Is it Monday already?

The last few days have been a blur. Between work, school, and going out with friends, if I'm not careful my body is going to rebel against me. I awoke with a hangover. Not a bad one, but the really irritating one, it's small enough to make everything I do uncomfortable but not bad enough that I can just stay curled up in bed.

Well I headed out and to get some work done around 9am. I came home around 1030am. I was not going to be productive today. I did manage to rack the cranberry-raspberry wine that had been fermenting wildly for over a week into a 3 gallon carboy. I thought I had enough for 4 gallons, but I didn't. This is the cran-rasp still going strong in the carboy. It hasn't fermented to dry yet and I debated whether or not to move it but I left plenty of room and I made sure to splash a lot when I racked. It's this funky pinkish color and it had formed a few floating caps and serious sediment on the bottom. It had reached a SG of 1.010 and I figure in a few weeks I'll rack again and hope it clears a little better, but I'm not shooting for early drinking I'm making some of these fruit wines for summer drinking.

A better Tuesday

Well I locked the cat out earlier so I got two good hours of sleep instead of just one when the early AM crazies struck my cat. Right now I'm sitting a coffeeshop with friends working on a cover letter and reading posts from one of the wine forums that I'm on. Right now the big thing is trying to figure out the science of acids in wine-making. I wish I was more scientifically-inclined and that I had a little more space where I could do some experimentation. My science goes as far as keeping fairly good track of the SG and the dates of when I make changes to my wine, like moving from carboy to carboy or adding spices. I created a spreadsheet for that which should make keeping my life in order a ot easier.

My new fermenters and carboys should be coming to the house within the next couple of days, and I'll then rack the IRC Blueberry to a new carboy to wait out the final bit of fermentation then degas and stablize it. Hope to have it bottled by the middle of April. I wasn't sure if I should degas then stablize it all in one sitting or not.

Iron Range Cutie Blueberry Spice (1 gal)
3lbs Blueberry Puree
2lbs of sugar
1tsp acid blend
1tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
Montrachet yeast
SG was 1.120

Ended up moving this to a larger primary fermenter and added more water to make 3 gal, another 1 1/2lbs of sugar, more acid blend.

That one has been sitting for about 4 weeks now.

Jealous of a good night's sleep

A good night's rest was what I was hoping for last night. I think it was too much to ask because from about 3am until 7am when I finally shut my bedroom door, my cat kept coming into the bedroom and finding new ways to make me hate her. I spent four hours just dozing because she'd come in, climb on the windowsill and try to squeeze herself through the minibinds, which are already coming apart due to her last few attempts. I'd wake up and shoo her off. She'd come to the bed, lie down and I'd fall asleep, only to wake to her meowing or jumping on the dresser. The first time I got up I went into the living room and opened a blind, thinking that woud make her happy...No. The second time I got up and gave her food and water and pet her, thinking this would help...No. This last time I threw a sock at her...No. Finally, I closed the door and the next time she tried pushing on it and meowing I threw a shoe at the door and scared her into going away.

I got maybe an hour of uninterrupted sleep.

Hello Monday. I hate you.

I visited Hawaii

Well not literally, one of the meads I'm making I named it Hawaii. It's been sitting for about 3 weeks and slowly fermenting away I decided to just move it to a gallon jug today and check the SG. It's dropped to about 1.060 from 1.068 so it's slowly making it's way through fermentation. I know it's going to be at least a couple of months before it's done. I'm worried that the yeast will stall. It's this pretty lemony color, and clearer and than when it first went in.

This is suppose to be a Sack Mead from Wild Wines and Meads. I used MN Clover Honey and it's meant to be sweet, though I'm partial to dry wines and meads. I doubt I'll get it to under 1.000 even with the Champagne yeast, which can tolerate higher alcohol levels. I'm still working out the how the acids effect the overall flavors.

I probably didn't need to rack this one into a jug but I felt better after doing it. There is something soothing about tending to my various projects in all their stages.

Another Batch Started

I wish I had taken a picture of the cranberry-raspberry I started while I was adding the yeast and getting an SG.

Recipe: Cranberry-Raspberry

2 liters cranberry-raspberry concentrate
3 pounds of raspberry puree
3tsp acid blend (went for less because cranberries and raspberries have alot of acid I read)
4tsp pectic enzyme
4 pounds of sugar
3 pounds of wildflower honey
4 tsp yeast nutrient
4 campden tablets
Pasteur Red

Enough water to make 4 gallons. SG is 1.094

I made sure to add the enzyme because the last time I didn't with a fruit puree I had a cloudiness that I'm still waiting to clear.

First Official

I guess this is as good a way as any to begin my first official post about making wine. I've been making beer for a few months with other people but not on my own. I hope to change that. I thought about keeping a diary of my process and see where it takes me. I finally got around to doing that and so here is my first official post.

I have a longstanding love affair with beers, being from the Pacific Northwest, where even the most modest dive bars will have amazing microbrews on tap. Where in my sleep I imagine rolling hills of hops, rivers flowing with dark wildflower honey, fruits are bursting on vine, branch and brambles, and bees are lazily pollinating. Unfortunately, where I live now is less than the dreams I have, and has left me starved for good beer.

In 2002 right before I left PNW I started hanging out with a friend whose husband homebrews. I mean whole grain brewing, outside in a huge vat. My contribution was to taste beer while he worked, keep up lively conversation, and pass items. I enjoyed that kind of learning and probably would have worked my way into being more of an active participant if I hadn't moved to the Midwest. After about 4 years in MN I met up with a fellow student's roommate, and together we did our first batch of homebrew. I was hooked. The late summer of 2008, a friend had a beer setup and we did up batch. I was rehooked. I talked about how I had wanted to do beer but it didn't make sense to buy equipment when I could just borrow his, but I wanted something that I could do in my own home, so made the decision to buy wine equipment instead and that we would just split up labor and exchange bottles and fruit picking.

Money, equipment, and space have kept brewing just out of my reach but when I decided to get the winemaking equipment I knew that brewing was just around the corner.

My first wine was a Vitner's Reserve Merlot because I love Merlot. I broke down and bought all the gadgets that would make my life a little simpler: the stirrer, the thief, the italian floor corker (oh baby was that a pleasure to use when bottling came), etc...I think I knew it was going to be something I enjoy, not just for the end result but for the peace it seems to bring me, when I realized that after a month into my wine making I was out buying more equipment. I had joined three online forums, I was picking up used books about wine, and generally annoying my friends with picture texts of my latest.

I'm 2 months into this and I can't wait to go out and pick fruit this summer.