Wine... not whine

There are a couple of things that I have been wanting to do but just had not gotten around to just yet. One of those things was to make my own wine. So for my birthday I asked my wonderful hubby for a wine making kit. We already had most of the equipment so it wasn't too much of an expense beyond the kit itself. All I needed in addition to the wine kit was a 7 gallon bucket. So I thought I would share my experiment with you. One thing I understand is that this will not be a quick process. The kit says it should be drinkable in 2 months, but from what I have heard from others who have made their own wine is that it takes more like 4 to 6 months. With all of the scary stuff we have been hearing on the news about stuff put into wines lately it seemed like a good time to give this a try. I went with a Chardonnay because it will be ready(ish) in the summer. Always a good time for a white wine. As soon as I get this batch into bottles I will probably get started on a red of some sort.

So here we go on the process... of course the first thing that I did was to sanitize my new bucket and all of the equipment needed to get our wine going. I started with a half gallon of hot water and then added a package of bentonite  into the water and stirred it for 30 seconds to make sure that it dissolved. After that I added the grape juice that came with the kit. After emptying the bag of juice the instructions said to add another half gallon of water back into the bag to get any left over juices. So After I put the water in the bag I shook it really well to get all that I could out of it.

After adding the juice I added enough water to bring the volume up to 6 gallons. And then we stir! Not easy to do with such a big bucket, but the spoon I have is fairly long. I was still glad that I had sanitized my hands! After stirring for 30 seconds it was time to check the specific gravity to make sure we were where we needed to be. It was right on the money at 1.097.

After the wine was tested it was time to add one last ingredient Oak chips. After they were added to the liquid you had to stir it to get them wet. OK so we are done putting it together and notice... there was NO cooking to it! The whole process took only about 30 minutes including the time to sanitize everything. I hope it turns out well because this could be the start of something really cool!

We were not able to put the yeast in for a couple of hours because the liquid was too warm by a few degrees. But I managed to get the yeast in, the bucket sealed and the airlock in place before bed. We put it to bed in an area of the kitchen where it will be out of the way. Just in a corner where it will be in a climate controlled environment and no sunlight.

Update: The fermentation is supposed to start in 24-48 hours and our started is around 18! So we are off and running.

To the Keg we go!

I wanted to give the latest update on the beer we had in process so here we go. The beer clarified nicely in the secondary fermenter for a week. It looked beautiful, and the specific gravity had not changed beyond our second reading of 1.012. So it was time to move it to the Keg and ultimately the kegerator.  One thing that needs to be stressed when handling homebrew is sanitation. If any bacteria gets into your batch you can lose it all from a taste perspective. My husband disagrees, but he has also been known to win bets guzzling ketchup, uh, where was I. So the first thing we have to do to is to sanitize the keg. We use a two phase cleaning ritual, PBW powder and Star-san. PBW first, to power clean the surfaces, then Star-san, an easy product to use, and you don't have to worry about any of the suds being left behind as they are not harmful to the process. It is commonly said, don't fear the foam :) .

The infamous Corny Keg.

Having a bucket full of sanitizer on hand to rinse anything that needs to be handled.

An easy way to remember left and right, or in and out connections. Set up two bowls of sanitizer for the smaller parts.

So after the Keg and assorted equipment is sanitized it's time to move it directly from fermenter number two to the keg. This is accomplished with a syphon. In this case it is a auto-syphon (MUCH more sanitary than trying to start a syphon with your mouth) and it makes the whole process pretty easy. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is to make sure the bottom of the auto-syphon does not touch the bottom of the carboy where the left over yeast cake is sitting. You are trying to leave the sediment in the carboy but take all of the beautiful beer you can get. And yes that is another batch of beer sitting up there with the beer we are moving. We started a new batch of a Christmas Ale that we found and enjoy.

