There are many roads to success in brewing. I try to avoid telling people how they should brew. So, I talk about how I brew, and let others decide whether or not my methods have any value to them.
Generally speaking, the universal recipe for making alcohol is 1) dissolve sugar in water; 2) add yeast; 3) wait for the yeast to work; and then 4) wait some more for the resulting product to be palatable. That’s it. We’re done here.
Well, I suppose there are a few more things to chat about. Firstly, there are many ways to make or acquire sugar-water. You can dilute honey with water. You can extract juice from fruit. You can mash malted grain in hot water. You can combine all of those options. Secondly, you can select from different kinds of yeast to improve your odds of getting a pleasant flavor in the final product depending upon what your source of sugar was. Thirdly, you can add all sorts of other ingredients to alter the flavor of the product at various stages in the production of that product. These include flowers, spices, herbs, and charred/toasted wood. And we’re not going to talk about any of those things today (Nephilium is taking the lead on those topics).
Today, we are going to focus on step 3) waiting and step 4) waiting – otherwise known as fermentation and aging. Given the products I make, steps 3 and 4 are pretty much the same regardless of which primary fermentable sugar I am working with whether it be honey for making mead, fruit juice for making cider or wine, or malt for making sour ales. This is because I ferment everything at pretty much the same temperature and age everything for pretty much the same amount of time (at this point I only make sour ales which can benefit from months even years of aging, so no young hoppy beers from me). This means that I have lots of product sitting around in secondaries for long periods of time – typically 12 months (and sometimes up to 36 months) before I package it up. This takes space – lots of it. And it requires good climate control.
My brewing room is roughly 15 feet by 15 feet in size. Three of the walls are part of the poured concrete foundation for the house. The last wall is a standard stud wall that I built to isolate the brewing room from the rest of the basement. There is no ductwork bringing heating or cooling into the room. Other than the open doorway, there is no significant flow of air in to out of the room. So, the temperature in the room is extremely stable and there is basically no temperature change over any given 24-hour period (this is probably true for any given week).
The temperature in the room is effectively controlled by the temperature of the soil outside the foundation walls. The soil temperature lags the seasons by about 3 months. So, the coldest temperature in the brewing room is typically late March or early April when the temperature drops to about 62° F (although it got down to 58° F after one particularly brutal winter). Conversely, the warmest temperatures occur in late September or early October when the room reaches about 68° F.
That means I do all fermentation and aging between 62° and 68° degrees. I focus on cool, slow fermentation, and I think this works great for the things that I make – mead, cider, wine, and sour ales. However; this is not ideal for other types of products such as lagers that need to be fermented cooler or saisons that need to be fermented warmer. But I rarely drink those products, and I never make them. When I do want one, there are many fine drinking establishments in the area that can provide one at a reasonable price.
But a room with temperature control isn’t enough. We need structures – tables, counters, shelves – to store primaries and secondaries that are in use, primaries and secondaries that are not in use, tools, ingredients, and other assorted sundries. My room has built-in shelving around the entire room. Every linear foot of wall (excluding the door) has shelves.
The middle shelf is a bit higher that a standard kitchen counter. This is where the most of primaries and secondaries are stored during fermentation and aging. Occasionally, I work with primaries that are too big for the shelves (note the 44-gallon Rubbermaid Brute that I am starting a batch of pyment in – to be discussed in a future post.). The middle shelf is wide enough to hold a 9-gallon demijon (not shown in the picture). The corners can hold a 14-gallon demijon.
The bottom shelf is somewhat narrower than the middle shelf. This keeps me from banging my shins when I am lifting primaries and secondaries from the floor and then placing them onto the middle shelf or moving them from one place to another. I generally keep heavy stuff on the bottom shelf, like the cases of honey in lower left of this picture (six 5-lb jars per case). There is an upper shelf which is the same width as the middle shelf. I keep empty carboys and other not-so-heavy items up there.
I long ago lost track of how may primaries and secondaries I have. I sold off a dozen 6-gallon carboys to my brewing friends several years ago. I have since acquired both bigger and smaller containers to fill that hole in my heart.
To the best of my recollection, I have a dozen ½-gallon jugs; two dozen 1-gallon jugs; half a dozen 1.3-gallon demijons; half a dozen 2.6-gallon demijons; half a dozen 3-gallon carboys; a dozen 5-gallon carboys; a dozen 6-gallon carboys; a dozen 6.5-gallon carboys; three or four 9-gallon demijons; and three or four 14-gallon demijons.
