Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in gardening, rhubarb wine on May 29th, 2008
This time last year, I was trying to make up for lost time, “better late than never!” I thought as I belatedly weeded, watered, and fertilized. I didn’t want spindly plants this year, so I tended my rhubarb in March. The payoff came in May when I harvested 1 lb 14.5 oz (865 g), putting […]
Posted in apple wine, mead, measurement & testing, tomato wine on Feb 28th, 2008
Cherry Mead: The case of the disappearing acid
Suppose you measure 6 g/L titratable acidity (TA), then add about 1.3 g/L of tartaric acid. After you let it sit for a while you’d expect a TA over 7, right? Me too. You certainly wouldn’t expect just a little over 5 (call it 5.2), would you? I […]
Posted in peapod burgundy on Feb 20th, 2008
This blog is about making wine, so I don’t talk about my vegetable garden very much. My gardening and winemaking overlap in some ways like rhubarb wine, oregano wine, tomato wine, and the one-pint (500 ml) batch of wine from my own grapes. Well there’s going to be some more overlap this year, because I’m […]
Posted in rhubarb wine on Feb 13th, 2008
I make rhubarb wine every year. I get about 6 fl oz/lb (400 ml/kg) of juice when I thaw frozen rhubarb, and since I use about 3 lb/gal (360 g/L) of rhubarb I need to add a lot of water. But 6 fl oz/lb scales up to over 4.5 gallons from 100 lb of “fruit.” […]
Posted in rhubarb wine, winemaking on Feb 4th, 2008
By 1/30/08, the specific gravity (SG) of my rhubarb wine had dropped to 1.000, and that means fermentation is finished or nearly finished. So, ten days after I pitched the yeast, I racked into a 1-gallon jug, two wine bottles, and an 8-oz (about 240 ml) coke bottle. When you’re working with small volumes like […]
Posted in Recipes, rhubarb wine on Jan 23rd, 2008
I’ve been anticipating this since May, and now it’s finally time to make Rhubarb Wine. I grow the rhubarb in my garden, harvest several times (freezing each harvest), and make a gallon or two of wine every year.
Ingredients For 1.5 gallons (about 5.7 liters) of must
3-4 lb (1.4-1.8 kg) rhubarb
Sugar to specific gravity 1.090 - […]
Posted in cranberry wine, wineries on Jan 7th, 2008
I was thinking about cranberry wine a few weeks ago, and mentioned that a local winery made some. It turns out that they call it “Cranberry Jubilee,” and I suspect the wording is deliberate. They’d probably get into legal trouble if they called their 20% cranberry 80% Chardonnay blend “Cranberry Wine.” Well, they might have […]
Posted in tomato wine, winemaking on Dec 31st, 2007
Ten days after pitching the yeast, I siphoned the translucent, yellow, tomato wine into two 1-gallon jugs and a 1.5L magnum bottle. So 18 lb (8.2 kg) of tomatoes, 4.8 lb (2.2 kg) sugar, and 2.5 quarts (2.4 liters) water turned into about 9 liters (a little under 2.5 gallons) of wine. I still don’t […]
Posted in enology, tomato wine, winemaking on Dec 27th, 2007
It looked like fermentation was winding down, so I drew a sample for testing. The sample had some dissolved CO2 in it, and that can skew my tests in two ways. It can give rise to carbonic acid, which will push the titratable acidity (TA) higher. It can also make it look like there is […]
Posted in Recipes, tomato wine, winemaking on Dec 22nd, 2007
I sowed seeds that sprouted into seedlings. I transplanted the seedlings to beds. I fussed over the tomato plants. I planned. I harvested. Now, at last, I’m finally making tomato wine!
Ingredients
Juice from 18 lb (8.2 kg) tomatoes - about 1.67 gallons (6.3 liters)
4.84 lb (2.2 kg) sugar
2.5 quarts (2.4 liters) water
8 tsp (40 g) tartaric […]