Sweet Wines, Dessert Wines

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherFeb 6th, 2010 | No Comments In the previous topic I mentioned that the Jackfruit Wine I made was bottled slightly sweet at a specific gravity of 1.010 and that the wine's unique and inviting flavor makes a nice dessert accompaniment. Am I saying this is a dessert wine? No. What I am saying is that it is neither a wine you would drink by itself – a social wine – nor a wine you would drink with the main course of a meal – a table wine. While it could be consumed as a dessert wine, it is neither sweet enough nor high enough in alcohol to strictly qualify as a dessert wine. So what is the difference? Read more....

Jackfruit Wine

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherFeb 6th, 2010 | No Comments Last year I made a jackfruit wine and began drinking it last month. Bottled slightly sweet at a specific gravity of 1.010, the wine's unique and inviting flavor makes a nice dessert accompaniment. It was reviewed very favorably by those who tried it and I am quite proud of this wine. Read more....

Wine Corks

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments A few weeks ago at a competition the steward told me he could not open a particular bottle. I looked at it and it was a 4-year old wine sealed with an agglomerated cork. These are corks that are made from granulated cork that is bound together with food-grade glue and either molded or extruded to the appropriate size. According to APCOR, the Portuguese Cork Association, "Agglomerated corks are an economical solution in assuring good sealing for a period that should not, in general, exceed 12 months." Read more....

Zingimel: Ginger Mead

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments I recently mentioned that I had bottled a ginger mead and that very night received the first of several requests for the recipe. One writer asked, "Exactly what kind of mead is ginger? Is it a type of hippocras?" No. Although many call hippocras a mead (I do simply because it "could" be a mead), it usually is a spiced wine sweetened with honey. Ginger is but one of the several spices used to make it. Another spiced mead is metheglyn, but this too generally has several spices but can have but one. Since I know of no name for a mead flavored with just ginger, I have coined one based on the botanical name for the plant, "Zingiber officinale"; I will call it zingimel. If anyone knows of an earlier designation I will concede to it, and if you object to zingimel then go ahead and call it a metheglyn. And with that out of the way, lets discuss ginger and the recipe. Read more....

Measures of Dry and Liquid Volume

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments I have exchanged several emails over two months with a gentleman in Indonesia who asked for a conversion chart for volume measurements, both dry and liquid, so that he might better use my recipes. At first I simply pointed him to my conversions page, but he wrote back saying it did not cover all the measurements some of my recipes used and also he did not own a computer. He used one in a shop where you can rent computer time and maintain an email account, and he desired one or two charts he could print. After several exchanges, each a week or two apart, I understood his needs and circumstances and tested the waters with the following chart that he loved. Thank you, Hamzah, for your patience. Read more....

Sugar Beet Wine

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments The first time I encountered sugar beets I was driving near Fort Collins, Colorado when I encountered a bunch of grapefruit-sized, conical, whitish-gray things on the highway I thought were huge parsnips that obviously had fallen off a truck. I stopped and picked up one, examined it and had no idea what it was. I collected perhaps a dozen, maybe 15, and tossed them in the very small trunk well of my Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta (oh, what fond memories!). When I next stopped for gas I showed the attendant one (they still pumped your gas and cleaned your windows for you back then) and he identified it – was even a little amused I didn't know what it was. All of this came back to me when I read a recent Guest Book entry requesting a sugar beet wine recipe. Read more....

A Very Good Metheglin

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments Yes, another mead! I normally make no more than two meads a year, but over the past three years I have made quite a few. I did so because I considered them a distinct challenge to be mastered. I think I have gotten it (except for Show Mead as redefined in my October 17th, 2009 entry). Anyway, here is a metheglin I only recently tasted. This calls for the five traditional Asian spices and a Celestial Seasonings herbal blend containing Chamomile, orange peel, natural honey and vanilla flavors with licorice, roasted chicory and West Indian lemongrass. This is so good I'd like to patent it but copyright will have to do. Read more....

Medicinal Odors – Causes and Treatment

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments The single word "medicinal" is often used to describe a variety of individual smells, each of which is more specific and offers clues as to what may be the cause. Knowing the cause does not mean the offensive smell can be removed or prevented, but often it does. Any number of other, more specific terms might be used synonomously with "medicinal," and include iodine, band-aids, isopropyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, ethyl phenol, cork taint, ether, nail polish remover, peroxide, mouthwash, a doctor's office, a dentist's office, menthol, and anesthesia. Read more....

The Wild Winter Grape

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments The wild Fall Grape, Winter Grape, Little Mountain Grape, Spanish Grape, and Uña Cimarrona – different names for the same grape – is known by old-timers as "Vitis berlandieri" but correctly as "Vitis cinerea var. helleri." It is currently ripe and ready to be made into wine. It is acidic until it ripens and then is sweet and quite delicious but too small for convenient eating and not quite sweet enough to make a decent wine without a little sugar being added. It is small (1/5 to 1/3 inch) with 30 to 70 berries per cluster. The clusters are loose and open, the pedicels (stems) long. The skin is thin, the pulp juicy when ripe, usually with one or two seeds of a coffee color. Ripe berries retain enough acid to make a balanced wine. Their small size makes crushing difficult but not at all impossible, so freezing/thawing and pectic enzyme will help extract the juice. Destemming by hand takes a while, but is necessary due to the astringent tannins in the stems. Read more....

Off-Topic: Fort Hood Massacre

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherJan 31st, 2010 | No Comments An off-topic preface is called for. The senseless wounding and loss of life two days ago at Fort Hood, Texas, where I served back during the late '70s with a unit called "Red Thrust," sliced through the military establishment like a hot knife through soft butter. They are calling it a massacre. By definition, the word fits. It was also the scene of some very selfless comradery, heroic confrontation and exemplary improvised first aid. All in the previous sentence is expected of our well-trained and highly motivated soldiers. What they were reacting to was neither expected nor should it have been allowed to occur. Still, I am not sure it could have been prevented in a free society. Read more....