I generally use plastic for primaries. I have converted 2.5-gallon and 6.5-gallon screw-top pails into primaries. Basically, you drill a ½ hole in the screw-top and install a replacement rubber grommet into the hole. This allows the use of a standard airlock. I have half a dozen of each of these sizes. I have about half a dozen standard 7.9-gallon wine pails from the home brew shop. And I use a lot of Rubbermaid Brute garbage cans. They are food grade plastic and come in a variety of colors. I use white so they are easier to see if they are clean. As far as Brutes go, I have 10-gallon, 20-gallon, 32-gallon, and 44-gallon pails.
I generally use the small containers (plastic primaries and glass secondaries) for experimental batches. I have done yeast trials and oak trials over the years to see how these affect the product. I also do sets of small batches to make samples for teaching classes. I use the mid-size containers for most of my brewing (5 to 6.5 gallons of finished product). I use the large containers for bulk production – usually wine – when I am working with fresh seasonal fruit – mostly local grapes.
I also use the large Brutes for blending products such as ciders made from 3 to 5 different varieties of apples. The apples get harvested at different times in the season (anywhere from early August to late October), so the initial fermentation is done for each variety separately. Later in the winter, multiple batches of single-variety cider will get blended in a large Brute and then pumped into mid-sized or large-sized glass secondaries (carboys or demijons) for additional aging before packaging.
In the beginning, when I started making mead, I was paranoid about using air-tight primaries and airlocks. All the homebrew books and brew shops tell you that you need them. Then I started making wine with some friends. When you make red wine, you open the primary two or three times every day to punch down the cap (to be covered in detail in future posts, but you are pushing the grapes skins down into the wine below). You learn pretty quickly that as long as the fermentation is going strong, all you need is a loose cover to keep the bugs and dirt out. I have been to pro wineries where wine was fermenting in steel tanks with a blue plastic tarp pulled over the top.
I continue to use air-tight primaries and airlocks when I am working with small to mid-sized batches. This allows me to lift and move the primaries without worrying about spilling. But when I work on large batches with lots of whole fruit, I use the Brutes with loose fitting lids. The key point is to rack into an airtight secondary when you’ve extracted what you want from the whole fruit and fermentation is slowing down. Note, that I recently acquired the 1.3-gallon and 2.6-gallon demijons (listed above) which have very wide openings so that I could do small experimental batches with whole fruit. This allows me to open the demijon and punch down the fruit during the initial fermentation and to reach in and clean the demijon after the product is racked to a secondary.
One of the tricky issues is deciding when fermentation is done. It seems like an easy thing to check. The airlock stops bubbling or the hydrometer reading stays the same for a while. But rubber bungs and airlocks don’t always maintain a perfect seal. So very slow fermentation may not move the bubbles in the airlock. And the specific gravity of the product may change by less then your ability to detect it on a standard hydrometer. So, I have discovered an alternate way to tell.
The key is to watch the very top of the product in a clear carboy or jug. Even when it is fermenting very slowly (too slow to notice activity in the airlock), you can still see tiny little bubbles running up the outside of the carboy or jug and joining a ring of bubbles at the top. When there is a continuous ring of bubbles, the product is still fermenting quite a bit. When there are only a handful of bubbles, the product is nearly done. When there no bubbles, there is no fermentation going on in the product.
If you are making a carbonated beverage and are going to bottle condition or keg, a ring of bubbles on the top of the product is not a problem. In fact, it indicates you have healthy, active yeast to support bottle conditioning. But if you are going bottle still products in a standard bottle with a cork, you need to wait till it is finally done. If you are going to continue aging the product in a carboy or jug, you can replace the bung and airlock with an airtight screw cap or rubber carboy cap as appropriate for the type of container.
I try to rack my products a few times as possible. My general schedule is to leave the product in the primary fermenter for 2 to 4 weeks, depending up what it is and how strongly it is fermenting. After primary fermentation is complete, I will the rack into a secondary and leave the product alone for 2 to 4 months. It is during this time frame that I will do malo-lactic fermentation if the product requires it (typically for ciders or wine). This is also the time when I will use oak cubes if it is part of the plan for that product. After this, I will rack it into another secondary (or tertiary, since it the third container). Here it will sit for half a year or several years depending up what product it is. Note that there is no fermentation going at this stage. So, there is no dead yeast piling up on the bottom. Therefore, autolysis is not an issue, and I don’t worry about the product sitting on whatever sediment builds up during this phase of aging.
