Sluggish Canned Blackberry Wine

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherFeb 20th, 2010 | No Comments A few days ago a reader wrote that he had followed one of my recipes to the "T" and after a month the specific gravity had only dropped from 1.110 to 1.046. After several email exchanges, he finally admitted he did two things different – he used Lalvin RC212 yeast instead of Red Star Montrachet and added Bentonite before pitching the yeast. "All the red wine kits do it," he said. And so I had to explain to him why his fermentation is slower than a snails' race and how to correct it overnight. Read more....

When to Pull the Plug

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherFeb 14th, 2010 | No Comments Another reader asked me to comment on when to pull the plug on a wine or mead. He said he wasn't sure when to give it more time, when to dump it or do something else. It's a good question, and a tough one even for a commercial winemaker to answer. It's especially tough for the home winemaker without an in-house lab, but I will give you my thoughts. Read more....

Sluggish Canned Blackberry Wine

Posted by Jack Keller's WineBlog in General, OtherFeb 14th, 2010 | No Comments A few days ago a reader wrote that he had followed one of my recipes to the "T" and after a month the specific gravity had only dropped from 1.110 to 1.046. After several email exchanges, he finally admitted he did two things different – he used Lalvin RC212 yeast instead of Red Star Montrachet and added Bentonite before pitching the yeast. "All the red wine kits do it," he said. And so I had to explain to him why his fermentation is slower than a snails' race and how to correct it overnight. Read more....

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....

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....