GAME NIGHT TONIGHT!
Woo!
Really looking forward to this; can't think of a better way to kick off the long weekend. Did a lot of prep last night for dinner, have the chicken marinading in teriyaki/lemon/ginger, got the steaks all ready to go, potatoes scrubbed and ready to bake, salad all prepped, two loaves of soon-to-be garlic bread. Should give me plenty of time to get home, change, fire up the grill, and everything should be just about done when people show up at six.
My latest wine, a peach-apricot chardonnay, came out beautifully. It's light and clean, and sweet but not too sweet. Got 32 31 30 29 (teehee) bottles all stored away for the family beach vacation next month, and I'm sure it will all go quickly!
I have plans to do a batch of hard cider next, but that will have to wait until July, as our vacation next month would be right about the time the cider is ready for secondary fermentation. The plus side is that I'll have to get a little more equipment for the cider: A better bottle capper, smaller bottle brush, and a new, larger, stainless steel kettle for the must. Once I have all this stuff for the cider, it all applies to beer making, which will be my next endeavor!
I have about 120-ish bottles of wine in my cellar now, a nice mix of cabs, merlots, two different chardonnays, and riesling ice wines. Properly stored, wine and cider keeps for years. Beer, not so much. It tends to skunk. So I think I'll do a full batch of cider (6 gals) and bottle it all, and then my beer batches will be smaller and more frequent. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the wine, different types of wine, oaking it differently for unique finishes, there are a lot of personal touches that make the flavor and body of the wine uniquely yours. I'm looking forward to that same kind of creativity with my beer!
On tonight's game menu:
Small World
Ticket to Ride
Carcassonne
Agricola
Battlestar Galactica
Dominion
Munchkin
Enjoy the weekend, everyone! /^|..|^\
Really looking forward to this; can't think of a better way to kick off the long weekend. Did a lot of prep last night for dinner, have the chicken marinading in teriyaki/lemon/ginger, got the steaks all ready to go, potatoes scrubbed and ready to bake, salad all prepped, two loaves of soon-to-be garlic bread. Should give me plenty of time to get home, change, fire up the grill, and everything should be just about done when people show up at six.
My latest wine, a peach-apricot chardonnay, came out beautifully. It's light and clean, and sweet but not too sweet. Got 32 31 30 29 (teehee) bottles all stored away for the family beach vacation next month, and I'm sure it will all go quickly!
I have plans to do a batch of hard cider next, but that will have to wait until July, as our vacation next month would be right about the time the cider is ready for secondary fermentation. The plus side is that I'll have to get a little more equipment for the cider: A better bottle capper, smaller bottle brush, and a new, larger, stainless steel kettle for the must. Once I have all this stuff for the cider, it all applies to beer making, which will be my next endeavor!
I have about 120-ish bottles of wine in my cellar now, a nice mix of cabs, merlots, two different chardonnays, and riesling ice wines. Properly stored, wine and cider keeps for years. Beer, not so much. It tends to skunk. So I think I'll do a full batch of cider (6 gals) and bottle it all, and then my beer batches will be smaller and more frequent. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the wine, different types of wine, oaking it differently for unique finishes, there are a lot of personal touches that make the flavor and body of the wine uniquely yours. I'm looking forward to that same kind of creativity with my beer!
On tonight's game menu:
Small World
Ticket to Ride
Carcassonne
Agricola
Battlestar Galactica
Dominion
Munchkin
Enjoy the weekend, everyone! /^|..|^\