When aging is done, it is time to package the product. If you want a carbonated beverage, you can bottle condition (fermentation in a sealed bottle) or force carbonate in a keg. If you bottle condition, the product must be put into a bottle that is intended to handle the pressure – beer bottles or champagne bottles. Standard wine bottles can explode if fermentation occurs in the bottle. If you want a still product, it can be put into pretty much any kind of bottle and sealed with a cork, a cap, or a swing top. Specific information on different ways of packaging products will be provided in subsequent articles on cider, wine, mead, and beer.
Comments
131 responses to “Waiting is the hardest part”
Something wrong about being first on a post talking about waiting.
Alright, more seriously, I thought vintners had a huge aversion to brewers yeasts – is there a reason you can play with all of these at the same time?
Some wine yeasts are sensitive to competition (they start slow and can be overwhelmed by a fast starting yeast). Others are very competitive. I haven’t have problems brewing wine, mead, cider, and beer in the same room using wine and ale yeasts.
There’s also some mixed cultures that are used in brewing that are notoriously hard to kill off, and while they make good beer, they are not known for making good wine. The biggest of those is Brett.
I always knew Brett couldn’t make good wine.
But have you tried his meth? The hot sauce really breaks it all together. It’s an experience.
My final brewing article will be on making sour ales using brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus which will totally destroy any mead, cider, or wine that gets infected with them.
But I make all those things in the same space without cross contamination (so far) because those “spoilage” organisms are all susceptible to potassium metabisulfite which is use in mead, cider, and wine to prevent spoilage.
Beer on the other hand, . . . .
I have made a few unintentionally sour beers.
I will take a stab at using a coolship to make a spontaneously fermented beer sometime in the next year of so.
I’ve managed to avoid cross contamination as well, and so far no unintentional sour beers. I did have a mead that was still slowly fermenting when I bottled it, luckily it just shot the cork out and made a mess instead of exploding. I generally use plastic fermentors, and have the ones that I’ve used for sours marked to help minimize the risks in the future.
I’ve used for sours marked to help minimize the risks in the future.
Oh yeah. Any plastic primary that has had sour in it is marked in big bold letters “SOUR”.
In my experience, Brett smells like poop.
The author of a wine-making article was talking about the euphemisms that people use for Brett contamination in wine — barnyard aromas. He said people should be more honest. Brett makes wine smell like horse sweat and manure.
But Brett is actually a huge family of yeasts. Some versions of Brett (like the ones used in beer), provide desirable earthy aromas to beer. Although “horse blanket” is a not so uncommon descriptor for some funky, sour ales.
A little bit of Brett in red wine is okay, and can even benefit complexity. Then there are wines like ’93 Jamet Cote Rotie. OMWC and I got to drink a bunch of it because few other people present when one was opened would put it in their mouths after smelling it.
Brett also make wine smell like plastic bandaids.
I’ve seen good looking girls from Alabama and Louisiana (it may just the accent and alcohol swaying me here). What the fuck happened in Mississippi?
Are Alabama and Mississippi actually different states?
There is a line drawn between them. Other than that?
I’m not generally a fan of the brewing articles, but I enjoyed the clarity, details and didactic style. Passing along to my burgeoning brewer son.
Let you son know about Nephilium’s articles as well.
There will be a full set between the two of us.
Will do.
As a fellow nerd, you may be interested in analytical options available via ISU Extension. Very low prices, particularly for HPLC organic acids.
https://apps-wine.sws.iastate.edu/laboratory-prices
The ISU Viticulture website is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in growing grapes.
Really? Nobody else is going to do it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg
I was waiting for that.
I was thinking this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KJPP7GkuPU
Waiting.
Just waiting.
In the waiting room?
(sweet NMA choice, btw)
Waiting for a train?
Big fan of theirs – that one’s in my top 3 or 4
Could you recommend a couple albums? Spotify has a bunch.
