Bohemian Pilsner

Here's a recipe that I got from one of the very first books given to me about brewing beer. The recipe, Bohemian Pilsner comes from Fearless Brewing by Brian Knuath. This recipe should make a 5 gallon batch with an original gravity of 1.048.

Ingredients

Wyeast #2278 Czech Pils lager yeast
1 can Alexander's Pale
3 pounds Laaglander Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
10 Home Bittering Units of Saaz hops (Consult a HBU chart for this) for bittering
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
2 ounces Saaz hops
1 tablespoon gelatin
1/4 cup corn sugar for bottling

Steps

Pop yeast pack 48 hours before brew day
Prepare yeast starter 24 hours before brew day
Bring water to boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the extracts. Return to boil.
When boiling starts add the bittering hops. Boil for 60 minutes total.
Add Irish moss for the last 30 minutes.
Add 1/2 ounce of Saaz hops for the last 15 minutes
Add 1/2 ounce of Saaz hops for the last 5 minutes
Cool wort quickly and add yeast starter
Primary ferment at 50 degrees F for 10 to 14 days.
Rack to secondary and dry hop with 1 ounce of Saaz hops.
Lager for 4 to 6 weeks at 40 to 45 degrees F.
Add gelatin 2 days before bottling.
Bottle with priming sugar.

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4 Tips on Making Your First Wine

Making your first wine can either be a pleasure or a chore. Here are 4 tips to make your first winemaking experience a pleasure.

Use Juice - forget about crushing grapes or any other fruit, buy juice instead. Frozen Welch's works great because it has no preservatives.

Start Small - Don't decide to make a large batch of wine at one time. Instead work at making a gallon or two. Small batches are easy to make and clean up. Besides, making a lot of 1 gallon batches gets you more experience instead of 1 large batch.

Use Kitchenware - Instead of going out and buying tons of new equipment, use kitchenware instead. A new trash can makes a great fermenter. Just make sure it's new, clean and sanitized. Plastic spoons, measuring cups, and measuring spoons can be easily found in most kitchens and will keep your expenses down.

Have Patience - It takes about 4 months before you can even think about drinking your wine. So kick back and wait. Most new wine after a month will taste pretty raw and nasty, so don't rush it.

There 4 tips on making your first winemaking experience a pleasure instead of a chore.



Technorati Tags: Wine, Winemaking, Tips

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What Happens When

What Happens When .... Will be a monthly series on how to fix things after things have gone wrong. For example, your fermentation is stuck, so what do you do to fix it?

This month's post is about What Happens When your spouse dies and the house you both lived in is sold. Or, in otherwords, why I haven't posted much during the summer months.

First, a little background. My wife and I had been married for 13 years and were planning on moving to another part of Pennsylvania. We cleaned out the attic and basement in April of this year. It just so happens that she was also battling cancer during this time. At the end of May, she went home to the Lord. Most of June was spent dealing with funeral, family, and friends. Handling the grieving process and tending to final expenses.

Then, at the end of June the house we had lived in was sold and I needed to move by the end of July. First there was the search of finding a place. Then moving from a house to an apartment while working about 40 hours a week. Talk about being stressed.

Finally, at the end of August my routine became a little more normal.

That's when I decided to get back to posting articles. I have spent a little time writing articles for future postings. The one thing that I really learned was that a bank of articles will help during those times when life is upside down.

Thanks for your patience during these past few months. Next month's What Happens When will be on a more blog related topic.

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Will Merlot Sales Ever Recover?

This article was sent to me by Simon Owens from Bloggasm. Nice article.

The scene lasts no longer than a few moments.

Thomas Haden Church’s character, frustrated and looking to get laid, tells Paul Giamatti’s character that if the two women they’re about to meet want to drink Merlot, they’re all drinking Merlot. “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving,” Giamatti responds. “I am not drinking any fucking Merlot!”

The scene is humorous but fleeting, yet after the movie Sideways was met with both critical and popular success, news organizations began reporting Merlot’s demise. Sales within the industry dropped as casual, uninformed wine drinkers turned up their noses at the drink. And wine afficionados weren’t all sad to see the grape’s downfall.

Read the rest of the article.

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