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Learn about Norton grapes, an American original, plus how to make Norton wine.

Bray's One Month Mead (aka "BOMM") is a mead that is completely drinkable in 1 month. It is the result of a series of yeast screen with various ale yeasts done by Bray Denard (loveofrose on the forums). This recipe has numerous variations found on Got Mead? and... #BOMM #onemonthmead #quickmead

#meadmaking #recipes

Country wines. The name evokes a cottage in a peaceful countryside, set amid fields of lush vegetation, with birds and bees blissfully coasting on the late-summer breeze. Imagine hearing someone in the distance humming contentedly. (Music lovers can imagine the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.) The scene slowly comes into focus as someone with a broad smile carefully bottles and corks a special elixir. Surely it must be a wine made from the bounty of the land. In the wine world, if you ask a viticulturist to define the word “fruit,” he or she would probably tell you it is “the grape.” The origin of the word “wine” is from the Latin word “vinum,” or vineyard. So a strict definition of wine is the fermented beverage made from grapes. But over the years the definition has been extended to include the juices of fruits and berries. “Country wines” is the informal term that has been used for years to define fermented beverages made from the juices of fruits, vegetables or flowers. The broadest definition of wine could also include

#winemaking

Many home winemakers are uncertain on whether or not to have their wines go through malolactic fermentation. This is not surprising since there is no “one size fits all” approach to the decision and using malolactic fermentation (MLF) depends on the type and style of wine that you are trying to make. Malolactic fermentation has a big effect on the flavor and stability of a wine and therefore it is important to fully understand how it works and what it does so you can make the correct winemaking decision in your cellar. What is Malolactic Fermentation (MLF)? Like the alcoholic fermentation done by yeast that converts grape juice into wine, malolactic fermentation is also accomplished by the action of microbes. Yeast are a type of unicellular fungi that consume sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). Malolactic fermentation is carried out by malolactic bacteria that consume the malic acid in wine and produce lactic acid and CO2. Lactic acid is the type of acid that is also found in milk. Alcoholic fermentation begins before malolactic fermentation and is usually

#malolactic fermentation #winemaking

You may be curious about a way of making wine intermediate between using fresh fruit and making kit wines. Increasingly popular, the hobby of making wine from grape juice comes in two formats: sterile and frozen. In turning these juices into fine wine, the winemaker uses steps and processes from both the fresh and concentrate sides of the practice. Frozen juice for winemaking got its start in the 1970s when Peter Brehm (now of Brehm Vineyards) owned a homebrew shop in Berkeley, California. At that time, North American wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) were mainly grown in California and a few other places, and that severely limited the options for home winemakers. Since the days of Prohibition, some fresh grapes had made their way to eastern US and Canadian cities by rail, though they often didn’t arrive in the best of shape. Brehm wondered if it might be possible to put red grapes through a stemmer/crusher, and freeze the unfermented must. White grapes could be both crushed and pressed, with only the juice frozen. Once put in buckets, frozen and stored,

#winemaking #grapes

Hop heads can take a break from drinking IPAs as more and more cidermakers are adding hops to their beverages.

#cidermaking #hops

A sea change seizing the world of white wine making dashes long-held notions of how it should be made—and how the resulting wines should t

The technique is called “pre-oxidation,” which might be confused with premature oxidation, but is actually just the opposite. Casually, it’s known as “juice browning,” which sounds mildly unsavory but is exactingly descriptive: After coming from the press, the new must, or juice, is exposed to oxygen, sometimes for a day or more, before fermentation begins. Often the pressing itself incorporates oxygen, too—a direct reversal of what was, until recently, considered good practice. The young juice grows murky, sometimes resembling apple juice or Coca-Cola.

If this process sounds risky, consider what happens next. As fermentation takes place, that brown juice turns into bright, clear young wine.

#winemaking #grapes #oxidation

Maple Apple Wine (1gal)

Ingredients:

40 oz pure maple syrup (any type is fine)

1/3 c brown sugar

~3 qt apple juice with no preservatives (look for potassium sorbate especially)

1/4 tsp Lalvin 71B yeast

#my brews #winemaking #apples #maple syrup

IPA-hopped Braggot Recipe (1gal)

My father’s birthday is in September, and he loves IPAs. I’ve recently gotten into meadmaking, so I thought I would create an IPA-hopped braggot (beer/mead hybrid) for him. If all goes well, it should be ready just in time!

Ingredients:

1 lb Briess pale dry malt extract

1/2 lb honey (I used Trader Joe’s “mostly mesquite” honey)

1/3 oz. Centennial pellet hops

1/3 oz. Citra pellet hops

1/3 oz. Cascade pellet hops

1 oz. Centennial leaf hops

Spring water to 1 gallon

SafAle US-05 yeast (I used an entire 11g packet)

Priming sugar/carbonation drops/honey

Primary Fermentation:

Start a boil with the malt extract and several cups of water. Add the Centennial pellet hops when it comes to a boil and boil for 60 minutes. Top up water as necessary, but don’t exceed 3/4 gallon total.

After turning off the heat, add the Citra and Cascade pellet hops.

Add to fermentation vessel, mix in the honey, and top up with water.

While this is cooling to room temperature, begin a yeast starter with some of the warm liquid and some water.

When the must comes down to room temperature, pitch the starter.

Secondary Fermentation:

After 2 weeks, rack onto the Centennial leaf hops and leave for 2 more weeks.

Carbonate with priming sugar/carbonation drops/honey when bottling.

#my brews #homebrewing #mazer #braggot

check out that color after and before. key lime melomel 1gal, just racked to secondary

#my brews #meadmaker #mazer #melomel

It was the writer Mark Twain who phrased it best, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” What does this have to do with wine bottles? Quite a lot, really. Next time you have occasion to be in the wine aisle of your local store, look at the shapes, colors and sizes of the different bottles. Chances are your wine purchase will be influenced by the look of the bottle nearly as much as the variety of grape or the cost of the contents. The package makes the product. While there’s no definitive rule which states that a particular variety of wine must be stored in a specific style of bottle, winemakers have found their wines are better accepted if packaged in their traditional vessels. The preference to pair a wine with a bottle of a particular style, size and color is as much history as habit and dates back to the dawn of viniculture itself. Bottles through time Archeological excavations in the Near East have uncovered numerous glass and ceramic containers dating back

#bottling

Find your favorite terroir for Texas honey.

#meadmaker #honey

In the mid-1800s the wine industry in France was teetering on failure because grapevines were dying by the wagonload, but a transplanted Texan, and wild grapes from Bell County, saved it all.

#grapes #winemaking