Vengeance
Thunder and Consolation
Very different but great. You really can’t go wrong with any of the first 5 albums up to 1990. As you can imagine they get more “post” as you go. I am not terribly familiar with their output after that except some tracks here and there.
Thanks! Saved. Will listen and report back.
My contribution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5sxYzHcYx4
Nice! That band was so much more than Centerfold.
That band was so much more
thanbefore Centerfold.A pity I could not have seen them earlier.
Fuckin A! have another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW0hxbrmFhM
Hah! What a great intro! Thanks, blackjack!
Jeez, you all got no game.
The first batch of muscadine wine I made this year turned out fantastic. The second batch fell flat flat flat. Down the drain it goes. I have no idea what happened. Bad batch of yeast?
The third batch will be ready after the new year. We will see how that one comes out.
I can’t decide who is more annoying- the jackass tapping on his phone or the hipster who is standing at his table eating instead of using the damn chair.
Thank god for Lululemon.
Yapping, not tapping.
I’m the jackass tapping on my phone.
Sportsball talk is hit or miss around here. Ted last night tended to hit the nail on the head for me with regards to the notion that it’s up to the NFL or any sports league to police players…rather than, you know, the actual police and the courts. The league and KC Chiefs claim they never watched the surveillance video despite the exact scenario creating one of the worst PR nightmares in league history.
Well, apparently the Cleveland PD liked that argument because they claim they never saw it, either. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure if it was just some regular schlub, a story of a 6’2 220 lb male kicking a female while she was on the ground may be considered more than a misdemeanor no matter what his boys had to say on the matter. Kareem Hunt was apparently a long term resident in this hotel, and I’m willing to bet he isn’t he only relatively wealthy/semi-famous individual or athlete in the place. So I have to wonder if there wasn’t more influencing these cops.
So, as I argued years ago with Ray Rice and in other situations, our witless, frankly brain dead culture would rather direct their anger at a sports league run by a monkey wanna-a-be dictator like Goodell than the people their tax dollars actually go to who are actually obligated to handle these situations.
Meh, the big push fall thing (the most violent part of the video) looks like a chain reaction crowd surge, no one was trying to shove her into the wall. And the kick in the ass is just that, a kick in the ass, and not even a particularly hard one at that. I’d say misdemeanor is about right.
That isn’t how cops handle most arrests, from my own experience. They overcharge and then threaten pleas. There’s less chance of that working with an athlete. So there’s layers to things here. Some cops show up and maybe see a broad who has been drinking and lacks obvious physical bruising, they have a number of witnesses (related to Kareem) who downplay things. They know he has money. They don’t want to bother with any of it.
But we live in a culture where people expect a sports league to conduct a more thorough investigation of some guy who carries a football on Sundays than the police and to crack down harder. The entire thing stinks of jealousy. Playing in the NFL is kind of a privilege, as people argue, but not one based on character.
Oh, I agree with you and Ted’s larger point about it’s the Popo’s job no the NFLs’ I just don’t think this situation required dragging anyone away in cuff’s’.
I don’t know what requires dragging anyone away in cuffs. One might say that someone should only be detained if their identity can’t be confirmed or they are a risk to flee. Something along those lines.
Now, here’s where it gets fun. The Cleveland PD wants to claim this was just a misdemeanor. But they ultimately didn’t even charge him with one. Why? Likely based on the initial reports by the PD. Who never watched the video to actually see what happened. Most/nearly all people charged with violent misdemeanors, however, get detained.
Try this: Walk up to a policeman in a public place, reach out with your pointer finger and very lightly touch him on his arm.
Report back about what happens after that.
So I should adjust my assessment of this incident based on the irrational behavior of the king’s men?
Of course not. I think the main complaint here should be directed at the cops. I agree with you that the incident probably doesnt warrant someone being thrown in a cage. My problem is with the wildly disparate treatment citizens get based on superficial observations made by cops in the first few seconds after contact.
I am also drunk.
Hey Suthen, that clipboard comment that you mentioned on a previous thread was mine. Sometimes a great notion or some-such.
OMG, someone thinks I’m right!
I’ve been ranting about Goodell since the Chris Henry days. I despise the man. But you captured a lot of my own arguments, outside that I also have argued extensively that the NFL created most of its own headaches in this matter. There was no great groundswell or reason to crack down on player conduct. Leagues with far more visible stars didn’t even bother until the last few years. And by doing so, the NFL set itself up for controversies as they perfected their drunken monkey throwing a dart at a board punishment system.
