January - March 2009 Blog Archives

Red Beans and Rice

Posted by: Greg on January 2nd, 2009

As far back as I can remember, red beans and rice has always been a staple dish in my family. Of all the meals I like to cook and eat, red beans and rice is by far my favorite. It's delicious, it's cheap, it's simple and it satisfies like no other meal. One pound of kidney beans feeds my family of four with no problem and take it from me, there are some big eaters living underneath my roof.

One cannot live in the south without having a good recipe for Red Beans & Rice, so I think it is about time that I share my own recipe for this traditional Louisiana dish.

 

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Soak the beans overnight in water, if possible. Sauté sweet Italian red onion, bell pepper, scallions and garlic in olive oil in a large pan until translucent, drain and set aside. Drain the beans that have been soaking and place them in a large pot filled with Swanson chicken broth. Add your seasoning meat (large ham hock or pickled pork and sausage) to the beans along with the other ingredients. Bring beans to a boil, cover with lid and reduce heat to simmer. Let beans simmer for 3 - 4 hours or until tender (I like my beans falling apart). Serve over hot white long-grain rice.

When the beans are simmering, make sure to stir them thoroughly to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot especially when they start making that rich red gravy. Also check the liquid level and add water if the gravy gets too thick. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mixed Berry Wine

Posted by: Greg on January 11th, 2009

Last year, we made a 5 gallon batch of mixed berry wine and we gave out all the wine to friends and family and the feedback that we received from everyone was good. This year we decided to do a little more experimenting on our original recipe by adding more cranberry concentrate to 2009's batch and adding a couple of cans of Welch's White Grape Raspberry Concentrate to bring out the raspberry flavor in the wine. A couple of days ago, I started a 6 gallon batch of the wine in my new 9 gallon Tuff-Tank that was purchased late last year from E.C. Kraus. I never got a chance to use the new fermenter, because our winemaking was put on the back burners at least until Christmas was over with. Our budget gets a little tight around Christmas time, I'm sure you can relate to that.

If you are looking for frozen mixed berries, Sam's club carries 48 oz bags of Townsend Farms Triple Berry Blend for $8.48 a bag.

 

Ingredients:

24lbs of Frozen Mixed Berries (Blackberry, Raspberry, Blueberry)
2 - 11.5 oz cans of Welch's White Grape Raspberry Concentrate
6 - 11.5 oz cans of Welch's Cranberry Concentrate
8lbs sugar
1/8 tsp of Pectic Enzyme (liquid)
12 tsp Acid Blend (2 tsp per gal)
6 tsp Yeast Nutrient (1 tsp per gal)
3 tsp Yeast Energizer (½ tsp per gal)
¾ tsp Tannin (1/8 tsp per gal)
6 Campden Tablets (1 per gal)

Orange Pineapple Apple Wine Experiment

Posted by: Greg on January 17th, 2009

Just recently, I was browsing through an online discussion forum to see if any members was experimenting with different combinations of fruit to make wine from and I came across a subject that caught my attention. It seems several members of this particular forum made wine from Welch's Orange Pineapple Apple concentrate and judging from their comments, they seem real pleased with the results of their experiment. A recipe was posted by one member that had made the wine, but he made a full bodied wine and I really didn't want to go all out until at least I make an experimental batch of the wine and see if I like or not.

I modified the original recipe that was posted to make it a lighter wine. Later in the aging process, I'll sample the wine to see if I like the wine or not and if it proves to be a good experiment, I'll probably sweeten it just a tad.

 

Ingredients (Makes one gallon):

2½ - 11.5 oz can of Welch's Orange Pineapple Apple Frozen Concentrate
1 - 11.5 oz can of Welch's White Grape Concentrate
enough sugar to reach an S.G. of 1.090
1/8 tsp of Pectic Enzyme (liquid)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
½ tsp Yeast Energizer
1/8 tsp Tannin
Lalvin EC1118 Yeast

 

You probably noticed I didn't use any Acid Blend to raise the acidity of the must, because it really didn't need any adjusting. I tested the TA (Total Acidity) of the must when I put all the ingredients together and it was rather high for a fruit wine - 0.80%. I had to cut the must with some water and a small amount of dissolved sugar to get the TA down to 0.67%. Also, Welch's concentrates contain a lot of dissolved sugar (32-36g per can), so I really didn't need to add much sugar to bring the S.G. up to 1.090.

Controlling Fermentation Temperatures

Posted by: Greg on January 2nd, 2009

As a winemaker living in the deep south, I've encounter a challenge in maintaining proper fermentation temperatures during the hot summer months. During the daytime hours, the outside temperature can reach in the mid 90's and the high humidity makes it feel even hotter. It doesn't cool off much at night (lower 80's) unless an evening thunderstorm rolls in and cool things down. Normally I keep the ambient temperature inside my house at 72º. The majority of the time, when I'm fermenting wine, I need to keep the must cooler than 72º, so I use a simple method to help control the fermentation temperature of the must during the summer months which I will go into more details in the paragraphs below.

