What Tastes Like Purple?

Note to Zirn, Curt, and self - if you think 15 pounds of home-grown, hand-harvested, super awesome tasting Concord grapes smashed and pressed into a 5 gallon glass carboy with sugar and yeast then left to ferment resulting in a sweet, refreshingly delicious beverage sounds too good to be true - you may be right.  

Let me introduce you to Mount Wine-suvious:

and...

You probably can't tell but that cloth wrapped around the neck was originally white.

Seriously, I do have "wine" flowing into the drain in my work room and it smells like an excellent weekend spent in the Napa Valley, but in no way is this a bad thing.  12 months from now this will be a very GOOD thing.  

The second 5 gallon batch (white bucket in the background of the above photos) looks just fine and is showing no signs of overflow.  

Also, the Blueberry Surprise made from leftover simple syrup and year-old frozen blueberries is bubbling away:

Who needs manufactured fermentation locks anyway?  A rubber glove with a pin hole secured with rubber bands works just as well.  When I walked in to check on this today I high-fived the wine like 6 times.  

Good work boys.  Update to the "currently fermenting" list:

2 - 5 gallon batches of concord grape wine made with home-grown grapes

1 - 1 gallon batch of Dandelion Wine

1 - 2 gallon batch of Raspberry Wine

1 - 3 gallon batch of Strawberry Wine, and the hot July moon didn't see shit

1 - 3 gallon batch of Orange Wine

1 - 1 gallon batch of Orange Zest Wine

1 - 1 gallon batch of Blueberry "Wine"

1 - 5 gallon batch of Appleweis

Keep it fermenting. 

Tastes Like Awesome Brewing in Pictures

I'm into my 5th batch of Home Brew (a dandelion bitter) but have not had the chance to post anything regarding it.  Here is some brewing "events" over the past few months in pictures:

First batch of home brewed beer.  Grains in a bag ready for steeping. 

My 5-Gallon brew kettle.  Ideal for all kinds of fun stuff.

Thermometer into the brewing kettle using a "chip-clip."  Temperature consistency is crucial when brewing.  Don't boil your grains, only rolling boil your wort, don't pitch the yeast too soon or too late.  You can see I was enjoying a beer while brewing my beer.  Anderson Brewing Company from California I believe.

Here's a shot of the grain steeping.  This is an option you have when doing extract brewing that allows you to capture some of the real flavors of the grains and not to rely solely on the extract flavors.  It also enhances the color and aroma of your brew.

Here's a shot immediately after adding the first round of hops (bittering) to my Initial IPA brew.  The addition of hops to your boiling wort normally causes a "boil over" reaction.  Just be careful. 

That's me - filling a bottle of Initial IPA in my "brew room."  That was 3 months ago and the room has already undergone 3 renovations.  It's effing badass.

 

"Ale Pail" bottling bucket with rubber tubing attached to the spigot which is on the other end attached to a really awesome bottle filling device.  Enjoying a Sierra Nevada or using the bottle for filling - either way it's effing sweet. 

Here are some shots of the capping process. 

Apparently this is an action shot of me placing a now filled bottle into its storage case.  I'm effing quick!

Here's a shot of the dudes and I enjoying some Initial IPA.  

Keep it real brew, dudes.

Dandelion Wine-oh Yeah

Dandelions have lost their place in this world.  What was once used for beverages, pickling, and in salads - is now only known as a nasty weed.  People go to great lengths to rid their yards of the unwanted guest - worst of all spreading chemical herbicides.

Dandelion wine requires very little work and time.  Dandelions have a sweet-bitterness that translates well into a sweet wine.  I made some this week.

Collect two quarts of dandelion flowers.  Leave the stems and as many leaves out of it as possible - the stems and leaves are the bitter parts of the plant. 

Wash and rinse the dandelions so that you do not end up making dandelion/bug wine.  Cover them with cold water and allow them to soak in the refrigerator for up to two days.

Place them into a large stock pot with 4 quarts of water.

Add 8-10 whole cloves, 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger, 1 1/2 cups orange juice, the juice of 1 lemon, the juice of 1 lime, the zest of that same lemon, the zest of 1 orange, and 6 cups of sugar.

Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to a rolling boil and allow to cook for 1 hour.

In the meantime, sanitize your fermentation vessel (mine was a glass carboy), stopper and airlock, and funnel.

When the liquid mixture has cooked for 1 hour remove from heat and strain.  I used a mesh strainer lined with cheese cloth.  If you're using a large fermentation vessel you can afford to do this because you will eventually need to rack the liquid into bottles, therefore eliminating much of the sediment that will most definitely accumulate.

If you are planning on placing the liquid directly into bottles, strain the liquid again through something like a coffee filter. When fermenting in bottles the easiest way to create your own "airlock" is to poke a few holes into a balloon and place the balloon over the bottle opening.  This allows fermented CO2 to escape while preventing oxygen from entering.

While your liquid is cooling empty your wine yeast packet into a bowl containing a small amount of cool water and warm dandelion liquid (allow to sit for at least 15 minutes).

Add 2 quarts of cool water to your fermentation vessel, then add all dandelion liquor.  Once your yeast is showing good signs of starting (should be a foamy, bubbly substance in your bowl) add that to the vessel as well, and give the whole thing a good shake.

Immediately top the vessel with whatever airlock you are using and store in a cool, dark area (between 60 - 70 degrees F).

Allow the wine to ferment for a few weeks or until you no longer see signs of fermenting.  Rack into bottles, cork, and store in a cool dark place for at least 6 months - but preferably 1 year.

Good luck, enjoy, eff yeah.        

BREAD...AND LIQUID BREAD

Now that we're settled down from the awesome holidays and a sad death in the family, Super Greeny and I are venturing into some uncharted - but long overdue - territory.  Homemade staples to our lives.  Bread and Beer. 

She had been making attempting to make homemade bread for a few years now and has had her ups and downs.  She makes some very good desert breads and a very good beer bread, but has not been able to master just a normal LOAF of bread.  It's tough.  The mixing, the kneading, do I have too little or too much yeast, how long should I let it rise, etc. 

So we received a bread maker for Christmas.  THE ANSWER TO ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS.  Or so we thought.  The first 8 batches turned out denser than a Tempur-Pedic mattress.

To this point - through trial and error and deductive reasoning we have baked 3 good loaves (just a normal white sandwich bread).  It's very good tasting, soft, and light.  Hopefully there are many more to come. 

I on the other hand, am jumping face first into the world of homemade liquid bread, or Home Brewing.  I have been wanting to do this for years now and it has finally happened.

Home brewing requires a lot more than you would seem to think to do it properly and with the most success, so I am currently turning a small room in my backroom in a "Brew room," with running water, temperature control, and plenty of storage for bottles.  Awesome.

Although I have been studying the art for a few years now, and have read probably 5 books on it, Super Greeny felt that for my first batch I shoud use a kit - and I agreed.  So I have a nice IPA kit that includes everything I need.  I do plan on using a yeast starter as opposed to simply adding it into the wort like the kit instructs, but other than that I'm going to follow their lead.

This is something I have been looking forward to for a long, long time so I'll definitely be sharing my adventures. 

Little Winger turned 2 on 12/31.  Greeny made her delicious apple cake (i'll share the recipe sometime) that he got to dive into.  He also had his first Lolli-pop.  Santa brought him some small organic pops, and he had it destroyed in 3 minutes.