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Ben Evert.com

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Archive for October, 2006

Barley Wine

Posted by ben On October - 23 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

Barley Wine

  • 1/4 lb barley
  • 1/2 pint grape concentrate(or 1 lb raisins)
  • 2 lemons(or 4 tsp citric acid)
  • 2 1/2 lb sugar
  • amylozyme(follow directions on label)
  • 1 campden tablet
  • 1 gallon water
  • yeast and nutrient
soak barley in a pint of water overnight.
grind the barley and raisins in a mincer.
put sugar,barley,and raisins in a polythene bucket and pour on hot(not boiling)water.
add the juice of lemons or use citric acid.allow to cool then add amylozyme and a crushed campden tablet. cover and leave for 24 hrs.
add yeast and nutrient cover well,and leave for 8 days,stirring daily.
strain into fermenting jar.
rack when fermentation is complete and wine is clear.
age 6 months.
Usually I think of barley wine as a beer product that uses malted barley and is high on the alcohol content. This recipe is different and I’ll probably give it a try.



Popularity: 1% [?]

Beer Recipes

Wine Yeast – Dry

Posted by ben On October - 13 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

 

How many times have you made wine and wondered if you were using the correct yeast?  Or, it late at night and all that you have is a Burgundy yeast and you are making strawberry wine.  Will it work?  Hopefully this and the next post (Tuesday) will help you.  This post will deal with dry wine yeast and only for Lavlin and Red Star (The most common).

I use dry yeast all the time.  Mostly for 2 primary reasons.  1) I never have the luxury of planning when I am making a batch of wine 2) Dry wine yeast is cheaper.  So I will start will Lavlin yeast, my yeast of choice.

 

Lavlin Dry Yeasts

KV D-47 – Is primarily for dry white. blush or sweet mead and contributes mouthfeel.  It works best at temperatures from 59 – 86 degrees F and the maximum that it usually ferments to is in the 14% range  I like the D-47 yeast since it is a low foaming yeast.  Helps prevents from blowing off the top.

Bourgovin RC 212 – Used on red wines and enhances varietal notes along with promoting color stability.  Likes the 50 – 86 degree rang and will ferment out to 14%. 

71B - Use this for just about anything especially with juice concentrates.  It will add fruit esters along with softening the acidity.  Another 59 – 86 degrees yeast that ferments to 14%.

KIV 1116 – A great yeast for taking care of a stuck fermentation, making cider, or making a high alcohol wine.   You can go up to 18% on this yeast and it thrives on the 59 – 86 degrees temperature range.

EC1118 – Champagne, Dry meads, late harvests or stuck fermentations is the best environment for this yeast.  Another 18% yeast that will tolerate temperatures from 45 – 95 degrees.

 

Red Star Dry Yeasts

Pasteur Red -  Most read wines along with berry or cherry wines.  Promotes fruit flavors and aromas and works well at temperatures between 64 – 86 degrees.  Can ferment to 16%.

Montrachet – use for a full bodied intense colored red or white wine with a maximum alcohol content of 13%.    This yeast thrives in the 59 – 86 temperature range.

Cote de Blances – One of the lower alcohol producing yeasts (hits the 12 to 14% range) and is used for blush wines, Riesling, Chardonnay and cider.  Slow fermenter that builds flavor and aroma.  Quite temperature sensitive so keep this one in the 64 to 86 range.

Champagne - Used in fruit wines, mead, cider, dry whites, and cabernat.  Great for restarting stuck fermentations  Likes the 59 – 86 degree range and will produce a wine with alcohol between 13 to 15%.

Premier Cuvee – Anything but residual sugar wines.  Will ferment to 18% and likes the 45 – 95 range.  Great for starting stuck fermentations.

I’ve used all these with great success.  I’ve also used the wrong yeast for a wine and it still turned out ok.  So I think that for us home winemakers, we can make that occasional mistake,  or use the wrong yeast a midnight and not worry too much about it.
 
Stop by Tuesday when I go over liquid yeast.



Popularity: 1% [?]

