Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in mead on Aug 28th, 2007
I pressed my cherry mead back in July, and looked in on it Saturday (8/25/07). I wanted to see if it had fermented out and if it was in danger of spoiling. To do that, I measured the specific gravity and the pH. An SG of 0.995 indicated that, yes, it was done fermenting. The […]
Posted in Recipes, enology, winemaking on Aug 27th, 2007
I’ve always wanted to make wine from grocery store grapes. It’s not that I’m expecting greatness, but that I’m really curious. Grapes were on sale for $0.88/lb. One variety was Thomson Seedless, the others were just called “red” and “black”. They were all seedless, and they all tasted the same to me. I ended up […]
Posted in enology on Aug 24th, 2007
Why make wine from table grapes?
Grapes from the produce section of the grocery store are meant to be eaten fresh, and you shouldn’t expect them to make top notch wines from them. Still, I’ve always been curious about what sort of wine they would make. The green seedless grapes that are so common are called […]
Posted in tasting on Aug 23rd, 2007
My sister only drinks red wine, and when she came to dinner the other night she brought a lovely bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir. It was really nice of her, and we all enjoyed it, but I wonder if a tiny part of her reason was to avoid being “stuck” with the whites I wanted […]
Posted in enology on Aug 14th, 2007
Why make a starter?
You can get good results from wine yeast by just sprinkling a newly opened packet directly onto your must. There are times, however, that you really ought to use a starter. Yeast become active and start reproducing much more quickly and reliably in a starter, so in difficult (for the yeast) situations, […]
Posted in tasting on Aug 13th, 2007
Oz Clark, in his Grapes and Wines, called Riesling the wine critic’s favorite grape. I can see why. I just tried some of my 2005, and it’s marvelous.
I made it dry (the final gravity was 0.990, one of the lowest readings for any wine I’ve made) but even 9 g/L of acidity didn’t unbalance […]
Posted in tomato wine on Aug 9th, 2007
It’s a modest beginning, but a beginning nonetheless. Yesterday’s 6.5 oz (175 grams) of Gold Nugget tomatoes began a harvest that I expect to last into September. I’ll be gathering the fruit often, maybe every day, and storing it in the freezer. Currently, the freezer has unimportant things like food in it, so you might […]
Posted in colony collapse disorder, mead on Aug 8th, 2007
Prices up 10%
Last month, and since the beginning of May, my local Costco sold 6 lb (about 2.7 kg) jugs of honey for $7.99. Those 6 lb jugs are now fetching $8.79, a 10% increase. I think Costco’s price for clover honey is a good indicator of honey prices in the US for three reasons: […]
Posted in bonsai vineyard, enology on Aug 6th, 2007
Don’t buy the expensive equipment
I buy wine grapes through my local homebrew shop in 100 lb lots, which is enough to make five or six gallons of wine. They take customer orders, arrange to buy the grapes from growers, and provide the use of their equipment. They will do all the work, so I can […]
Posted in bonsai vineyard on Aug 2nd, 2007
It was only six weeks ago that hoplai beetles were attacking the flowering grape clusters on my Leon Millot vines. Here is how those grape clusters look today.
The Leon Millot (above) aren’t the only vines with good looking grapes. The Pinot Noir (below) is coming along nicely.
I should be seeing verasion soon!