Homemade Wine – Wine “Blankets”
Our home wine making is bubbling along nicely, with eight 1-gallon batches currently underway. Restarting this process in winter has made consistent temperature an issue on the homestead, particularly during the primary fermentation period. Unless it’s particularly cold, say below 20º, we don’t burn the woodstove overnight. The log walls hold heat well, and the [...]
Book Review – The Alaskan Bootlegger’s Bible
Every human pursuit or interest has its armchair advocates, the vicarious followers. For armchair brewers, there is The Alaskan Bootlegger’s Bible, by Leon W. Kania. This book contains the best plain-folks, here’s-how-it-happens explanations of wine making, beer brewing, and distilling.
Homemade Wine – Homemade Airlocks
The airlock or fermentation lock is an essential tool of wine making. This device allows the carbon dioxide (CO2) that yeast produces as it converts sugars to alcohol to escape without allowing oxygen or contaminants to get into the wine. Airlocks are cheap if you have a local supplier, but even cheaper to make with [...]
Homemade Wine – “A New Hope”
To the many comforting, homey sounds coming from our cabin these days, we’ve added one more: the quiet, bubbling click of an airlock. Despite several disappointing attempts, we’ve begun making wine again. I’ve reviewed all the information at hand, and narrowed it down to a basic plan of action that is similar to what we’ve [...]
Homemade Wine – Articles Revisited
Good morning and happy Friday to you. Let’s continue with our tradition of diving into our archives to resurface four posts from the past. As usual, we’re focusing on a single topic – wine making. And, we’re going to stick with a single writer like we did last week. Today let’s look at what insights [...]
Adventures in Wine Making – Ethyl Acetate
A year ago today, I wrote about saving homemade wine that had not turned out well by mulling it. This year, we’re grateful to have gained that knowledge, because this Christmas we have a lot of homemade wine that didn’t turn out! Our new motto: “When all else fails, Wassail!” Our last batch of wine, [...]
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