Batch #2 - "Puolukkapäivät"

After getting the first batch down, we were itching for more, so we immediately set to work on the second set. This time the theme is lingonberry. Even by our standards this is more of a berry wine than a kilju. Then again, in our minds, kilju is more of a laid back homebrew mindset than a strict definition.

The ingredients:

• 2.2l Lingonberries
• 1.5kg Sugar
• Drinkit Turbo Speed yeast
• 6l water

We started by slowly heating the frozen lingonberries in a pot with a few liters of water. They soaked on small power for an hour or so to let them release their juices. Then the blender. The resulting lingonberry smoothie went back into the pots, and got boiled to get rid of any wild yeasts and other bad stuff. We added the sugar to the boiling smoothie.

Finally everything went into the fermentation vessel, this one of 10l capacity. Once again, even after adding the cold water, the result was too warm to introduce the yeast, so we set the pot out on the balcony to cool while we ate dinner. When we judged that the contents were of the right temperature, in went the yeast, and we gave it a final stir before closing everything up.

Batches one and two have been fermenting for about 24 hours now, Pinja about four hours more. Both started bubbling from the trap almost immidiately, and now the laboratory is filled with an intresting cacophony of gurgling fermentation. Despite the warning about foaming on the yeast package, everything looks fine, and the fermentation is looking quite civilized. So far this looks like a good yeast to use.

The lingonberry batch has a lot of potential to be really good, even something to be enjoyed from a wineglass accompanied by food. If it does turn out good, we might well do another batch with a proper wine yeast instead of a turbo yeast.