Brewing
I used to brew a lot. I still brew two to three batches of beer a year and for the most part they come out fantastic. That is if you are a beer aficionado. Good beer doesn't taste like the crap that most grocery stores sell. I have found myself lately brewing some of the rarer beers. It's hard to find a good barley wine (witch for the unknowing isn't a wine). Being that you MUST age it for at least a year, most home brewers wont try making it.
Things have changed up a bit though. My father purchased 10 acres a few years back, which was covered in zinfandel grapes. Now, I hate that my wonderful home town, that once was surrounded in alfalfa, barley, oats, and other grains, is now overrun in winery's. That is a whole other gripe, but I understand people wanting to make as much money as possible. Any way... since I am the brewer in the family, it has been put upon me to make a small batch of wine to represent my fathers new "vineyard". He has the vineyard set up so another winery takes care of the vines and harvests the grapes in turn for a minimal fee. This year he set it up so I conveniently received 100 pounds of grapes to make a few cases of wine.
I gave in to the pressures and took on the task. I have to say crushing and juicing is a pain in the ass if you don't have the right equipment. The rest of the process... EASY! A quote from the owner of the brewing supply here in SLO "you are already a great brewer... making wine wont be a challenge for you". I have to say making an decent wine is so much easier than a decent beer. Not to take way from those master wine makers/mixers, but if you start with good grapes you end up with good wine. At any point in the process, of there is a funky taste/smell you can fix it! Making beer and you have a funky taste or smell you are better off starting over.
Tonight I re-racked the wine to start the Malolactic fermentation. I took the initial gravity and the current gravity and calculated the current alcohol percentage. I am sitting at 17.6% (which is why I am feeling the effects right now). I figured that it was going to be high because I started at 27.5 bricks (high sugar percentage per volume). I tasted it for the first time, not to toot my own horn, and it is fantastic. I still have to oak age it and let it sit for 1~2 years, but I think I like it the way it is.
Any way, my original intention with this post was to explain that I hope to start making more tasty beer. With the money situation getting a little tight, I don't know if that is to be in the cards. My coworkers and neighbors think that I should sell the beer I make, which sounds like a huge hassle to me. I think I need to narrow down my hobby's to one or two and stick with it. There are just too many cool things that I like and want to partake in. I have given up a lot. There are a few things I just cant rid of.
Things have changed up a bit though. My father purchased 10 acres a few years back, which was covered in zinfandel grapes. Now, I hate that my wonderful home town, that once was surrounded in alfalfa, barley, oats, and other grains, is now overrun in winery's. That is a whole other gripe, but I understand people wanting to make as much money as possible. Any way... since I am the brewer in the family, it has been put upon me to make a small batch of wine to represent my fathers new "vineyard". He has the vineyard set up so another winery takes care of the vines and harvests the grapes in turn for a minimal fee. This year he set it up so I conveniently received 100 pounds of grapes to make a few cases of wine.
I gave in to the pressures and took on the task. I have to say crushing and juicing is a pain in the ass if you don't have the right equipment. The rest of the process... EASY! A quote from the owner of the brewing supply here in SLO "you are already a great brewer... making wine wont be a challenge for you". I have to say making an decent wine is so much easier than a decent beer. Not to take way from those master wine makers/mixers, but if you start with good grapes you end up with good wine. At any point in the process, of there is a funky taste/smell you can fix it! Making beer and you have a funky taste or smell you are better off starting over.
Tonight I re-racked the wine to start the Malolactic fermentation. I took the initial gravity and the current gravity and calculated the current alcohol percentage. I am sitting at 17.6% (which is why I am feeling the effects right now). I figured that it was going to be high because I started at 27.5 bricks (high sugar percentage per volume). I tasted it for the first time, not to toot my own horn, and it is fantastic. I still have to oak age it and let it sit for 1~2 years, but I think I like it the way it is.
Any way, my original intention with this post was to explain that I hope to start making more tasty beer. With the money situation getting a little tight, I don't know if that is to be in the cards. My coworkers and neighbors think that I should sell the beer I make, which sounds like a huge hassle to me. I think I need to narrow down my hobby's to one or two and stick with it. There are just too many cool things that I like and want to partake in. I have given up a lot. There are a few things I just cant rid of.