Our First "Wine Tasting"

Two weekends back Caity and I hosted our very first "wine and beer tasting" with a few friends. Okay, actually it was an excuse to try a whole bunch of wines and beer before we all had dinner, but it was fun! We did our white wine, peach wine, mead, Irish red ale, pumpkin spice ale, and a "pear beer" that Cait's dad made. The peach wine and mead came out on top overall, they were the two wine favorites, and everyone liked the Irish red ale better than the pumpkin ale. I attribute that to the fact that it was still very young and a bit yeasty. One friend just couldn't get enough of the pear beer.

It was a lot of fun, but a problem arose, what to do with all the open wine?

Dinner was early, and the night was long, and between us and our friends, we managed to clean up all the wine. And the dishes too.

Seriously though, this was a blast. If you're anything like us, you've got five to ten different homemade wines and brews on hand, and this was a great way to share the fun with friends. They got really into it too, asking all about the process and whatnot.

And they were quite impressed, and I just can't help that I enjoyed that.

Right now we've got Irish red ale, pumpkin ale, a wheat beer, cranberry wine, peach wine, mead, meddyglyn, pumpkin wine, blueberry wine, orange wine, apple cider, and pear cider either bottled or in the fermenters, which might sound like a lot, but it makes amazing (and cheap) gifts, you always have something fun to bring to a gathering, and for those days when you just need a glass of wine after a long day, it's there. Our vast spread of wines did, however, get our friend Hannah to ask, "So, do you just sit around and think to yourself, 'what can I make into wine?' ". Yes, Hannah, I do. Hence, the orange wine (will post the recipe soon!).
I have to admit, I was really nervous about sharing our homemade wines. I know that I like them, but I worry they won't be quite up to par for our guests. I thought wrong. They were having so much fun just trying the stuff I probably could have been serving them grape juice and they wouldn't have known the difference! So, have a bunch of good homemade stuff? Have a wine (or beer) tasting!