Back From Indiana!!!

2/20/2011

Its been a few days since my last post. I had to travel half way across the US and back.

What did I find when I got back? Well, the watermelon wine sucks. It is probably exactly what it is supposed to taste like. I just don't like the taste. It is so going to be poured out into the back 40. The mead is fighting any signs of completing fermentation and is still going with a bubble ever 20-30 seconds. The hard lemonade finally kicked off and is not having a hard fermentation but it is going on a steady bubble flipping.

The Apple Cider however has completed all fermentation. I racked it and it is now clearing up faster than I had expected. The top 1/3rd of the liquid is a beautiful clearing amber color. I tried the liquid and was quite shocked. It was a very dry cider with one hell of an alcohol kick to it. I will look into sweetening it before bottling it up. I am ready to try the cider thing again only this next time I will be adding some raisins and we will be working with a LOT more sugar. I plan on using a yeast that will die quicker in alcohol so I can get a much sweeter cider. I really didn't taste the cinnamon in the cider so next time I will be adding a few sticks for the primary and remove them when they go to the secondary. I have to say that I am not all that pleased with the flavor of the cider it is living up to the name of "Atomic Rock Hard Apple Cider".

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

Hard Lemonade!!!

2/15/2011

I went to the brew shop and picked up a couple of 2 Gal. primary fermentation buckets and a few more airlocks. Yes, when I went in I didn't know what I was going to try next but I knew I was going to try something. My one year old, Katie, and I went to the grocery store after that. We had a few items that we needed to get so we strolled around looking for what we could turn into a brewed adult beverage. Walking through the frozen concentrates we saw some Country Time pink lemonade. My son, Jon, who is 10, had said he would like to see some lemonade wine. When I looked into it I found hard lemonade. I grabbed two containers and the rest of the list and came home. I ma not sure if two was over kill but this is the Great Experiment isn't it.

Here is what I added to the mix:

• One gallon of water
• Two tea spoons of Yeast Nutrient
• One tea spoon of Yeast Energizer
• LALVIN K1-V1116 Yeast
• OG=1.106

This is pretty much from a recipe off YouTube. Yes I do a LOT of research on YouTube. What is interesting is that the man that was giving the tutorial actually said he liked the K1-V1116 and when I looked in my little yeast bowl in the fridge there it was. I though if he had good luck with it I would try it. Anyway I don't believe in coincidences. I was really supposed to use this stuff. I looked up the yeast and it seems to be a good one for this. I highly suggest that you look into what yeasts there are and make a educated decision before you use the yeast. Simply put in the yeast maker and the numbers in Google. It is so east to get this info that a gecko could do it. hehehe.

Now unlike some of the juices that I have been doing I left this mixture in my 2 gal. bucket so I can stir it regularly. I am really concentrating on oxygen in the wines that I will be making unless the recipe calls for it to go straight into a jug.

Things that I plan on doing in the near future. Well, today while at the brew supply I placed an order for dried elderberry. I found a recipe for it and thought I would take a try at it. This will be a long and laborious wine taking a great deal of time in the bucket and months in being racked and re-racked. The recipe I found has taken 1st, 2dn, and 3rd place at different wine challenges. We will see if it tastes that great in about 6-8 months. Other than this I have noting planned but you never know with me. I wasn't planning on making hard lemonade either.

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

My Damn Reasons!

2/13/2011

I hope you can tell by the image I used today that I am in a playful mood. Some how that just sounds dirty so we will go with good mood, a very good mood. If you have been keeping up with my blog you will also see that I am trying to not only raise home brewers up to be something that they are and lowering the people who went to school to be chemists and scientists to what they should be. I have never liked over educated pricks.

My niece Lauren's reaction to my deciding to brew was to say that it seemed like a red neck thing to do. I assure you being a red neck is the last thing I am. I don't have a gun rack in my truck and I don't chew tobacco. There are a lot of other things that being a red neck I am not but I don't see the need to get into those things here and now. Maybe in a later blog post. What I realized when she said this is that the world has a bad view on home brewers. They think we do this only because we are poor. I can afford to go buy a bottle of wine from the store. Hell, we got a six pack of Corona from the store just a few days ago. I am doing this for several reasons. Let's take a look at that for a moment.

