Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in bonsai vineyard, viticulture on Jun 16th, 2007
First the good news. The Leon Millot are blooming! I took these photos on 6/12/07, though I first noticed that the Leons were blooming on 6/6/07. The next photo shows the bad news: Hoplia Beetles love to eat flowers, including grape flowers. At least I think they’re Hoplia Beetles. They fit the description in Jeff [...]
Posted in mead on Jun 15th, 2007
I’ve done some thinking and some research on my beer-like mead recipe. I decided to use just one specialty grain, crystal malt. Since I’m counting on it to do a lot of heavy lifting, I wanted to use a high concentration – still within the range that you’d see in a beer, but at the [...]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, gardening on Jun 14th, 2007
Surefire is one of four cherry trees growing in my bonsai orchard, and the only one that will produce fruit, if just a handful, this year. It’s a tart cherry with red skin, flesh, and juice; I can’t wait to make red cherry wine and liqueur from it. I bought the tree this year, so [...]
Posted in viticulture on Jun 13th, 2007
Swenson Red really does need to be cane pruned. I didn’t know that yet, and I pruned to spurs. I got a bit of good news though, as you can see in the photo, I’ll get at least one cluster this year! Hey, that’s more than I thought I would get.
Posted in enology on Jun 12th, 2007
Last year, my bonsai vineyard offered up a disappointing 4 lb (1.8 kg) of grapes, 2 lb Pinot Noir and 2 lb Leon Millot. I was so looking forward to making wine from my own grapes, but what was I to do with 4 lb? Make wine anyway! I mashed up the grapes by hand, [...]
Posted in other blogs on Jun 11th, 2007
A post about bottling cherry mead caught my eye, I had just bottled my own cherry mead, but when I stayed and read a while I discovered so much more. Where else can find you someone who can discuss raising chickens, making mead, growing hops, and optimizing Windows? Check it out at: Erics Projects
Posted in herb wine on Jun 10th, 2007
Here’s a photo of the oregano wine I started the other day. It was quite frothy just after I stirred it, but the bubbles subsided before I could capture the image. I stir for two reasons: During the first day, I want to incorporate oxygen into the fermenting wine to help the yeast grow. Later, [...]
Posted in mead on Jun 9th, 2007
A quick list Writing about the “beer mead” vs “wine mead” divide made me reconsider how I make my own mead. All my meads have been squarely in the wine-mead category, and it got me thinking about making my first beer-like mead. What would such a mead be like? How would I make it? To [...]
And you thought tomato wine sounded strange! Years ago I started an oregano bush from seed. Each year I harvest a little for cooking, but it’s huge and most of it goes to waste. What’s a winemaker to do? Use this recipe from Terry Garey’s Joy of Home Wine Making, my first winemaking book. It’s [...]
Posted in mead on Jun 6th, 2007
Many meadmakers were first winemakers or homebrewers, and they have applied experience with wine or beer to the craft of making mead. From looking at the many mead recipes, in print and on the web, it seems they have formed cliques. What I call “beer-mead” recipes tend to call for boiling, gypsum, irish moss, and [...]