Making your own cider

The internet is a wealth of amazing knowledge! Especially when it comes to making alcohol at home.

A while back I stumbled on an awesome page describing exactly what i'd need: http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/making.html

This step by step tutorial was just what i needed to get me started.I picked up a gallon of Whole Foods Organic apple juice, borrowed a stopper from a friend and was ready to go. Well, ready to go after buying an airlock, some sanitizer and some amazing happy live English Cider Yeast from White Labs.

The first batch ended up being super tasty! Even though i brewed it with the ever classy balloon method, since i didn't have the right sized stopper for my first try. It didn't make it to bottling since i drank it all too fast out of the jug.

I'm a little spaced on nyquill right now, but the moral of the story is organic apple juice makes yummy cider. Other apple juice makes ok cider. More on this topic later.

I'm really tempted to throw some concentrates in with some water and yeast to see what happens..... Purple Jesus anyone?

That wine that starts with a G

I still don't know how to pronounce this, but a friend brought over a bottle of homemade Gewurztraminer on Saturday.

Please note, the color looked nothing like this in person. I was actually a pleasant mellow color, to match its fairly pleasant mellow flavor. The maker, Mike (no not the asshole who dumped me for jesus... i may or may not have relayed that story here) but a friend who works up near Chicago, admitted to losing half the sweetening pouch. He may or may not have accidentally dropped a bunch of it on the floor instead of in the wine brewing bucket. The lack of sweetness was actually quite pleasant in this wine. 

The one downside was a slight off flavor. Mike says the wine may have oxidized a bit, how unfortunate. Overall, not a bad try. I think i'll buy a bottle to see if this type of wine is for me. In its unoxidized form of course. 

Here is your wine knowledge for today:

Gewurztraminer is made from a cool weather white wine grape. Nifty. Apparently it shares some of its aromatic compounds with lychees. If you haven't tired those, you should, they are quite good.

Ok, off to do more work. Sigh.

Happy Wednesday!