I am sick of being taxed on everything from groceries to my cigarettes. From my car to literally my pool. It is in ground so it is not a red neck pool, just so you know. They tax me for beer, wine and spirits. This year I took my tax refund from the federal government and put it into my supplies and equipment to home brew so I can stop paying the government, that can't curb its spending, money that could go to better use in my house. Again I can afford to go get wine from the store if I wanted to. I choose not to.

I know what is in my wine. I know exactly what has been in it. How long it was in it. And what is going to be in it. I know I have no preservatives. I have no carcinogens. I have nothing in my wine that I would not drink. I think that makes it a lot more healthy.

My family used to home brew. My grandfather homebrewed a great elderberry wine. My father brewed an ok rose petal wine. Even my step father has brewed a really good wine. So, I have been exposed to the brewing processes on and off through our my childhood.

My wife, Leslie, and I are trying to become more self sufficient in any way that we can. We are finding that by gardening we appreciate the meal more when it came from our own hands and sweat.

Lastly, this is all a great science experiment. I have been pretty open about that. I see every batch of wine that I make as a science experiment. Every home brewer should see it as that. Unlike the brewers for brewing companies we put our money where our carboy is. We lay our dollars on the line for what we THINK could turn out to be the one batch that is better than anything we could ever buy at any store or get at any restaurant. That about sums up the reasons that I am doing this.

I can't tell you the excitement I got when I taste tested my mead and it seems to be turning out to be, what I would consider, a great wine. I was literally glowing with a smile that is rare among people today. I beat the odds and am looking at a great wine. I BEAT THE ODDS. I can't express the word I in this more. I did it. Not someone from Yale. Me! The person who dropped out of High School and was a bum for a years. I did it. I consider it a work of art and plan on signing every bottle that I make like any artist, my nice Lauren is an artist, would do. I even have my fictitious company that I will place on the labels also. "Micro-Biological Chemistry" Seems appropriate since I have been pushing that idea from the beginning. Even before I started by first batch of wine. I am proud of being able to do things my grand father did. Things our forefathers did regularly. Things our ancestors took for granted. I, by making good wine, have elevated my personal status up to the ancient Egyptians who were very avid brewers. That is what it feels like to taste a wine you made with your own blood, sweat and tears.

Quick update on the watermelon wine I am making. I tried straining out all the pulp in the must today and realized that I really do only have about a gallon of liquid under all that melon and grapes. I put all the fruit back in my pale and went to my small yeast library, yes I have several strains of yeast at my fingertips. I chose Lalvin EC-1118. It has a higher tolerance to change in temperature and causes less foam. The less foam is what won it over for me. After the Cran-Apple incident I am a little shock shy on foam. I only have a couple inches of space between the must and the top of my pale so I don't want to deal with foam blowing out the top if at all possible. My O.G. was 1.086. According to my hydrometer that will get me about 10% alcohol content. Probably a perfect for it being a fruit wine that should be refreshing and not something to get you three sheets to the wind.

Well, that's all for now.
Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

What is a Chemist?

2/13/2011

We are all chemists if you really take a look at just about everything you put into your body that is not shrink wrapped or canned drinks. I am about to go make a glass of iced tea and I am not just going to pour my tea into a glass. I will add some lemon to it and ice to cool it off. There you have it. Chemicals added and a catalyst to change it from room temperature to a nice cool drink. No I do not add sugar to my tea but many do. Yet more chemical reactions when you do that. When I make coffee I add sugar and cream. Not only do I sweeten the drink but I change the density and texture with both the sugar and the cream.

Cooking dinner is the greatest act of chemistry. This is where you take base components and add them together to make something that is amazing. Taking that fish you caught or purchased from the store and adding breading then cooking it in a light olive oil and you have something that was never meant to be in nature. Thanks Giving you take a turkey and add stuffing put it in the oven and ONLY IF YOU ARE GOOD you get a very juicy and amazingly tasty dinner that will help you sleep. I think we as Americans don't eat enough turkey. Even making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is an act of chemistry.

Everyone that prepares their own drinks and food are chemists. I think the colleges have diluted what is real chemistry. They want you to think you have to spend years in school learning what this chemical and that chemical can do and what happens when you add them together in certain circumstances. I totally disagree with these people! Chemistry is when you add two things together to make something different. WE DO THIS EVERY DAY!!! We are all, at worst, armature chemists! Maybe it is time we tell Yale and Harvard they have it wrong! They are raising people up to a standard that we all have the capability to do and we do it every day. I will bet you money that most of those chemists can't do what my wife does in the kitchen. I will bet you they can't make a pork chop that is as juicy and tasty as she can. In my opinion that makes her they better chemist.