Wine Making

George Washington Porter – Revisted

Posted by ben On October - 3 - 2006ADD COMMENTS

I got e-mail the other day from Kermode Bear at Kermodebear.org.  He actually made a batch of George Washington’s Porter and the e-mail tells of his adventures.  Of course, back in George’s day they fermented just about anything, since most supplies were very limited.  A molasses beer probably did taste pretty good back then, but according  to K. Bear it sucks.  Well, anyways, he gave me permission to post his e-mail, so here it is.
 
 Hello, 

I had been wanting to make George’s porter for a while now, and I suppose that your blog entry was the catalyst I needed. Porter made. I fudged on the recipe a bit; I have several one gallon jugs for experiments, and when I experiment I’m much more liable to goof off; so the following is what was used for a one gallon batch:

1 gallon of water
15oz of blackstrap molasses
1/8 oz Cluster pellet hops, 7.2%AA
1 tbsp LDME, primer
1/5 packet Nottingham Dry Yeast (Yeah, I know…)

Starting Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.020

I’m not a big fan of hops; I like less hops and more malt in my beers. I  often cut them by a third in most recipes. He does says to my taste, so. I boiled for an hour, not three.

I also used more molasses than I should have, 15oz instead of 13oz, and it was added to the boil. I have not used molasses before, and I didn’t research it like I should have, so I am not sure if this had any effect.

Nottingham dry yeast, the stuff that comes in the Brewer’s Best kits, was my yeast of choice. I need to get rid of them somehow.

Fermented for ten days, bottled with 1 tablespoon of light dry malt extract. Fermentation was active for a few days and trailed off as usual, nothing extraordinary. I noticed very little krausen, but that is common with such small batches.

The result? Yuck. The molasses odor is, well, it smells like molasses, strong and pleasant – if you weren’t planning on drinking it. Even with half the molasses, I think the molasses flavor would be far too strong. The hops are nowhere to be tasted, it is terribly bitter, and quite honestly, it sucks. I’ve had three sips so far and I’m not going to continue. The molasses is just overpowering.

I have all the respect in the world for President Washington, but this just didn’t work out for me.

What would I change in the future?

The bulk of the fermentables would be malt; Molasses and brown sugar added for some flavor, perhaps a bit of cinnamon or cardamom.

Samuel Adams makes a great molasses porter, by the way. Highly recommended over what came out of my batch. (o;

-K. Bear

 
Thanks K. Bear for the run down on your experiment.  Maybe the next experiment will be better.
 



Popularity: 1% [?]

Beer News

Tea Wine

Posted by ben On October - 3 - 2006ADD COMMENTS
This is a recipe for Tea Wine.  I made a batch in May and just bottled it a few days ago. I made it out of orange-tangerine tea and just throw everything in and allowed it to ferment.  My recipe is at the bottom if you want to try it.  My wine ended up tasting like orange tea but with a little kick.
 

TEA WINE

  • 8 teaspoons of dry tea leaves.
  • 1 pound of raisins
  • 2 lemons
  • 3 lb. sugar
  • 3/4 tsp. pectic enzyme
  • 3/4 tsp. yeast nutrient
  • “all purpose” wine yeast
Bring one quart of water to the boil. Remove from heat and add the tea leaves. Let the tea steep for ten minutes, then strain into the primary fermenting vessel. Discard the spent tea leaves. Boil half the sugar in half a gallon of water for a minute or two. When it is cool, add it to the tea. Run the raisins through a meat grinder, or find some other way to chop them, and add them to the fermenting vessel. Juice the lemons and add the juice to the mixture. Then slice the lemons and add them, too. (It is better to add only the yellow part of the lemon rind. The white can be bitter, Stir in the yeast nutrient and the pectic enzyme. These may not be necessary. It never hurts to add them but it can hurt to leave them out should you need them. add them to be safe. let it sit overnight. Then pitch the yeast. After a week or ten days strain through cloth into the jug or carboy. Boil the rest of the sugar in the rest of the water. When it is cool, add it to the carboy. Make the volume up with water. It may take a while to finish fermenting. However, it has always cleared nicely and rapidly when done. Other than chopping the raisins, this is an easy wine to make.
 



Popularity: 1% [?]

Wine Recipes

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