13th December - Moon Shine

Weren't expecting anything elicit I hope

Today's entry should have been about C and I’s epic pigeon shooting day but I haven’t the heart to recount the hours spent freezing in a hide, watching two decoy pigeons rotating above a windscreen wiper motor, or more hours getting equally cold standing in a wood, so I shan't. For anyone who is intrigued by the rather cryptic description of the rotating decoy pigeons, do a search for pigeon magnets on the internet.  C has made rather a good one but still the day was largely a failure.

Your instincts were right - picture of pot-still

Far more interesting are the preparations for Christmas which fill the cottage with the smell of orange zest, mixed spice, brown sugar and of course alcohol fumes. The festive period wouldn't be the same without a bottle of home distilled gin and to date no one has fallen ill or even gone blind which to me is proof enough that I'm doing the job of making it successfully. Distilling is a very useful (albeit illegal) way of using up home-made wines which have gone wrong and there is no shortage of raw material around here! Today's reject was a 2009 vintage rose made from the neighbours grapes which turned out so acidic that you dared not swill it round your mouth for a taste lest it began dissolving your teeth. The apparatus I use to build my extremely crude pot still is nothing specialist and consists of a large stock pot, large metal bowl, tall glass jar and a shallow small bowl. The lidless jar filled with water stands in the centre of the stockpot and on top of that balances the small bowl. The must (reject rose) is then poured into the stockpot, making sure it does not reach the level of the small bowl and the large bowl is then placed on top of the stockpot, creating a lid which bellies down into the pot. Finally the large bowl is filled with water and ice and the whole assembly placed over a slow heat. As the must heats slowly, alcohol fumes rise within the stockpot, hit the cold concave surface of the large bowl, condense, run to the lowest central point and a drip into the small bowl below held aloft by the jar. Simple but effective! The small bowl needs emptying from time to time and the iced water refreshing as it warms up but in a couple of hours two wine bottles of strong clear spirit can be distilled from a gallon of 12% must. There is one very important point which I haven't mentioned yet and that is how to avoid collecting the methanol which is inevitably present. The wood alcohol (methanol) has a lower boiling point than ethanol and for this reason by discarding the first fraction (the first half bowl full or so) most of it can be eliminated from the finished product. Making the crude spirit is the first step in making gin and the second distillation with aromatic ingredients will be covered another day.

There is a great satisfaction in seeing Em labouring over a huge bowl of mincemeat, my mother has always made her own and the sight and smell conjures up all the happy memories of childhood Christmases. One day I hope G will have his own treasure trove off recollections and at the centre will be his mother, stirring the bowl whilst inviting the family to have a go and make a wish.