After all of the beer is transferred to the keg you close it up and put it where it will get cold, either a refrigerator or in our case the kegerator. We charge it slightly with Co2 and "burp" it. This releases the air (oxygen) out of the keg. At this pointt the beer is pretty safe from any contaminates and can be cold stored for long periods (right, like that will happen) .Tomorrow we will hook it up to the Co2 so it can begin carbonating the beer. We set our C02 level to 10psi. You are supposed to let it sit like this for a couple of weeks (the set it and forget it method) I will let you know if we make it that far! Perhaps one of these times I will document a process entitled Force Carbing the beer. This method can get you from the filling of the keg to 'decent' drinking beer in a matter of days.


Just wanted to show you the inside of the kegerator. My hubby even managed to get the new keg in there with the help of our monkey. Here is the new keg, next to another that has my favorite, Pecan Nut Brown Ale (Yummy). In the freezer section we keep our frosted glasses! Ready at any time! Come on over for a pint!

 We will be adding another pull to our kegerator as we realized that it will hold three kegs nicely and we have room for one more on the front. Yea, three taps all pouring delicious homebrew! Heaven!
 

Things to do with Apples

I have finally identified my favorite variety of apple. I prefer the flavor of the Fuji apple for eating. Honey-crisp makes a pretty amazing pie. But for today we will deal with the Fuji. I found a good sale on organic Fuji apples last week at the grocery store. And so I did what I normally do when I find my favorite apples on sale... I bought a bunch of them to play with. When I brought them home I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with them. I could make apple sauce, or even apple butter. But currently my favorite snack is dehydrated apples. So my snack food won out as I was running low.

When I am going to make my apple chips as my 4 year old likes to call them, I simply wash, quarter, core them and then slice them. The apples I was dealing with this time were HUGE, so one apple was filling a tray on my dehydrator.

I let them go for 4 to 6 hours at 135 degrees and then once I turn it off I let them sit. Most often overnight, this completes the dehydration process and leaves them crisp like chips.

Once I take them out of the dehydrator I put them in an airtight container for snacking. Another option is to put them into a freezer bag and seal it. The freezer bag is recommended because of its heavier plastic and keeps air out and the fruit from spoiling.

When you make these you can also sprinkle the slices with a mix of sugar and cinnamon. I normally just let the apple flavor shine through but have tried the other and it was very tasty. As much as I like these for a treat the four year old won't touch them. Some day she will figure out what she is missing.

When I was making these, I found that I had more apples than would fit in the dehydrator. Not enough to do a whole batch of apple sauce, but enough to do for immediate use. There were two large apples, with one I quartered and cored it and then because the four year old doesn't like the peels I peeled one. The other apple just got quartered and cored then I sliced them both into fair sized chunks and baked them. They don't need any added water as they produce their own juice. Once they were cooked until they were soft I let them cool and put them through the blender. Now we have enough apple sauce to enjoy in the short term.

The move to secondary - update on beer

Well, we waited for 10 days which is about average for the bubbles to stop or slow in the airlock.  It is time to check the specific gravity on the beer. It was where it needed to be! We moved from 1.054 to 1.012 exactly what it was supposed to do. Now there is a big nasty formula that will let you calculate the alcohol content but it is around 5% or so. Now we just need to move it over to the secondary fermenter to sit for another week or so. What it does in the secondary ferment is to clear. All of the particles that have been swirling around in the beer during its initial ferment will now settle to the bottom of the carboy. Leaving behind the beautiful amber liquid that we all know and love... Next stop will be the keg where we have to at least pretend to be patient enough to let it carbonate for two to three weeks.

Here is what the process looks like my handsome hubby was kind enough to take care of the syphon hose while I took pictures. Here we are draining it directly from the primary to the secondary. It starts off in a 6 gallon carboy allowing for air and movement for the fermentation process. Then we move it into a 5 gallon carboy where it does not allow for any room for air. It will ferment a little more but not noticeably. Its job here is to simply clarify.

What is left in the bottom of the primary fermenter is called the yeast cake, it is the yeast and other sediments from grains, as well as in this case pumpkin left in the whort during the brewing process.