Brewing is chemistry at a pretty high level. We really do take basic ingredients and put them through a complex process to make something that is so different than what we stayed with. We use single celled organisms and harness their abilities to do something really remarkable. We coddle our experiments and talk to them and hope that everything works out like we hope it will. Most of the time we are surprised to find out that we are better chemists than we actually thought we were. We as home brewers are able to do what brewing companies can't do. We can put anything into our chemical experiment and change processes and the environment to break out of the box to make things that are beyond what you can get off the shelf. What is surprising is that many of these people don't think they are master brewers when if fact they are. Am I a master brewer? No, I have not bottled anything so I have no claim to fame. Can I become a mater brewer? Yes I think I could over time. Anyone can if they think out of the box and work beyond what others do and make things that nobody ever though could be made. Making the same thing over and over is not the trade mark of a master brewer. Making things nobody ever thought could be made is that mark. Master brewers ARE some of the best chemists in the world.

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

Tired!!!

2/12/2011

Well, I just got through busting my ass. I have been dealing with just juices and honey on the batches of wine I have started. While great as starter wines I decided to step it up a notch. I think the only mistake is I didn't really weigh my watermelon. I think I ended up with about 10 pounds. I added everything else by directions and am now looking forward to the 12 hour mark when I can add my yeast. The recipe is below if you would like to try this.

• 6 lb watermelon
• 1-1/2 lb fresh table red or green grapes
• water to 1 gallon
• juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 4-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• wine yeast

For the watermelon I used 3 round melons I found on the rack at Wal-Mart. They were cheap, only being $3.00 each. I think the grapes were about the same price as one melon. I already had the lemons in my fridge. Leftovers from my son's science fair project. All the ingredients are extremely easy to get year round. That was not the work here.

Have you ever decided to take 3 watermelons and make them pulp? Not the easiest thing to do in the world. I brought in my wife's cake blender and that just got me sticky. I really need a shower. I used a potato masher I found in a drawer and that made things easier. I crushed the grapes by hand and that was an act of God if I have ever seen one. I have about two gallons of the stuff in my plastic food grade pale behind me. Top secure and an air lock in place. Waiting for the tablets to do their work and then allow me to add yeast and see if I am going to get liquid through my airlock again. Goddess! I hope not. I hated it when I started the Cran Apple wine.

One last thought, on the last entry I have a picture of the mead that I am making. I never let you all know that the image at the top was the actual mead. I was rather impressed with how well it turned out so I will be doing more images in the future. Also, the image at the top of this entry is the label I will be using on my wine bottles. I liked it and grabbed a packet of them. When I run out I will order directly from the company.

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

...And The Gods Smile On Me!

2/10/2011

Well, first fermentation has completed on my mead. I have racked it and tasted it for the first time. The aroma was disgusting. It smelled like honey beer. I can't tell you how bad that smell is. I know it is just the yeast that is still working but it was nasty. The flavor however is amazing! I was so surprised. The smell had me expecting that it was going to have a nasty skunk beer flavor. I was happy to taste a every sweet honey flavor with a nice alcohol kick. I think the whole experience will be almost spiritual once I wait for the last of the yeast to die from alcohol poisoning and clear the liquid to a clear nice amber color. I will also be adding some blackberry flavoring to this right before I bottle. Probably leave it in the bottle for a few months before serving this to anyone outside the family.

This is what really gets me going on things. When I just guess and it pans out. The whole mead experiment was guessing. I added more honey than everyone else was telling me to. I didn't use a hydrometer. I did not add any sugar, nuts, grapes, or anything. Just some water and a lot of honey. THIS IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT! Trial and error. This is what our scientists have been doing for centuries and still do now. They have a good idea what they need to do and they just jump in with a very educated trial. Sometimes this does not work. Sometimes they end up with something that amazes even them. :)

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck



As an after thought.

I watched the fermentation on the mead and I was getting less than on bubble ever min. So, I added the Potassium Sorbate and degasses the liquid. I will add something to clear up the liquid in two days, if I don't show any more fermentation. So, at this point I am four to five days from bottling the mead. I have to say that I am excited to get to the final point of this experiment. I can't wait to have an actual bottle of mead in my hand with a label on it. The finished product. An experiment seen to the end.

