Making Homemade Wine and Beer: October 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Found this article and thought that I would share it with you. I have made cheese and butter but have never roasted my own coffee. Something that I might want to try in the future.

"Make Your Own" Hobby Guide	Oct, 2007

You already make your own beer. How about trying your hand making your own cheese or roasting your own coffee? The list of foods and beverages you can make yourself is almost limitless. Plus, when you make it yourself you get to craft it exactly how you like it. Check out these businesses that will help you "make your own".

THE COFFEE PROJECT New to roasting? We've got home coffee roasting equipment, green beans and supplies. Take 10% off your first order by using the coupon code "cheers" when you order online before November 1st. Think outside the line. Call us at 1-800-779-7578 or visit our website. www.coffeeproject.com

Read More Make Your Own at Brew Your Own

Friday, October 26, 2007

Technorati Tags: Beer, Pilsen, Czech, Revolution

10 Things You Might Not Know About Beer

Friday, October 19, 2007

5 Tips on Picking Thanksgiving Wines

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I received this in my email in September from Natalie Maclean and it might be a bit early for this article. Of course, your own homemade wine always goes best with whatever your eating.

Five Quick Tips for Picking the Ultimate Thanksgiving Wine

Author/Sommelier Natalie MacLean suggests gobbling good wines at www.NatalieMacLean.com

New York (September 13, 2007) - "No other holiday celebrates the gift
of wine like Thanksgiving," says Natalie MacLean, author of the
bestselling book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey
from Grape to Glass. "Wine is a taste of the harvest along with all the
delicious dishes on the table. But actually choosing a bottle can feel
like a thankless task, especially with so many flavors to match."

Relax. Have a drink. And try some of Natalie's suggestions for great
wines to pair with Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings. In Red,
White and Drunk All Over, which will be published in paperback next
month, Natalie discusses wine and food pairing for Thanksgiving dinner.
A new chapter in the book also addresses the five toughest matches for
wine: vegetables, spicy dishes, chocolate, cheese, and fast food.

Natalie's free online matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher

Natalie also offers five quick tips for choosing a terrific Thanksgiving wine:

1. Start with bubbly. Sparkling wine is a great aperitif to sip while
you wait for the turkey to finish cooking. It adds a celebratory note
to the meal and goes well with starters like soup and salad.

2. Consider the turkey. Unlike most poultry and game birds, turkey meat
is very dry in texture. So you need a mouth-watering wine to complement
it. Good options are crisp whites like riesling and pinot grigio. And
yes you can drink red wine with white meat: pinot noir, beaujolais and
zinfandel all have juicy, berry-ripe flavors that go well with turkey.

3. Look beyond the bird. The range of side dishes means that you don't
have to match your wine just to the turkey. Since Thanksgiving dinner
is often a banquet-style meal, with everyone choosing the trimmings,
why not do the same with your wines? Offer both red and white, and
possibly more than one depending on the size of your group.

4. Complement or contrast. A big, buttery chardonnay from California or
Chile can complement the roasted, smoky flavors of squash, chestnuts
and pecan stuffing. But if you'd rather have a contrast to the richness
of cream sauces and dressings, try a crisp New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

5. End on a sweet note. If anyone still has room left when it's time
for pumpkin or pecan pie, offer a late harvest wine or icewine. If
you're a chocolate fan, try serving a liqueur with complementary
flavors such as raspberry or blackcurrant.

Natalie's online wine matching tool isn't just about Thanksgiving
dinner: it allows you to pair wine with other seasonal fall produce,
game meats, pizza, egg dishes, TV dinners, breads and desserts.
Visitors simply search by wine for meal inspirations or by food to find
great wine choices. The site has more than 364,000 food and wine
combinations, as well as thousands of recipes for those planning
holiday parties and Christmas turkey dinner.

The matching tool is updated regularly, as Natalie responds to her
readers' suggestions for more dishes and wines. Many of these
suggestions come from the 78,000 subscribers to her free e-newsletter,
Nat Decants, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine.
Got a dish or a wine to stump Natalie? E-mail her via the web site and
she'll suggest a match for you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Technorati Tags: Wine, Thanksgiving, Holidays

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

It's not beer and it's not wine, but making hard apple cider is always fun. You can do it the old fashioned way by pressing the apples or you can purchase the apple cider. If you purchase the cider, just make sure that there are no preservatives in it. Personally, I buy the apple cider from a local fruit market.

The recipe I found is from Sallys-Place.com and will make a 5 gallon batch. There is also an interesting history of hard cider on that site that is worth reading.

Enjoy the recipe and the reading.

Cidermaking is easy and fun. Here is a basic recipe for a Farmhouse Style cider (ingredients for five gallons):

5 gallons of fresh pressed sweet apple juice (known today as apple cider)
5 cups of sugar
1 package of Wyeast liquid lager brewers yeast (available at homebrew supply stores)

Transfer the juice and sugar using a sanitized funnel or food grade plastic hose into a sanitized glass or stainless-steel container at room temperature. Allow the sugar to dissolve and then pitch the lager yeast and affix a fermentation lock atop the carboy It will soon begin to bubble away releasing carbon dioxide as the yeast converts the sugars into alcohol. Allow the cider to ferment and mellow for at least two months before transferring it with your sanitized food grade hose into bottles, a keg, or any vessel you prefer. Then enjoy. Any homebrew supply shop can get you started with the proper advice and equipment.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Hard, Cider, Beer, Recipe

Another Reason To Make Your Own Beer - Miller Coors Merger

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Wow, with MolsonCoors and Miller merging it will leave only 2 major breweries selling their crappy swill. Just another reason to make your own beer.

Technorati Tags: Beer, Molson, Coors, Miller, Merger

Soapy Taste In Beer

What Happens When - I Have a Soapy Taste In My Beer

I was at a recent wine club meeting and one of the members was discussing how his beer has a soapy taste to it. A couple of us that make wine and beer tried to fiqure out what his problem was. We first thought it might be from soap residual in his glass. He assured us that it wasn't from that. We were stumped. So, I did a little research and found this.

Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

From How to Brew

And to confirm that it could be caused be leaving your beer too long in the fermenter I found this.

You have left the fermenting beer in the first brewing process too long (bucket). You should have checked the gravity reading and barrelled soon after the reading became stable at the correct range (depends on beer type).

Easy How Brew

At this stage of the game, I don't think there is anything that can be done to fix this problem other than mixing it with tomato juice and drinking it. Generally, I don't leave the fermenting wort in the primary for more than 7 days and most times it is around 5 days. Probably the reason that I never encountered this problem.

Well, if you have a soapy taste in your beer, check the glass first and then check your brewing records to see how long you left the wort in the primary fermenter.

Tech Tags: Beer, Soapy, Taste, Mistakes

Cheap Way To Make Wine

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Thought that I would experiment with some video and found this series at YouTube.com. I like the way he takes ordinary household items to make his wine. Just goes to show you that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get started. Hope you enjoy.

More In The Series:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Technorati Tags: Wine,, Winemaking,, Cheap, Wine,, Homemade