As with the other one, it looks totally unused. Its slightly larger, with a lighter glaze and will do the job nicely. Right, thats Fendog’s birthday present sorted! I wonder how many more of these things I can bag…
The Mothership descended on Oxford this weekend amidst a shower of frozen food and BidUp TV purchases. Oh, and she also brought the Mentor. Since there is no room at the inn, they were staying at the hotel down the road by the Kassam Stadium and were keen to sample the delights of the boot fair that they see setting up each time they come. I’d never been myself but I new the kind of tat that would be on offer. And I knew I had to watch my mum like a hawk. Turn away for a second and she will have bought us some unwanted trinket, a hideous ornament, yet another toy for Bethan, or perhaps a TV (she has been trying to force one upon for ages).
On the other hand, my mum is an excellent haggler and if there was something I wanted, I was sure she would get a good price. The only thing I could think of looking out for a Rumtopf (or “Rumpot”). Its a German thing – a large ceramic jar in which you accumulate spare fruit over the summer preserved in sugar and rum for eating through the winter. Ever since Fendog told me about them I have been on the look out for one as its sounded delicious and a good way to deal with the gluts of fruit I get from the allotment. But on eBay they tend to go for about £15-20.
It was WebMonkey’s wedding today. I was only invited to the ceremony and the evening do, but not the afternoon reception, but as an usher Fendog got to go to the whole thing.
Happily, today was the annual “Stonehelm Event” and it would fit nicely between the ceremony and the evening thing. Stonehelm are our local distributor of homebrew supplies and every autumn they have an event at Marsh Baldon village hall showcasing some homebrew, demonstrating techniques and displaying various of their wares.
So I dragged along the Dandy and the Geek and we rocked up there after the wedding. We were pretty late and there was barely anyone left there. But that worked to our advatage as we got to chat to the guys organising who let us hang around for ages despite being the only people there. They didn’t even bat an eyelid at the fact that we will all dressed up with suits and ties!
Stonehelm is a family business and it was great get to know Ralph (the dad) who had obviously had a few drinks by the time we arrived and was becoming increasing liberal with the samples of beer and liqueur and even gave us a bootle of wine each to take home. We also met Zed (one of the sons) who proved very helpful as I quizzed him about brewing techniques and ingredients.
They had 9 beers on offer, all from kits, and all very nice. Although I’m not sure how much of the smoked one I could drink. But the highlight was the liqueurs made from “essences” which cost about £1.50 a bottle and are mixed with sugar and Sainbury Basic Vodka. I couldn’t believe how good they tasted and there is an amazing variety of flavours…. we samples quite a few of them 
I’ll definitely be buying some essenses on my next Stonehelm order.
The Dandy and I had a great day, but I’m we really felt for the Geek who had foolished agreed to drive. But he can’t have been that put off as he bought a homebrew starter kit and several bottles of liqueur essences. I’m glad those two are going to start brewing, but I’m not sure where I;ll get my empty beer bottles from now, as they were my chief suppliers…
I got the thumbs up from Scrubs today about my sloe gin! I gave her a bottle so that she could celebrate the end of her exams in style.
I usually dont use good friends as guinea pigs for dubious brews, so I was quite relieved that she liked it.
She said it also helped her sleep. Well, I did warn her it was strong stuff…
Finally got round to bottling the sloe gin that should have been bottled and drunk months ago! I’m not sure what the effects are of leaving the sloes soaking for so long. But I’m hoping its not too disastrous.
My batches of sloe gin over the past few years have been pretty amazing and I dont want to let the side down with a ropey vintage.
I’ll have to arrange to crack open a bottle with the Fendog soon before unleashing it on the wider public.
Each year I get a glut of raspberries on my allotment – far too many to eat. At the end of last summer I was struggling to get down their to pick them often enough and by the time I did, most were past their best. It was a shame to waste them so I made a experimental liqueur with them.
This week I took a bottle to New Word Alive to try it for the first time. It looked and smelt great! Really deep red and very raspberry-y (is that a word?).
Having nothing better to drink it out of, we lined up all the chalet’s egg-cups, poured a round, and knocked them back….
Whoa!!!! This stuff rocks like a bad-boy!!