What would I do differently? I think I would add a fruit to the must for extra flavoring and I may have added some yeast energizer along with some yeast nutrient. Other than that? I may have only used four pounds of honey not the full five pounds. It is a bit sweet. :)

Microbiological Chemistry

2/07/2011

Earlier on in all this I called brewing Microbiological Chemistry. I would like to take a moment to quantify this.

Microbiology: the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes.

Now to make this work let's look at brewer's yeast.

Brewer's Yeast: Single-celled pure cultures essential to the fermentation process. Although wild yeasts are still used in some traditional beers, cultured brewers yeasts provide consistency and go a long way toward providing unique character to modern beers. ...

Now we have the study of unicellular organisms and you have yeast that is a single, or unicellular, organism. There is the microbiology aspect put into perspective. I love it at times when I over think something like this.

Now in chemistry we would add chemicals together to make something entirely different. Bored the hell out of me! Sorry Miss. Reed. You put me to sleep every day and that is why I failed. Now that I look back on those days too bored, I can look at brewing and see that I am taking fruit, sugar, and yeast to make something entirely different. The fruit is basically used for flavor. Oh sure, I use the sugar naturally in the fruit but I also have to add sugar. So much sugar that the fruit sugar is really less that 50% of the sugar content. Now, I take the yeast and add it. There is a reaction with the sugar and yeast. What is that reaction? Yeast eat sugar like a fat kid eats cake. They might as well be born with straws to suck it down like Fat Albert sucked down cheese burgers. They take that sugar and convert it into two things CO² and alcohol. I use the CO² to add to the bull shit global warming. Yes it just floats off into the air to add to the green house gasses. No, I don't freaking care either. The alcohol is what we are after. That and the flavor form the fruit. You get the mix right and you have a spiritual experience. Now in chemistry we would go for a reaction when adding the chemicals. The yeast eating the sugar and pooping CO² and peeing the alcohol is that reaction. Chemisrty!

There you have it! Microbiological Chemistry in my office. Little one gallon test tubes making three separate things and turning them into what will hopefully be a very good wine. :)

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck

Berry Blow Through

21/06/2011

Well, today I started another gallon of wine. No, I haven't actually made any wine past the first fermentation. Even the mead is still bubbling away. I started with 50% apple juice and 50% cranberry juice. I used Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast trying to keep as much of the fruit flavor as possible. Usually used to make white wine I decided to try it. After all everything that I am brewing right now is an experiment. Probably everything I will ever brew will be an experiment. I added enough sugar to bring my Original Gravity to 1.090 exactly. I did add a tea spoon of acid mix and a tea spoon of yeast nutrient. There, that is all the boring stuff. hehehe

I did finally see what some people experience. I had the foam blow up through the air lock and made a nice mess. I was working with my sanitizing agent and air locks. Every time I think I have it under control it foams up and attacks my air lock. I have replaced the air lock three times and every time the foam lowers down and I think it is safe to put on the next air lock and within 30 min to an hour it just does it again. I am kind of screwed at this point since I do not have a hose that I can attach to the bung and run into a bottle of water to deal with any over flow through the night. I don't usually go to bed early but my luck would have it that the night this is happening is the night I would like to sleep really badly. Well, you know what they say. No rest for the wicked.

I do like the smell of this must. I loved the smell of my cider but I was surprised how much I do like the smell of the cranberries. I will probably have to do a full 100% cranberry wine if this works out. I am not a real cranberry person. I don't eat them on holidays and really can't stand the idea of eating them even then. Yeah, when I was a kid I loved them but I probably ate too many one day and now I just don't want to eat them. I really only made this wine for my wife for when the baby is born. She loves cran-apple so I made her some cran apple wine. I am praying that the fruit flavors come through and it still has sweetness.

Ok, some updates on the other experiments I have going on. I have moved everything over to bubbler locks. I like these over the cylinder locks since I can count bubbles instead of burps. I am keeping the one cylinder lock I have for times like this when I have must foam coming up. More volume to them so they can take some of the foam without spilling. The bubbler locks are perfect for just watching the CO2 easier. The mead is starting to slow down quite a bit each day and by the end of this week I should be ready to rack it into another bottle and then we will look into clearing it up and bottling it. The Nuclear Hard Apple Cider a very nice and beautiful yellow and just a fizzing along. I just want this one to fizzle as long as it wants to. The piece of cinnamon has stopped flipping from the bottom to the top and I am fine with that. I am very concerned that there will be too much cinnamon flavor to it. Out of the three that I have going I can't wait for the NHAC. I will probably call it that on the label. Nuclear Hard Apple Cider. But I have a sense of humor also.
If the cider comes out as well as I think it will I am going to go buy two 5 gallon glass carboys and produce 25 bottles of the stuff. If I do this I will let it all age until Christmas and then pull out the whole bunch and go visit family. I will give away bottles of it and make sure everyone has some to during through the holiday. With everything my mother and her husband have been going through  since he had a bad motorcycle wreck they could probably use a few bottles to help heal the soul. My brother just needs to have a few drinks with me. We can use the holiday as an excuse. Guess I will need Leslie to be my drive home. ;)