My first and only thought was, “Well, shit, there goes our offense.”
Otherwise, color me shocked that a Chiefs player is a bad apple. *sigh*
The cheap vodka is for sterilization.
I use it to fill airlocks if they start to run dry.
I also use it to lubricate corks when I bottle wine.
You know who else considered alcohol a lubricant ?
Every college guy who ever tried to get laid?
“Trust me, once you start making several batches, it gets much easier to let one age.”
Why did I read that in Woody Allen’s voice ?
Ahh.
I still have some cheap vodka from when I was brewing. I used it for sterilizing caps when I bottled.
I like your fermentation room. Nice write-up! Thanks!
I haven’t been brewing in a while. During my time brewing, I made only one mead. Mead aficionados told me I should have let it age longer, but it was OK.
You are welcome.
+1 on the article and room! So you live alone and brew more than 200 gallons a year? I won’t tell.
I haven’t done mead yet, but have tried a few batches of wine using kits and the Welch’s cheap version. The Welch’s didn’t turn out great, but was drinkable.
I’ve mostly done beer, starting with kits and moving to all grain using the cooler mash tun. I haven’t done any for a decade since my first kid was born, but enjoy the articles. They’re a good refresher and kick in the pants to start it up again.
Well, I don’t live alone.
And I’ve never come close to the 200-gallon limit. Note that 200 gallons is about 1,000 standard 750 ml bottles (wine bottles) and about 2,000 12 oz beer bottles.
I have had years that were well above 100 gallons. So over 500 wine bottles (42 cases). And no, I don’t drink a case a week.
Fair enough. With the amount of storage you have it seems inevitable.
Somewhere, there’s a Man-o-sphere blogger jerking off about dominance.
https://www.glamour.com/story/hooking-up-with-trump-voters-essay?
Why do I get the feeling this is a recycled story from the W days?
Heading out to runs some errands and take the wife to dinner.
I’ll be back for the normal 8 pm open thread.
Very cool, kinnath. You have simultaneously brought clarity to a subject I know very little about and certainty that my nature would never allow me to attempt it.
I look forward to the rest of the series!
Trust me, once you start making several batches, it gets much easier to let one age. I’ve got a lambic that’s been sitting in secondary for over three years now, and I’m in no rush to package it up. Also, sheer volume makes aging a requirement. Assume you brew once a month (5 gallon batches), that’s 40 pints. It’s pretty easy to get a backlog going that way as well. The hardest part is waiting for that first batch to be done. 🙂
Thread fail. This belonged here:
“Trust me, once you start making several batches, it gets much easier to let one age.”
Why did I read that in Woody Allen’s voice ?
OT on Poppy Bush: I’m not endorsing his policies. But, honestly, damn, I do respect the human being.
Imagine. You’re born an aristocrat. Your Dad is a Congressman and a partner in the most prestigious bank on the street. You lie about your age to fight for your country.
You wind up a pilot. Then, your plane gets hit. You can bail with everyone else. No blame. No questions asked. You don’t. You stay on the plane and deliver the bombload.
THEN, you go to college. And you’re a star. You’re captain of the baseball team and a star student.
You’ve got every reason to take your place amongst the gentry. You don’t. You give it all up to start all over in Texas. Where you live (at least initially) in a trailer park next to a hooker.
Honestly, the question that bothers me is that, given how amazing he was as an individual, how did George Bush wind up so conventionally lame as a politician? The guy’s story was that of an individualist hero. The guy’s career was that of the opposite.
I actually met before and thought he was a cool guy. Also, he wasn’t nearly as bad as you guys are making him out to be. Yeah he was “moderate” but compared to some of the statists we’ve had in our history he was still more of the live and let live type. It’s all relative I guess.
As a human being, I’m nothing but in awe of the man.
Honestly. If I could live my life being half the man, I’d be damned proud.
But, that’s what I don’t get. Your life has been a testament to what it means to be a strong, free, independent man. And as soon as it comes to politics, you try to hide it.
That is an interesting question. My guess is he was familiar with what he saw when he entered politics. If memory serves, his stint in the oil patch was short and successful. He then rolled into politics. He saw what his father did. Adopting those tactics was familiar.
He was an establishment big government country club Republican. He was never a principled thinker.