When yeast begin to multiply and convert sugar into alcohol, their activity generates heat inside the primary vessel. If left unchecked, the internal temperature of the must will rise beyond ideal temperature ranges and cause the flavor of the wine to suffer. This is because of the increased production of unwanted enzymes by the yeast and the possible growth of micro-organisms that thrive in warmer temperatures. Generally, the optimum temperature for white wine is 64 - 68° F, but some winemakers choose to ferment lower than 64°. Red wine can be fermented up to 80° F, but I ferment my red wine under 70° to bring out more fruit flavors.

As I mentioned earlier, I use a simple cooling method using a 32 Gallon Rubbermaid that I cut in half. I fill the can with just enough cool water to partially submerge my 6 gallon primary bucket down in the water. I keep enough water in the can to keep the primary from floating, but if it does float, the sides of garbage can prevents the primary from tipping over. When the temperature rises in the primary, I throw enough ice in the water surrounding the primary to bring the internal temperature down to an ideal range. The room that I use to ferment wine has a ceiling fan and I keep it on a medium speed to help keep the room cool. With the ceiling fan going and the cool water in the garbage can, I usually don't have to adjust my AC thermostat lower than 72º to maintain ideal fermentation temperatures. I have three females in my house that are cold-natured so I have to keep the ambient temperature inside my home at 72º, anything less I definitely would hear about it!

When I rack from the primary to the secondary, I remove the primary and submerge the glass carboy in the cool water until fermentation is complete, which takes about 2 more weeks. I add more cool water to the garbage can to bring the level of water up to the neck of the carboy. We have well water and we don't pretreat our water with chlorine, but I do add some bleach to the water to give it a residual to keep any scum from forming on top of the water. It doesn't take much effort using this simple method and it works like a dream.

Bottle Shock

Posted by: Greg on Feburary 8th, 2009

“Bottle Shock” is a reaction that occurs in wine immediately after corking, resulting from oxygen being absorbed during the bottling process. This small amount of oxygen introduced during this process will not usually oxidize or ruin your wine, but rather in the long run it helps during the maturation process.

Bottle Shock is characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavors in the wine. The wine may have a flat flavor and aroma, and may sometimes be accompanied by an off-putting odor. Bottle Shock can also be caused if sulfur dioxide is added during the bottling process, also affecting the flavors and odor of the wine.

Bottle Shock is a temporary condition and your wine will need time to get over the shock of being transferred. The wine must rest and recover, working inside the bottle to reach a new equilibrium.

There are no solid rules for how long the wine should rest in order for the Bottle Shock to dissipate. Some sources say a few days of rest will cure Bottle Shock. Others state that Bottle Shock dissipates within a few weeks.

The amount of time required for the wine to rest will vary depending upon the variety of grape, vinting process, wine style, cellar conditions, size of bottle, etc. While many variables affect the equilibrium process, usually after 8-12 weeks, the Bottle Shock will subside.

Strawberry Zinfandel

Posted by: Greg on Feburary 21st, 2009

Last year, my wife and I made a new years resolution to each other that we would experiment with blends of fruit and grape varietals. To make good on our resolution we decided to try a blend of fresh Louisiana sweet strawberries and white zinfandel. There are strawberry white zinfandel kits available to the home winemaker, such as Orchard Breezin, Niagara Mist, and Island Mist. Purchasing one of these kits would definitely take the guess work out of coming up with a recipe to follow since there really isn't a recipe on the net that I could find. Instead of purchasing a kit, we surrendered to our creative skills and let it inspire us to come up with a recipe. Kinda of risky, but like someone once told me; how do you know if you don't try it!

We wanted to keep the cost as reasonable as possible since this is only an experiment, so we decided to make a 5 gallon batch of this wine using Sun Cal concentrated white zinfandel grape juice purchased from E.C. Kraus and fresh Louisiana strawberries purchased locally. Below is the recipe that we came up with for this wine:

 

ingredients (5 gallon)

2 - 46oz cans of Sun Cal concentrated white zinfandel grape juice.
15lbs of fresh strawberries.
Enough water to bring to 5 gal
6lbs of sugar.
10 tsp of Acid Blend.
5 tsp of Yeast Nutrient.
2½ tsp of Yeast Energizer.
5 tsp of Pectic Enzyme.
5/8 tsp of Tannin. (1/8 per gal)
1 packet of Lalvin RC212

 

Starting SG: 1.084
pH: 3.2
TA (Total Acidity): 0.60%

 

I've used Lalvin RC212 on a couple of batches of red wines that I made before in the past, but I experienced problems with H2S after fermentation and I'm pretty sure that the yeast nutrient that I was using didn't supply enough nitrogen for the yeast. RC212 requires high nitrogen nutrient additions to avoid the potential development of H2S, so to avoid another situation with H2S, I supplemented the fermentation with yeast energizer to bring the nitrogen level up in the must.

