Ben Evert.com

With it being New Year’s Eve, I thought that I would post this article found on Topix.net about how to pick champagne.

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Ingredients:

• 4 pounds, Munton and Fison light DME
• 4 pounds, Geordie amber DME
• 1 pound, crushed Crystal Malt
• 1-1/2 ounces, Cascade leaf hops (boil 60 minutes)
• 1-1/2 ounces, Cascade leaf hops (finishing)
• 1 teaspoon, Irish Moss
• Wyeast #1056 Chico Ale Yeast (1 quart starter made 2 days prior)

Procedure:

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I was reading the most recent posts on Vinography and ran across this article. It is a riot. Here are a couple clips to wet your appetite.

2. Don’t ask, “What’s cheap?”

10. DON’T SMELL THE PLASTIC CORK EITHER!- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people do this. Lots of wine makers are moving away from natural cork to synthetics. Sniffing a plastic cork tells the world you’re a moron. Don’t smell the bottle cap either. (I never smelled the plastic cork before I was a waiter, so there!)

26. Its wine, not the Blood of Christ. Don’t worship it. Enjoy it.

To read more:

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Technorati Tags : Wine, Resturant

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Ingredients:

• 5 to 6 pounds, Alexander’s pale malt extract
• 1/2 pound, crystal malt, crushed
• 10 ounces, dextrose (optional)
• 1-1/4 ounces, Cascade hops (boil)
• 1/4 ounce, Cascade hops (finish)
• Munton & Fison ale yeast
• corn sugar for priming

Procedure:

Steep crystal malt and sparge twice. Add extract and dextrose and bring to boil. Add Cascade hops and boil 60 minutes. In last few minutes add remaining 1/4 ounce of Cascade (or dry hop, if desired). Chill and pitch yeast.

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Place fruit in primary fermentor. Pour boiling water over it. Let sit overnight.

24 hours later, add balance of ingredients. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir daily for 5 to 6 days or until frothing ceases. Strain out fruit and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Siphon into secondary fermentor and attach airlock.

For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.

For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.

If wine is not clear, or still has quite a bit of sediment forming between rackings, Fine the wine as follows.

Use wine finings or plain gelatin. Gelatin: use 1 teaspoon per 6 gallons of wine. Finings: 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons or as per package directions. Soak in 1/2 cup cold water for 1/2 hour. Bring to a boil to dissolve. Cool. Stir into wine. Let sit 10 to 14 days. Rack. If not clear enough yet, repeat process. DO NOT increase amount of gelatin or finings. The mixture will stay suspended in the wine, preventing it from ever clearing. Bottle once wine is clear.

The wine is best if you can refrain from drinking it for one full year from the date it was started.

NOTE: The best apples to use are tart apples such as winesap, jonathans, etc and not the delicious apples.

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Since I’m really a “newbie” to wine, I’ve never learned the fine art of tasting wine. Basically, after tasting the wine, I say either “I’d spend my money on that” or “that sucks.” Nothing about nose, or legs, or anything else. I’m sure most American’s do what I do. So to help educate me and others about the fine art of winetasting, I pulled this from Virginia Wines.

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