To Alcohol!
The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!
(Homer Simpson)
I've now got an academic knowledge of the stuff to go along with my, ummmm, practical experience. Two weeks of discussing brewing and distilling and winemaking, among other alcoholic topics.
A lot of the course involved memorizing lists... the top red grape varieties in winemaking (which we call 'vinification') are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc, and things like that. Never heard of Cabernet Franc? That's because it's a blending grape, rarely showing up on its own. Apparently varietal wines (which is to say, wines sold by the variety of the grape used) are 75% of the named grape or so. Of course, French wines are sold by Appelation, that is, by where the heck they are grown, and can be a blend of just about any number of grapes in any proportion.
I thought it was interesting that the juice of almost all grapes is actually clear. The color of red wine doesn't come from the juice at all, but from leaving the skins of the grapes soaking in the fermenting wine. They actually circulate the wine to extract the color better in modern setups. White Zinfandel, it turns out, is just a Red Zinfandel where the colors have not been fully extracted from the grape skins, leaving it as a blush rather than as a red. A number of blushes are made this way, and others are made by blending red and white wines together. However, notice that you can get a white wine from a red grape... but not the other way around. White Zinfandel was, by the by, a complete accident. They took a batch out early, then before throwing it out, they tasted it, and decided there might be a market for it. After a few years it was one of the best selling wines in the U.S.
Ales have a lot more flavor than lagers, apparently because the type of yeast used is different. It floats to the top as it ferments, and there are more chemical changes that develop flavor where it's exposed to the atmosphere of the fermenting chamber. Not that there aren't good lagers, but that's why the taste is lighter in them.
We went into the process of distilling as well, of course, and why moonshine was so dangerous... for three reasons. The lead in the soldered joints, of course, was potentially poisonous if it leached into the liquor, the acetone and wood alcohol (methanol) produced in fermentation could be concentrated if you didn't discard the first fraction. Since they evaporate more easily, those compounds come out first, and you can throw them away and keep just the middle part of the distillation with the ethanol and flavors. Of course, modern stills use a more complex method of fractional distillation than that, but the old stills had a single receptacle. Scotch is still made that way, keeping to the tradition of single-pot distilling and aging in brandy (Or cognac, as the case may be) casks for flavor development. The third danger, of course, is that the weak joints might give way under the pressure and cause explosions or fires. Apparently forest fires were a prime way of tracing moonshiners...
The last couple of days were a lot less interesting, but a lot more useful in the long run, I expect, going over all the details of inventory control and pricing for various kinds of drinks. All that stuff that's terribly essential to the running of a business but not much good for aiding in the appreciation of a drink.
Next week begins a long period of 'Garde Manger' (gar-mahn-jhay or near that) and 'Protein Fabrication' (aka, butchery). Garde Manger is the cold kitchen, basically. Sandwiches and deli platters and all that, whereas protein fabrication is largely about the cutting of meats for cooking. At least that's my understanding now, before having had the first class. We'll see.
(Homer Simpson)
I've now got an academic knowledge of the stuff to go along with my, ummmm, practical experience. Two weeks of discussing brewing and distilling and winemaking, among other alcoholic topics.
A lot of the course involved memorizing lists... the top red grape varieties in winemaking (which we call 'vinification') are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc, and things like that. Never heard of Cabernet Franc? That's because it's a blending grape, rarely showing up on its own. Apparently varietal wines (which is to say, wines sold by the variety of the grape used) are 75% of the named grape or so. Of course, French wines are sold by Appelation, that is, by where the heck they are grown, and can be a blend of just about any number of grapes in any proportion.
I thought it was interesting that the juice of almost all grapes is actually clear. The color of red wine doesn't come from the juice at all, but from leaving the skins of the grapes soaking in the fermenting wine. They actually circulate the wine to extract the color better in modern setups. White Zinfandel, it turns out, is just a Red Zinfandel where the colors have not been fully extracted from the grape skins, leaving it as a blush rather than as a red. A number of blushes are made this way, and others are made by blending red and white wines together. However, notice that you can get a white wine from a red grape... but not the other way around. White Zinfandel was, by the by, a complete accident. They took a batch out early, then before throwing it out, they tasted it, and decided there might be a market for it. After a few years it was one of the best selling wines in the U.S.
Ales have a lot more flavor than lagers, apparently because the type of yeast used is different. It floats to the top as it ferments, and there are more chemical changes that develop flavor where it's exposed to the atmosphere of the fermenting chamber. Not that there aren't good lagers, but that's why the taste is lighter in them.
We went into the process of distilling as well, of course, and why moonshine was so dangerous... for three reasons. The lead in the soldered joints, of course, was potentially poisonous if it leached into the liquor, the acetone and wood alcohol (methanol) produced in fermentation could be concentrated if you didn't discard the first fraction. Since they evaporate more easily, those compounds come out first, and you can throw them away and keep just the middle part of the distillation with the ethanol and flavors. Of course, modern stills use a more complex method of fractional distillation than that, but the old stills had a single receptacle. Scotch is still made that way, keeping to the tradition of single-pot distilling and aging in brandy (Or cognac, as the case may be) casks for flavor development. The third danger, of course, is that the weak joints might give way under the pressure and cause explosions or fires. Apparently forest fires were a prime way of tracing moonshiners...
The last couple of days were a lot less interesting, but a lot more useful in the long run, I expect, going over all the details of inventory control and pricing for various kinds of drinks. All that stuff that's terribly essential to the running of a business but not much good for aiding in the appreciation of a drink.
Next week begins a long period of 'Garde Manger' (gar-mahn-jhay or near that) and 'Protein Fabrication' (aka, butchery). Garde Manger is the cold kitchen, basically. Sandwiches and deli platters and all that, whereas protein fabrication is largely about the cutting of meats for cooking. At least that's my understanding now, before having had the first class. We'll see.