Only time will tell if our experiment is a success or not. We are definitely excited about this batch and can't wait to get a chance to taste it once the wine has time to age. We'll definitely keep everyone uptodate on our progress.

Tea Wine Update

Posted by: Greg on March 8th, 2009

Back in November 08, my wife and I fermented a batch of tea wine. Before we attempted to make a batch, I searched the net to see if I could find articles written by fellow home winemaker bloggers who had made the wine or at least find some comments by people who had drank the wine. During my search, I did run across a blog that had a tea wine recipe posted on it and the author stated that the wine didn't actually taste like tea. I also ran across several other blogs where I found comments left behind by other people that indicated the same, so we decided to try it ourselves.

To make a long story short, we fermented the wine with no problems and we used Kitosol 40; a fining agent that works quick and it cleared the wine perfectly. The wine has been resting comfortably in our cellar for several months and last week, my wife and I sampled the wine for the first time. I waited until my wife tasted the wine first before I did because I wanted to see her expression and from the look on her face, I knew something wasn't right. I went ahead and tasted the wine and according to my wife, my expression wasn't much better.

The acidity of the wine was perfect, but the flavor is what threw the circuit breaker on our taste buds. I thought the wine tasted like unsweetened tea but with an alcoholic kick. My wife compared the taste to that of bourbon, almost like drinking Jack Daniels straight except our wine (12%) wasn't near the alcohol range of Jack Daniels. The wine was properly degassed, so I know CO2 wasn't an issue regarding the taste. The wine was too tannic and lacked a clean taste, sorta like drinking ice tea with no sugar added. I'm from the south and I like my ice tea on the sweet side, but we don't like sweet wine and the only way this wine would taste up to our standards would be to sweeten it. Perhaps more aging will help this wine out, but right now its not very good!

Mocha Coffee Wine

Posted by: Greg on March 15th, 2009

One of the many good things about being an amateur winemaker, you can be as creative as you want provided that you keep the cost of your experiment as reasonable as possible just in case your experiment turns out blah!! Just today, my wife and I decided to tap into our creative side and make a wine that we've read about on several winemaking forums. The wine we are attempting to make is Mocha coffee wine! Sounds tasty doesn't it?

Jack Keller's website has several recipes for this wine and we chose the one that uses instant mocha coffee as its main ingredient. Below is the recipe that we chose:

 

1¼ cup instant mocha coffee
2½ lbs light brown sugar
1½ tsp citric acid
¼ tsp tannin
7 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Lalvin EC1118 yeast

 

Jack's recipe called for Pasteur Red or Cote Des Blancs wine yeast, but we didn't have those particular yeast strains so we decided to use Lalvin EC1118 yeast. Also, we didn't have to use as much brown sugar as the recipe calls for, because the instant mocha coffee that we purchased from Sam's Club already contained sugar. We ended up using 8 pounds of light brown sugar for a 6 gallon batch of wine. The starting SG of the must was 1.096 which was a little high for our liking, but I didn't want to cut the must anymore with water. Only time will tell if our experiment turns out good. I'll keep everyone updated as soon as I know something.

Snake Wine

Posted by: Greg on March 15th, 2009

Just the other day, I was randomly searching the net for other wine blogs and I happen to run across a blog that had a picture of several cobras stuff inside 3 wine bottles! At first, I thought someone had photoshopped the picture to make it look like cobras in the bottles, but this wasn't the case after I researched snake wine.

According to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia:

Snake wine is an alcoholic beverage that includes a whole venomous snake in the bottle. It originated in Vietnam and can be found around Southeast Asia. The snakes, preferably venomous ones, are not usually preserved for their meat but to have the snake poison dissolved in the liquor. However, the snake venom is denatured by the ethanol; its proteins are unfolded and therefore inactivated.

It originated in Vietnam and spread throughout the region of Southeast Asia and Southern China. Snakes are widely believed to possess medicinal qualities and the wine is often advertised to cure everything from farsightedness to hair loss, as well as to increase sexual performance. However, many of these claims are likely exaggerated to attract buyers. It is illegal to import snake wine to many countries including the United States because the cobras and other snakes killed in the production are often endangered species.

I've heard of people eating barbeque and fried Rattlesnake which is popular in ceratin parts of Texas, but I've never heard of someone drinking wine or liquor with a snake preserved in it! This definitely is a new on me! I've done some wild and crazy things in my life, but I don't think I could get passed the vision of a snake stuck in my mind to taste this wine!

 

 

PAGE UPDATED 01.30.2010

 

 

Geaux Tigers