Cheap Eats, Oh Look Some Vodka....

Suuuuup People, I'm back again with another edition of cheap eats.  In case you can't tell I am a bit of a booze hound. Everyone drunk liquor enthusiast has a drink of choice. Mine is vodka. Oh dear sweet vodka, how I love thee. Serioulsy people, I effing love the stuff. Even though I never drink to the point of intoxication I would empty a 1.5L bottle in less than 2 weeks. Drinking can be heavy on the wallet, so I am always on the look out for a cheaper but decent vodka. It is easy to find cheap vodka. Hell I have some in the kitchen now that I use to clean my mead making equipment.

Pictured: Sanitizer

However cheap and good is another story. One day I was in a package browsing the wall of  vodka when I saw a 1.5L bottle for $14.99. Meh, that is nothing new. Then I noticed it was one shelf below top shelf. My wallet tingled with excitement. 

I got it home and gave it a try. Now I am not going to sit here an tell you how smooth and full of flavor it was and all the stuff you may see on a professional vodka review. I am not that good.

What I will tell you is that it is drinkable, dare I say good. It is no Grey Goose,  not even Three Olives, but it is quite a bit better than Smirnoff which to me tastes like vodka mixed with dirt. I have since then bought three bottles of this. I won't lie. There are much better vodkas on the market. However for 14.99/1.5L, with a decent taste and great mixability this cannot be beat. I give this a solid 10/10 for value. Next time you are having a party and you need a lot of vodka for a little bit of money. I give this a try for sure. 

My Coca Cherry Mead.

I love cherries. They are in my top 5 fruits. A mead had to happen.

Primary

2 weeks in the bucket 48 oz Tart Cherry Juice for lots of cherry flavor 5lbs of clover honey 36 oz of black cherries frozen Lavlin 71b-1112 re-hydrated with yeast energizer pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient Water to a gallon

I heated up the juice water and honey into a pot, brought to a simmer right below a boil and added in the honey bit by bit. While it was heating up I poured the cherries into my bag (seriously bag + bucket = so much win) the crushed then up with my hand. I poured the liquid on top. Added in the pectic enzyme, nutrient, energizer. Then whipped it up with my hand blender with whisk attachment. SG was between 1.27-1.32 the foam obscured it a bit.

With the yeast I rehydrated it with a bit of yeast engergizer. Didn't put the nutrient in as it has DAP in it. After it sat for a bit, I added a bit of must to it. Let it sit for 17 mins, it got a nice foam on top of it, so I added more must then let that sit for 20 mins. After the 20 min mark I dumped it into the bucket, stirred her up then sat the lid on top.

During the first three days I don't seal the bucket since I aerate three times a day. After the first three I sealed her up and let her blurp for two weeks.

Here is a photo of it in the bucket

Secondary 

2 weeks then racked onto 12 oz of black cherries 

After the two weeks was up I racked it off the fruit and onto more cherries and some coca nibs. The gravity was 1.001. At this gravity it was dry as a bone but it was wonderful! The taste of the cherries was thick without being cough syrup like. I let The Wife try some and even though she does not like dry wines she liked this one.

Tertiary

2-3 oz of cocoa nibs 

After sitting for another 2 weeks on the extra cherries I racked this off onto 2-3oz's of cocoa nibs just to give it a bit of extra flavor. I sample it again but did not take a gravity reading. The flavor had gotten even better. The cherry flavor was a bit more pronounced and it smelled wonderful.

Quaternary

(admit it, you just learned a new word)

I let it sit on the nibs for quite some time. I don't really remember how long. I think maybe a month or longer. The nibs did not impart as much flavor as I had hoped. Though it did add a bit of complexity to the mead. It was around this time I broke my hydrometer in the making of a future post (see what I did there?) so I could not take a gravity reading. After giving very small samples out to everyone we all agreed it needs to be backsweetened just a hair. If the gravity is still 1.001 then I would take it maybe to 1.010.

Personally I think the color on this is FANTASTIC. As of today's date it is still in the carboy bulk aging. It was sorbated and sulfited a week ago. I will backsweeten it this weekend when I trek up to the brew store to buy yet another hydrometer. I plan to let this one sit for a while before I open it up. Tell me what you think of the color. Any suggestions on additions? I will most definitely be making this one again. 

Beer Review- Shocktop Applewheat Beer

Sup People! I am back with another review. I saw this beer pop up around may in the stores. It is a seasonal beer. It looked interesting an I am really into beer right now, so I decided to give it a try. 

I forget what dead animal I cooked that night, but when I opened this beer....

The apple taste blows you away. It is crisp, smooth, and full of flavor. The Wife, who normally detests beer loved it as well. I cannot get enough of these. At 7.37 a six pack these are not exactly cheap but they are worth the price. I highly recommend these. 

Lunch between Work

I squeezed in some quality time for a decent lunch. Yesterday I forgot to bring food so today I over compensated. Hehe. It was a plesent meal before rushing back to work. Saturdays are always busy!

Going Organic

The husband has decided that he wants fresh jalapino in our little household so he has decided to grow them himself. The little sprouts are looking so cute! What shall we grow next?

Visiting the fish mart

Everytime I go to the fish market, all of my childhood memories come pouring back to me. I have always gone there with my family on Saturday afternoons, Sundays after church, and early mornings before breakfast. The other day I went with father. I took a couple pictures to make new memories.

Then I went home and fried up some fish and shrimp for my husband and had a great time eating dinner with my new family . I am excited to make more memories at the fish shop in the years to come.

Trying my hand at a little Indian style

Here is my first attempt at Indian style cooking. I used a pre-packaged sauce that I poured over broiled chicken and served with rice and vegetables. It tasted pretty good. I think I'm going to like Indian!

Bottling Time 2!!!!!

Sup ladies and gents. Time for a little mead update. After waiting for quite some time, the Cranberry Mead has finally been bottled. This by car has been my most popular mead from the samples I have given. The big bottle is all mine, the smaller ones will be gift bottles. I don't know why the corks look like that. Someone told me next time to soak them in water to reduce the mushroom effect. I think I will open the big bottle a year or so from now. I need to make some labels.

I did not take a final gravity reading as I broke my hydrometer. I am excited to give these out. I already want to make another batch. Comment, tell me what you think!