Understood. But, why? His personal life wasn’t that story. It was a genuinely heroic story. To go from that to ig government country club Republican doesn’ t make sense.
I see the other way. He grew up as an establishment patrician Republican. Much of his successes are in the context of serving through government. He didn’t have a background as an individualist and he didn’t have an intellectual basis for being a conservative. His background largely formed him and his outlook.
I don’t know much about his early business years but getting wealthy relatively quickly suggests to me being more in the right place at the right time (or having the right connections) rather than struggling and being personally offended by meddling and intrusive government.
getting wealthy relatively quickly suggests to me being more in the right place at the right time
Sure, luck is a common component to success. Look at everyone who has made a tech fortune. In those days, oil was like that.
rather than struggling and being personally offended
Oh fuck the Randian modality, please.
Sorry, not up on Randian theory. The point I was trying to make is that he really didn’t have any experiences that would shake his previously formed views, and quite a bit that reinforced them.
His background largely formed him and his outlook.
Normally, I’d agree. What strikes me was his decision to go into the oil business in the first place.
Here’s this guy. His dad was a partner in a bank. And a Senator. He himself is a legitimate war hero who got top grades at an Ivy League school and was captain of their baseball team. He could have easily enough stepped into an awesome life where he’d have a great career and never worry about things going against him.
Except, he doesn’t. He packs up and moves across the country to take his chances starting up a business that might prove successful, but also might fall flat on its face. Whatever bad things you want to say about him (and there’s plenty), he’s clearly a guy who chose to stand on his own two feet.
To me, that’s what doesn’t compute.
That and he raised a dipshit son that helped nuke the economy and invaded multiple countries.
Don’t forget his crooked son Neil and Silverado Savings and Loan.
Alabama did it. They fell behind early. Their star quarterback got injured early, and then left in the fourth quarter with Alabama behind by 7. And they still won.
They would have gotten the winning score even if Georgia punted.
And UCF won with their backup. More deserving of a playoff spot than tOSU.
If tOSU wins big, 30+ points — which they are capable of, then the argument will be interesting.
Georgia gave that away.
On the fake punt, all they needed was to run the 3 linemen on the left forward and the up-back follow them, not run around indecisively in the backfield hoping he could get a pass off. Dumbass play.
Mugged by reality?
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2018/12/01/believe-women-neil-degrasse-tyson-addresses-sexual-misconduct-allegations-special-handshake/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget
Meh, there’s literally no reason to waste energy thinking about this yet. Not in the “You are!” “No, you are!” phase.
#believewomen
/Jim Crow era racists
Let’s see if this affects any of his future pontificating on topics where he has no expertise.
I’d love to see G.B. Trudeau accused. Tomorrow’s “Doonesbury” has Kavanagh being labelled a “perjuring sex offender.”
From your lips to G-d’s ears. I’d also enjoy watching Jane Pauley uncomfortably standing by her man.
And where is the outrage from the left. Surely they mean what they say and don’t just deploy this for political ends.
/walks to fainting couch while waiting for replies
I think Jonah Goldberg has been reading Sugarfree
Meanwhile, over at the White House, everyone is sweating like they ate gas-station sushi an hour ago and don’t have any change left for the coin-operated bathroom stall. You can’t even make a Downfall video joke without John Kelly screaming, “Stow that crap soldier!” Cigarette burns mar every desk and carpet, the smoke blending in with the stench of panic and intern urine. In the hallway, Mike Pence barges past a meeting trying to catch a chicken. No one bothers even to ask why.
That is homeopathic dilution of the original.
Well Yeah, He’s writing for squares, he has to tone it down, but the influence is there.
Your fermentation room looks remarkably like our wine cellar.
Spud’s comment about brett gave me a nostalgic chuckle. But the champion brettster was the ’90 Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape, which Spud and I each bought a case of. There was a sales guy from a chemical megacorp whom I became friends with and was developing an interest in wine. Because my company was about a $2MM a year customer, he was told to take me to the restaurant of my choice during his visit. We went to Slanted Door in (at the time nearby) San Francisco, a great venue for wine. Since I knew the sommelier there, I could bring some along as well. I asked the sales guy, “Hey, your choice. Is there anything you’ve been particularly interested in trying?”
He responded, “Yeah, there was this wine you mentioned that smells like poop. I’m curious.”
