Monthly Archives: January 2011

Twitter For Windbags?

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I don’t text, therefore I don’t tweet. Maybe if Descartes were alive today he might say something like that. I just never saw the point of Twitter – heck I’m probably past the 140 character limit already and I haven’t really said anything. So what am I doing on Twitter? I probably still don’t “get it,” but I think I see how it might be useful.

What’s twitter good for?

I come across interesting things that relate to wine all the time. News, blogs, talking to people, or what have you. It’s an interesting world and by paying attention I end up with a lot of scribbled notes, bookmarks, and half-remembered conversations. If I have enough  time, interest, and knowledge some of this turns into blog posts. The rest? Well I can’t just say, “here’s a link that might lead to something.” What kind of a post would that be?

Then it hit me. It wouldn’t be a post at all – it would be a tweet!

That got me thinking about twitter some more, and I realized it could complement my blog feed. Anyone can subscribe to the feed. It’s easy, it’s free and it automatically notifies you every time there’s a new post. There’s even a separate feed for comments. No need to check back manually to see if there’s a new post or if someone responded to your comment. But sometimes I update old posts as I learn more about the topic, and there’s no good way for people to monitor that.

Unless maybe I tweeted about it.

So I’ve experimenting with twitter, and I think it might be useful. You can click here to follow me on twitter to find out about new posts, updates to old posts, and links that might be interesting. In the meantime, I’ll try to find a good profile picture. And maybe figure out what all those numbers and abbreviations mean!

More about twitter

More than you wanted to know about the psychology of Twitter ~ Twitter: 10 Psychological Insights

Twitter like communication circa 1900 ~ Tweets of Old

Happy New Year!

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In a hurry? Make a kit!

Kits are a great way to start making wine, but that’s not the way I started. In fact, my first kit isn’t in bottles yet. One thing I learned from making one is that kits are a great way to make wine fast. I get asked about that a lot and I didn’t have many concrete ideas because I usually take my time. Until now. It isn’t just that kits come with simple instructions and a clear schedule, it’s that you can adapt the technique and mindset to conventional winemaking. So if you’re in a hurry, make a kit or three. Learn from it (even if you’re not a beginner) and use as many of the techniques as you can in your next blueberry wine (or whatever strikes your fancy). I’ll have more to say about this after my own kit is bottles.

Liqueur: More sugar, more alcohol, no yeast

Another fast way to taste the fruits of your labor is to make liqueur. As I mentioned at the end of my plum wine recipe, I’ve recently made plum liqueur. I quickly followed up with a cherry liqueur, and  friend sent me some of his limoncello. Winemakers will find much of the liqueur making process familiar, but there are differences. No fermentation, for one! Another thing that struck me is that I couldn’t find recommendations for acidity, alcohol, and sugar. I’m convinced that a good balance is just as important as it is for wine, but I may have to find out by trial and error – someone’s gotta do it 🙂

These are new to me, and I expect to write about them in 2011. There’s still a lot to say about more familiar topics, so there won’t be any radical changes. I’m looking forward to the New Year – I think it’ll be a good one!