Baking Bread

One of the first things that I took out of the store or started doing for my family was baking bread. I started looking at the list of ingredients on the packaging and realized it was not necessary. After looking in my favorite cookbook I realized that bread really only needed about 7 (yes only 7) ingredients. So I took control so to speak and decided to make it myself. OK here is a bit of a confession I LOVE to bake as well as work with yeast. It is a bit of a challenge but fun and rewarding. That and I figure over the course of a year I have saved a little over $400 off of our grocery bill! It has gotten to the point I don't like the store bought bread any longer. I much prefer the taste, texture and smell of my own bread and luckily so does my family.

I usually make bread at least once a week, sometimes twice. In the summer we use more as we are making more sandwiches. It is actually pretty easy to do the one thing is you need to make sure that you have time where you will at least be close to home to keep an eye on things.

I invested in a stand mixer a little more than a year ago and love it. You will see a lot of my buddy as it has proven to be a very versatile piece of equipment. I start off putting all of my wet ingredients together that need to be heated before they go into the flour into a small saucepan on the stove while this is heating to 120-125 degrees. It is easy to tell when you get to this temp because the butter will be ALMOST melted.

I put the flour and yeast into the stand mixer. According to my stand-mixers book I put all but the last two cups of flour into the bowl.

Then I add the heated liquid slowly into the flour and let the machine stir it for a minute and then slowly add the two cups of flour. Since I make the wheat bread I usually leave out a cup of both white and wheat flour to add at the end.

After all of the flour is added I just make sure that mixer is on the correct setting and let it go. It usually takes about 5 mintues for it to be completely mixed and ready to go for its first rise.

Next I take the bowl off the stand and remove the dough hook. I take the dough out and shape it into a ball and spray the bowl with no stick spray move it to a spot in the room that won't get a draft and will stay warm. Most often on top of the stove.

I let is sit there usually for 45-90 minutes and then punch it down and cut it in half. While it is resting I get the pans ready by spraying them and then I shape the dough into loaves and put them into the pans, cover them and let them rise. This time I let rise for 30-90 minutes (the variation of times is usually due to the different seasons the bread just rises faster in the summer).

After the second rise is completed I put it in the oven and let it bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees. While bread is simply amazing after it comes right from the oven, I have found that for slicing it needs to be completely cooled and will slice better the next day. That is why I try to bake a new batch when I see I only have a day or so of bread left.

The recipe is:

3-3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package yeast

1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoon butter
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Method is described above.

Enjoy the journey

I just have to put this out there. I think one of the most important things that I have learned in my journey to change how we eat. Is to filter the information that you get/hear from others. Last summer I was at a girlfriends baby shower and there was another Mom who felt the need to rain on my parade. I left there feeling like everything I had done or thought was WRONG! The dairy that I purchase my milk from (which is certified organic) according to her was not. The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that I belong to, while I know it is not certified organic, they grow as organic as possible. She made a point to tell me that while she was there she witnessed them spraying their fields. OK, I spray my tomato plants, but with organic spray. So her know it all attitude took me a while to regroup and carry on. I had to remind myself every time I thought of the conversation that it was MY journey NOT hers. I don't know why she got to me like she did. there are a lot of people who share their opinions with me and I just take what I want and don't worry about the rest.

One of my dear friends whom I get a lot of my ideas and information from is an avid prepper, not my gig. But I am more than happy to learn canning from her as well as other things. She is the one that taught me how to make brown sugar as well as the extracts. But I have no interest in stock piling enough food for my family to eat for a year in the event that civilization falls. She is big on canning meats, I think it is gross so don't expect to see any posts on canning meat. I can for my family to have healthier options for us to eat. I bake from scratch so that we are not eating preservatives or high fructose corn syrup, and it tastes better for less money.

I have blogs that I read that I find entertaining and I also get tips on canning and gardening. Again they are preppers and are working towards being self sufficient. While I admire what they are doing, it is not my journey.

We each have our own journey and need to be true to that. Not worrying what others think or feel. Like I tell my adult daughter who is trying to find her way as a new Mom. Don't worry about what other people say this is about your journey and what is best for you and your family. It is something that has become very clear to me over the past couple of years and when I can keep that in sight everything feels better and work out. When I loose sight of that is when I get in trouble.

