Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
Back in April of 2008 I discussed how I go about devising recipes for something never before tried or for which I could find no adequate recipe. The first one I illustrated was Bay Leaf Wine. As I said at the time, I had no idea how many bay leaves would be required to make this wine but I had plenty thanks to a dear friend who lives in the Sierra Nevadas of California and has a bay laurel ("Laurus nobilis") growing on his property. I then walked through the steps of determining how many bay leaves would be required for a gallon of wine by making an infusion and diluting it at various strengths. When I settled on a strength, I did the math and devised the recipe. Now, nine months later, I bottled the wine. My wife and I are most pleased with it and so I am posting here the tweaked and final recipe. Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
I was recently asked if I had any unpublished pointers regarding making chocolate wines. I understand the desire to know if I might have second thoughts and recall something left out. In this case, however, I think I said all I need to say in previous "WineBlog" entries. The only things I might add are.... Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
Several years ago I started making a list of songs about wine or that at least had wine mentioned in them significantly. This was not a "major effort" on my part, but it did seem to take on a life of it's own at times. Then I misplaced the file, but continued collecting song titles on scraps of paper. A few weeks ago I discovered the file and added about 130 songs I had collected. With my list at 563, I've decided to stop. Below are the songs starting with A and B. You will notice that many songs are listed several times by different artists. I know full well I have missed many covers of many songs. If you want to send me any I've missed, correct spelling or an incorrect name, I'll appreciate it and incorporate it into my big list. I might not ever get around to thanking you individually, but you will have my thanks anyway. Here are the As and Bs (and a couple that begin with numbers): Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
"The Winemaking Home Page" was once again selected as an "Encyclopaedia Britannica" iGuide Website. I believe this is the sixth year to be so selected, but I cannot be sure as I lost my old email, including my backups, in a hard drive crash several years ago. Lesson learned: do not store your backups on the same drive as your original files. Duh...! Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
I am amazed by how many people are sending me songs. Please wait until I post the songs beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet before sending me songs beginning with that letter you think I might have missed. Last week I posted songs beginning with A and B and received song citations all over the alphabet. I had all but one of those sent. Thanks Marcy for the Buck Owens song. I should get around to posting it in a couple of months. So, here's the next installment of my list, about 100 songs beginning with C, D, E and F. Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
A friend gave us a box of grapefruit and my wife squeezed most of them while I was at work yesterday. When I came home she proudly presented me with a gallon of juice and said, "Now you can make some grapefruit wine." I asked the obvious question; "How many grapefruit did you use to get this much juice?" Not a clue, so I dug through the trash and counted 28 halves. Hmmm. Two gallons of wine. I started weighing and stirring in sugar and somewhere along the way decided to make a 5-liter batch because I have a 5-liter secondary. It's gonna be strong on flavor and acidity, so I also started a gallon of white grape from Welch's 100% Niagara frozen concentrate in case it needs blending. Perhaps I'll start another gallon of Niagara just in case. I'll admit right up front that I'm winging the grapefruit. Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
In a recent forum discussion a wine maker expressed fear he had encountered a pectin haze. He gave his reasons. He was making his first ever non-kit wine, starting off with a Welch's grape juice wine and adding blueberries and black cherries to it. "It hadn't even started to drop any sediment as of a week ago so I threw some clarifier in. Now there is about an inch of sediment but the wine is completely hazy and not even starting to drop that after a week." Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
The wine song project continues. Here are another 103 songs. These begin with the letters G through M, and the countdown to Z continues.... Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
An additional 124 songs have been added to the list, these starting with letters N through T. The next entry should finish off the alphabet. Read more....
Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherApr 29th, 2009 | No Comments
Some years back Tom Asp was good enough not only to share his golden chanterelle mushroom wine recipe, but also to send me some dried golden chanterelle mushrooms so I could make the wine myself. I not only made the wine, but relished it so much I would not waste any by entering it in competitions.... I recently found some dried golden chanterelle mushrooms at a specialty market in San Antonio and decided to make the wine again. It smells wonderful fermenting. With eternal thanks to Tom, I'll share the further tweaked recipe. Read more....