Keep it bubbling!'
Chuck

Appuclear

2/05/2011

After trying the mead experiment I was not ready for what the Hard Cider would do. Now I really am calling it Rock Hard Cider. It started as a small leak of bubbles and then more fast than slow I could see white fluffy things floating around in the must. There was already a current to the liquid. Yes, even with one CO2 bubble making it out every few seconds the must had a current moving this stuff around. Everything doubled every hour. Kind of like half life backwards. Within four hours after pitching the yeast the CO2 gas coming off applgedon to start moving the cinnamon stick in the bottom of the jug.

This morning the fluffy things are gone and the only thing moving is the CO2 from all over the must to the top. The fermentation lock is begging for reinforcements since it is a constant bubble. Now what really gets me about this is that I have heard that full fermentation does not really start until about the 24 hour mark. I am 4 hours from that mark.

I will probably have to get a nuclear hazard sticker and put on the outside of this. Call it Nuclear Hard Apple Cider. Well with a projected 15% alcohol content that may be accurate. :) Wish my family luck since it seems I have nuclear wastes brewing in my office. We just don't have the nasty green glow.... yet.

Chuck

Brewing Full Blast

2/02/2011

Well, today I got all the supplies I will need to do up to 5 one gallon batches with 1 one gallon jug free. If I feel I need to do more I will go back to the brew supply store and get more. I blew a lot of money. To get totally set up with all the chemicals, jugs, plastic hoses, hydrometer and everything else came to a little over $200.00. Yeah, OUCH! I will have to make a lot of wine to make this worth while. Now that is not a problem. I toughly intend to do just that. Make a LOT of wine. Otherwise why would I even get started in this? I think if you are going to do it you need purchase everything you will eventually use. Why only go at it half assed? You don't.

I have already stated a new batch of wine. Well, a hard cider. I added a little cinnamon and right now it smells like apple pie. I know it will probably not taste that way but I am praying. I used Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast again. This is all is about making some rock hard apple cider. This is something I want to break out for the guys that think wine is for girls. That would be my brother David. Ok, I know he was joking but now he has it coming. I think a 30 proof beverage that has good flavor will be more than enough to get him off my back about making some beer. At this point I have no interest in making beer. I tried that about 16 years ago and I really didn't like it. Probably why I didn't do it again. I used some yeast nutrient and some acid blend to give it a little kick in taste. Well, since I have no reference I hope it will add a little kick. Who knows. The yeast has been pitched and the fermentation lock is in place. Now I wait for the bubbles to start. Wish me luck. :)

It was nice to use a hydrometer on this batch. Unlike the last batch where I just guessed and now I pray. That batch, the mead, is still bubbling away and shows no sign of slowing. Let's hope I hit the maximum alcohol levels. Yes on the first two batches I am going for broke.

Tomorrow I am going to start an apple cranberry mix. 2 parts apple to one part cranberry. I will not be going all out hoe to get as much alcohol out of that. I will be using a different yeast entirely and probably less sugar. This one is for my wife. I would like a nice smooth wine with a better flavor for when she gives birth to our fifth and last child. Something for us to quietly celebrate our new arrival later this year. :)

Until next post, keep the bubbles bubbling.
Chuck

Brewer's Prayer



2/02/2011

Our beer, which art fermenting,
Hallowed be thy yeast,
Thy time will come
Thy will be done,
In hydrometer as it is in conditioning
Give us this day our daily bubbles
And forgive us our test sips
As we forgive those who sip against us
And lead us not into unsanitation
But deliver us from skunkiness
For thine is the Ale
Thy Mead
And thy Wine
Cheers!

Found on http://www.homebrewtalk.com/

I thought this was great and needed to be passed on. Say it as you brew your... well... brew.

Chuck