“Oh, you must mean the ’90 Beaucastel. Sure, I’ll bring a bottle.”
When we opened and poured it, he swirled and sniffed, frowned, then tasted it. “Oh my god, it DOES smell like poop!” he paused a couple of seconds. “And it’s the best goddamned wine I’ve ever had!”
My wine cellar is 6 feet wide and 16 feet long.
I have rack space for around 2,200 bottles. Roughly 1,000 standard wine bottles and 1,200 half-size wine bottles. I am nearly out of space for standard bottles, so I have cases stacked on top of the racks as well.
I also have boxes of beer bottle sitting on the floor and 8 or 10 kegs sitting in there as well.
I’ve got a wine cabinet in the garage stuffed full. Somewhere between 500-550 bottles.
I don’t have the money to have that many bottles of wine. 🙁
I only have around 400 bottles of purchased wine and sour ales. The rest is my production.
I think you may have a problem. Hoarding, it’s not just for obese women with Barbie obsessions.
Well, I also have 15 to 20 cases of cider and ales sitting on the floor in other parts of the basement.
And yet I continue to brew.
It’s not hoarding. The obsession is with making not keeping.
I give away lots of product. I just haven’t given enough away to keep up with current production.
We need to visit you and help reduce your inventory.
Yes, you do.
Make sure to keep the children away.
My youngest grand-daughter has already aged out for OMWC. The neighbors are on there own.
I will not comment on the size of my beer cellar at this point. Suffice it to say it’s in the basement, under the stairs down (for the most part, some special bottles are in a temperature controlled fridge), and has beers going back to 2002 in it.
“Your fermentation room looks remarkably like our wine cellar.”
I didn’t see any children chained to the wall.
Speaking of waiting and fermenting, the most irrelevant conference football championship is underway now isn’t it?
Conservatives in the mist.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/conservatives-women-campus-curiosities/
Yeah…I’m out. Good night to all you Tulpas.
Who’s the lucky lady?
That is some impressive stuff, kinnath. Probably too complicated for me, but I’m interested in making some Umeshu. Looks easy enough. Anyone ever take a stab at it?
No, but I’ve been looking at doing the same. My biggest problem is finding fresh ume fruit locally.
Lots, well a number, of videos on YouTube on “making” it. Its really more of infusing a neutral spirit with flavoring and sugar.
Come May it looks like there’s just about ready made make it yourself kits. I’m so jealous. I only have one bottle of King left and then it’s Choya for the foreseeable future.
https://youtu.be/wIdRG4yYas4
There’s also a umeshu fest in Fukuoka.
https://www.fukuoka-now.com/en/event/japan-umeshu-festival-in-fukuoka/
The Mom and Pop Izakaya in my neighborhood always has a jar sitting on the end of the counter. Tastes nice, but it is just too sweet to drink more than one glass. Maybe it has to be totes sweet to cover other flavors that would be too strong otherwise. I don’t know, but I’ve never had umeshu anywhere that isn’t so sweet.
I think that’s also the style. Like a dessert wine. Maybe there’s some out there that are more dry but I dunno. Muddled umeshu over vanilla ice cream for me.
A quick search shows that it’s more of a cordial method then a fermentation style. At least based on this recipe. I’m sure there’s all sorts of things you could do to ferment that out drier, and without the added sugar (dependent on the sugar content of those green plums).
Looks like a straight up infusion.
Pretty sure she’s missing some necessary elements. The jar needs to absorb the vibrations coming from Oyajis complaining about their bosses and Mild Seven cigarette smoke. That is what adds character to Izakaya umeshu.
I focus on cool, slow fermentation
The alchy Fonzi method?
Just got back from a trip on my time machine to 2038. Newspaper headline I saw on my trip: “Former President Trump died today at 94. A controversial figure, to be sure, but nowhere near the racist that President Beiber is.”
So we amend the constitution to let canuks in office? Over my dead body!
No, we annexed that territory.
Heh.
Who said he was a Canuck? We absorb Canadia in 2027.
Listening to NPR this morning, Scott Simon tried to go there with whoever the Bush sycophant he was interviewing and that guy even nicely told him to knock it off. Jesus, the world revolves around Trump now. No asshole can die and not be compared to Trump.
These brewing articles keep reminding me that I need to get off my butt and brew something again.