Wine, Wine, Wine
August 19th, 2005 | 
Author: It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my winemaking experiences. Since my last post, I’ve done the following:
1. Last week, bottled the Chamblaise. A nice light wine, and if I’m going to have Liebramilch in the same evening, the Chamblaise must be consumed first. The Liebrafmilch turned out to be a very nice fruit fully tasting wine, and has been well received by my guests. Naturally, I’ve put a number of bottles away so that both the Liebframilch and Chamblaise may age longer.
2. Believe it or not, all of the Valpolicella, but for one bottle, has been consumed! For my red wine lover guests, this was such a hit, with several friends taking home bottles, I decided to start two new batches. I want some around for Christmas! So I started a four week kit and a six week kit.
3. I’ve also started a Shiraz which I may bottle on the weekend.
4. Another Liebframilch to be started any day now!
5. I’ve also decided to try my hand at beer making. Now, the true beer making snobs will likely roll their eyes about this, as the “snobs” like to buy all their own ingredients. I bought a kit for 13.50, which includes the hops and other ingredients all mixed together in a can. All I had to do was add water and yeast. This was a “Canadian Red,” and we’ll see how good it is in a couple of days. A little different than wine making, and doesn’t take as long before bottling too.
But 65 bottles of beer for $13.50 and a couple of bucks worth of sugar – I’d say that’s a good deal!
This evening, I did bottle the four week Volpolicella wine. I’m sipping some now. My business partner is heading to Edmonton in the morning and wanted to take a few bottles of wine along, so tonight was bottling night. I would have left it for another week – even thought it’s already been over four weeks – aging a bit longer is always a good thing. However, Wendy asked me nicely, so I agreed.
A couple of other notes – I’m excited that my wine area has just about been completed. We built a small room, added plumbing, a kitchen type sink and counter top with drawers, and next is to put up some shelving. It’s not a huge area, but big enough to have 4 five gallon carboys, about 5 one gallon carboys, and 3 or 4 primary fermenters. I’m beginning to like the wider pails with the tight fitting lids for my primaries – I can stack them if I want as long as I remember to punch down the lids a few times a day during the primary fermentation process.
I need to figure out a better lubrication for my floor stand cork press. After corking about 20 bottles, the lower steel rod becomes seized, and spraying WD-40 just doesn’t work very well. I guess I can try oil or perhaps carbon powder. Anyone have any good tips or ideas for this?
More coming in a day or two – I’ve got some plans to start a cranberry wine and a ginger wine! I love anything with ginger – and I’m fascinated by the thought of trying a ginger wine. More on this soon!
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