Checking in on the beer

So it has been a few days since we have started our beer. I thought I would give you an update. It usually starts to bubble the day after you put it in the carboy, this shows that it is fermenting by eating up the sugars. During that phase it is usually really cloudy. This morning when I looked in on it, I noticed that it is starting to clear! This is after it has been sitting for 4 days, this is a good sign and what it is supposed to do. We will leave it where it is for 3-10 more days as we are not in a big hurry and then move it over to the secondary ferment. This is where it clears up even more.

While the beer is fermenting you need to make sure that all sunlight is blocked out. If it gets too much light it becomes "skunky" and you have just lost a batch of beer. So we leave it wrapped during the day and adore it after the sun has gone down. Yes, we let it ferment in the kitchen it is part of the adore it after the sun has gone down thing.

Here is what it looked like this morning. It is much clearer than yesterday!

Making Beer

So one thing about us... we try to make everything we can. It is all part of taking control of our food and how it is processed and handled. One of the things that we have brought in house is beer. This one is fun and is something that my husband and I do together. We realized that we were spending a lot of money on beer, and most often I wouldn't drink it because it turns out that I don't like the hoppy flavor. With brewing our own we have been able to reduce the cost spent on beer and been able to tailor it to our tastes. Luckily my husband isn't a big fan of hops either. So there was a little investment up front to purchase the equipment but it translates to other areas nicely too. Such as I can use the big stock pot (20 quart) for canning.

We usually purchase a beer kit online and it comes with most of the ingredients and is ready to go. A couple of the speciality beers require additional items such as pumpkin for the pumpkin beer or pecans for the roasted pecan nut brown (my personal favorite). Once you have the recipe you can also purchase the ingredients from local brew stores, but we have found that the price is about the same to just buy the kit.

This weekend we decided it was time to do a pumpkin beer and so after the kit and all of pumpkin together we started a brew. The one thing that you have to do the morning of or the evening before is to "pop" your yeast (if you are using liquid yeast). Once the yeast is swollen (meaning that it activated) you start with everything else. For the pumpkin beer you can use fresh or canned, and since it is the wrong time of year for fresh pumpkin we used canned. I put the pumpkin in a pan and baked it at around 315 for 20 minutes. This releases the pumpkin smell and flavor nicely.  Then I put it into a brew bag and let it seep along with the grains for 20 minutes as the water was getting hot (in this step it goes up to 170 ).

After the everything has seeped for the 20 minutes it is time to bring it to a boil and this is usually where you add all of your malt, this recipe had both liquid and dry malts.  After you get all of the malts added and dissolved you bring it to a boil.

Once it is at a boil you add in your hops and start your timer. This is the step where we usually change it up a bit because as I said before we are not big fans of hops. So we cut it in half and add it in. The wort as it is called boils for about an hour and in the last 5 minutes you add pumpkin spice or what they call the aroma for the beer.

Now comes the tricky part, you have to take almost 3 gallons of boiling wort and cool it to 80 in 20 minutes. We use what is called a wort chiller to do this, it is usually done in a little over 5 minutes this way. A wort chiller is a coil of copper that you connect a garden hose to and let cold water going through it cools the wort as it goes through.

After it is cool it is time to put it into the carboy, we use a big funnel to get this done. Once all of the wort has been added you top it off with enough water to achieve the amount stated in the recipe in this case 5 gallons.

Once the water is added you put a bung in the top of the carboy and shake it to mix everything up. Then you take a measurement to check the specific gravity of the beer. The recipe will state what it should be in this case we were looking for 1.054.

After you make sure that the specific gravity is where it should be you add the yeast, shake it again and put it to bed. It will sit in this carboy and ferment for 1 to 2 weeks. And then it gets moved to another carboy to continue the ferment for another week. Here it will "clarify" or the beer will clear and look more like you are used to seeing.  After it is done in the secondary you can either bottle it or put it in a keg to start the carbonation process.

Look for more pictures as the beer goes along.