago and the other is just now.

…watch for bulging and let off some gases if needed.

Me or the plastic bottles?

Hey, y’all come over and we can get ferschniken! (Said with a Mel Brooks Yiddish accent).

I have 5 kinds hidden in the cool darkness of my Cupboard Under the Stairs: 1) traditional (just honey, yeast, water, and yeast nutrients), 2) one dark one made with not only honey, but cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries, 3) the aforementioned lucuma, 4) a lingonberry, and 5) a pink cyser (mead made with apple juice/cider instead of water) which is tinted with blueberries (which make it pink in small amounts).

I don’t drink, but I looooove to make it. So c’mon on down and help me drink it!

on my way over now…

I have this vision of a tipsy weasel holding a bottle …

Wow, Nina…you are like the anti-Little Red Hen!

Yes, I will help you drink it!

Mad Weasel Dance is an intriguing airshow to be watched, but Mad Weasel Fueled By Fermented Strangeweed Dance must include rapid shedding of external garments, hissing, scratchery, acts of moral turpitude and dubious gratification, frightening of local fauna, an act of excommunication by the local druid guild, increased taxation for enlarged C02 pawprint and a stern talking to by the local bobbies.

Come back, you Weasel. There is bourbon for the wealthy and blue lightnin’ for the well-connected rural proles.
Enough of your Jane-Goodall-amongst-Britishers-in-the-mist antics. Leave them be, pack the Badger in the satchel and release him in the welcoming monarchy-free Stateside soil.

Papazian’s recipe for Barkshack Ginger Mead is one of the best things I ever made. Took a couple of years to age though, and tasted awful at every stage before that. But after those two years were up…wow. Yummy.

The elders have been blooming here for a couple weeks now. The flowerheads are said to make good pastry fritters too, but have never tried it.

Yeah, it does take most recipes a long time to mature, and I’ve heard the same thing about that Ginger Mead recipe–that it a) takes a long time to be ready, and b) tastes fantastic when it does.

I’m on a mead moratorium right now, though–it’s an expensive hobby and I’m saving all my pennies for Norway.

But I can’t wait to hear how Stoaty’s elderflower likker turns out!

“Sorry about the liters and kilos — it’s all I get any more, stupid Euro-measurements.”

Meh! There’s almost certainly an app for that… 😉

Wow, lemon juice and vinegar? That usually mixes up really horrid tasting.

Don’t know why akismet thought you smelled funny, Small Arms.

Since I’m always the eternal pessimist, 5 quatloos says it tastes like shit.

Where’s Sam Kinneson when you need him ?

Just for Weasel clowns run amok

Bwahahahaha! Clowns to the left of me…

“Angry clowns” is not a nice way to start a sentence.

Yeah, I suspect you’re right, Mike C. Also, I had to add yeast today because the natural stuff wasn’t cutting it, so it’ll probably taste yeasty. Feh.

Still, if there’s alcohol in it, I’ll drink it!

Still, if there’s alcohol in it, I’ll drink it!

There’s alcohol in hand sanitizer, too…

You are headed down a dangerous path, Weasel!

And shoe polish. But you have to strain it through a slice of bread first.

It is good, I suppose, that you know that….

My reciprocal opinion of akismet can hardly be construed to be that of unmitigated delight, Your Stoatiness.

You think it is bad now in the Oulde Blightey??
Fairly soon the bat eared mad as a hare geranium-conversationalist Hanoverian hereditary ruler Charles Wales-Windsor will be crowned as HRH Nigel the VIIth and you’ll have to curtsey and address him as “My Liege”.

The very thought should be enough to make one pat one’s britches for ramhorn of powder and fifty-cal round balls.

You could hop headlong in a vat of fermented gooseberry mash and hold your breath but I think in a rare moment of honesty we both know this is a day you’ll soon have to confront.

Elder trees were commonly planted beside English cottage doors to ward off witches

Pure superstition…witches revere the elder, and they drink the wine, too! 😉

I’ll just stick with my single malt.

Pure superstition…witches revere the elder, and they drink the wine, too!

Hunh. I thought it was rowans that were planted to ward off witches (“Rowan tree, red thread/Hold the witches all in dread”), although I suppose there’s no reason more than one plant couldn’t be considered a deterrent to specific unwanted neighbors. And I’ve certainly made no special study of the subject, but I don’t remember elderberry being mentioned anywhere in the random stuff I’ve read. Is it possible all those elder trees were planted by, um, persons of the craft for craft uses, rather than by those seeking to repel them?

Fairly soon the bat eared mad as a hare geranium-conversationalist Hanoverian hereditary ruler Charles Wales-Windsor will be crowned as HRH Nigel the VIIth and you’ll have to curtsey and address him as “My Liege”.

That may be true enough….however….know that it cannot happen until smedlythebarbarian gets dicked in the Death Pool.

Elderflower wine has the undeserved reputation of being only very slightly alcoholic. This is a pernicious rumour spread about by the Vicars and little old ladies who used to be the primary consumers of this beverage.
Properly fermented (in the dark) and aged for a year it can have the kick of a frisky mule.
Ask me how I know this!!

There is a liquer made from elderflowers if anyone is interested. It’s called St Germain. Here’s the web aite, but it’s down right now

http://www.stgermain.fr/

Elderflower wine and elderberry wine take a long time to make. Elderflower champagne is very quick, and delicious.