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10/26/2005
Viognier Wine Update
Fermentation still well under way. Current gravity readings: 1.042
taken at 63F, or about 1.0425. Seven days into fermentation, this is
right on track. In another three days or so, I will transfer the wine
to new fermenters where they can continue their secondary fermentation.
Posted by Dave at 10/26/2005 12:17:13am
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10/20/2005
Beer, and Cider, and Wine, Oh My! - An Update
Pour yourself a pint, and pull up a chair: it be story time again!
Once upon a time, in a cold (but clean) garage, there was a
homebrewer determined to make his mark on a quiet underground movement.
From the cultures of bootlegged spirits and entrepreneurial ingenuity,
arose a method for crafting alcoholic beverages certain to arouse the
suspicions of law enforcement, should they ever learn of the black
market trade...
Okay, I give up. This is a blog about brewing, not story-telling. Let me just say my head has been spinning with thoughts since the last batch of recipes I posted to this blog.
The Scotch ale
I made back in July turned out to be somewhere around 10%. There's no
other way a single, 12-ounce bottle could do so much damage to one's
senses. It's a fine brew, and it gave me a lot of pause for what could
lie ahead.
At the start of September, I
brewed up a quick back of beer from a custom recipe I crafted for a
friend's 30th birthday. It was supposed to end up being something
between a McMenamins Hammerhead and a Deschutes Twilight Ale. With one
small slip-up, the use of too much dark roasted barley and a little too
much dry-hopping, the final result was more like a Black Butte Porter.
Still everyone at the party liked it, even though it gave quite a
wallop of a hangover. Yes, even just 2 pints of the stuff was probably
1.5 pints too much, which made me think more about how to improve the
process.
I learned a heck of a lot about dry
hopping beer, namely, to not add the hops to the primary fermenter,
when the yeast is most active, but rather to wait until secondary, when
the beer has developed a good amount of alcohol (which breaks down hops
resins) and can prevent off flavors from no yeast interaction on the
hops themselves (which I believe is what happened to the beer).
Well, from that, it became time to harvest the grapes in our back yard. Niagara (white concord) grapes.
Not enough, as it turned out, since neighborhood racoons ate quite a
few in the week prior to harvest. So instead, I drove out to a local
vineyard last week, and picked up 180 pounds of perfectly ripened
Viognier grapes.
To make white wine, you
need to start with a must (the pressed juices) that is 'healthy'. By
this, I mean the grapes should have good sugar and acid content, and
not be too 'alien' or 'weird' at the time you press them (meaning, no
off/moldy or bad grapes).
I drove out to Le
Beau Vineyards, about ten miles from my house, just down the road from
Beaverton. There, the grower's wife was kind enough to help me out with
an on-site crusher/destemmer, and even let me borrow a few large
fermenting containers to help with transporting back 180 pounds of
fresh grape mush!
Arriving at home, I placed
as many grapes as possible into my nylon pressing bags, lined the
bottom of a press I'd rented from Above The Rest (in Tigard) with some
of the leftover grape stems (they help create a bed upon which to press
the grapes), loaded the bags into the press, and pressed out some very
good looking juice. After second-pressing all the grapes, I ended up
with about 11 gallons of very good, clear must. A dash of pectic
enzyme, and 1/4 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite per gallon, and 48 hours
later, the must was crystal clear and sterlized, and ready for me to
pitch a batch of starter yeast I'd prepared the night before.
Prior
to pitching, I took a read of sugar and acid contents in the must. For
a good white wine, you want a must with a sugar content of 1.080 to
1.090 Original Gravity (meaning, 9% denser than water -- a direct
measure of the dissolved sugars in the liquid), and an acidity of about
.70 to .80% titratable acidity. Recalling that the grower's wife told
me the grapes were picked at 23.2° Brix (very good), I wasn't too
surprised to find the must was a good 1.091 OG, but was pleasantly
reassured when aciditiy measured .80% acidity (last year was a fiasco).
Because the juice had enough of both, there was no need to add sugar or
artificial tartaric acid, so all was set. The OG of 1.091 means the
wine could result in a nice, 12%, slightly sweet white wine in the end.
Stay tuned!
I carefully transitioned the must into two
separate fermenters (11 gallons is an odd size to try and ferment), and
they're now working away very nicely in the garage.
As
for the cider? My wife and I took a drive out to Hood River this past
weekend for their annual harvest festival. Skipping the fairgrounds,
and instead driving straight through the countryside (see their Fruit Loop web site),
we chose two separate orchards: Draper's Farm, the only place that
sells fresh-pressed, unpasteurized apple cider, and Mt. Hood Organic
Farms for some excellent quality organic pears and apples.
We
came away with a box of fresh fruit, and eight gallons -- yes, eight --
of the cider. It was very easy prepping the cider. Some sulfites to
cleanse, and 48 hours later, after the sulfites had blown off (just as
for the Viognier), I pitched a starter culture of the yeast (the same
kind as I used for the wine). "Cotes des Blancs", a type of yeast well
suited for fruity white wines and, in general, any type of fruit wine
(or cider). With a starting gravity of 1.052, the cider could end up
having between 5.5% and 6% alcohol in the end. Stay tuned on this, as
I'm quite anxious to see how it turns out.
Well,
that about does it for now... In the next two or so weeks, I hope to
have the brewing system completed, and from that, have quite a lot to
happily talk about as I brew up some autumn ales in our front driveway.
After all, with three burners putting out 30,000 BTU apiece, you can't
exactly brew beer indoors, even if the walls of your garage are
fire-resistant. :)
Cheers,
David
Posted by Dave at 10/20/2005 8:56:31pm
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10/20/2005
Oregon Beer/Wine a Well-Kept Secret
Well, it's been some time. Previous posts have described a brewing
system (still in the works but with a completion timeline of this
month), so in the meantime, I've been working on recipes the old
fashioned way (stove-top kettles, plastic fermenters, and carboys). In
the past few weeks, I've been busy working away at some new beers, a
hard cider, and most recently, a fresh batch of Viognier wine. All this
from the comforts of my own home, in a sterile garage environment.
If
you ever pay attention to national press (I'm sure you do, just like I
do, and you're left wondering why you wasted all that time for
nothing), you'd never know there's any type of home-based brewing or
winemaking culture in the Northwest. Why, just take a look at a recent
article on CNN.com (borrowed from the Associated Press -- therein lies
most of the problems) and you'll see what I'm talking about:
Hmm. They talk about Canada, states across the continental U.S.,
even include California, but... nothing about Oregon. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
And yet, on any given night, there's a ton of things happening here
with regards to local brew/wine-making clubs. Hmm. Figures.
Losers.
I've
long since given up any hope of alerting the A.P. to this (they even
have a local office in Portland, for all the good that does), and I'm
convinced it all boils down to laziness. They really don't care about
what they're writing, so long as it fills space, can be resold to
network news agencies, and can be used as a basis for selling a bunch
of ads. Great. I guess this post really belongs in one of my other
blogs..
Anyway. Back to winemaking. The
Viognier is working out really well! In fact... I'm going to talk about
that in another post, hopefully with a happier tone.
Ultimately,
Oregon -- and the entire Pacific Northwest, it would seem -- will again
remain a well-kept secret, with this time all due credit going to the
wonderful AP, whose dismissive ways have erased us from the map of wine
and beer, and also to CNN, for putting way too much effort into
accomplishing absolutely nothing.
David
Posted by Dave at 10/20/2005 8:28:27pm
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