Over the last year I have fermented 2 wines. One was a Cabernet Sauvignon and the other was an Argentinean Malbec. The Malbec came out a lot better than the Cabernet did, in my honest opinion. I just used better ingredients and a better grape stock. I love wine, but I was looking for another hobby. A hobby that didn’t take a year or do finish. I decided to start Basement Brewing some microbrews.
I started a blog on Blogger about the basement brewing process. This is where I will be posting all my experiments with recipes, brewing ideas, and basement brewing equipment. Jump on over and read about my first concoction, a Dunkelweizen. Yumm.
Posted on: November 20th, 2007
After 8 months bulk aging in it’s carboy, Jeff Louella Malbec 2007 has finally been bottled and labeled. The must was created from Winexpert’s 100% Argentinean grown Malbec grapes. The fermentation went great and the wine came out nice. I just bottled today. They say the wine needs to become bottle conditioned. I put less than the average amount of Potassium Metabisulphite, so the wine may not age for 10 years, but then again, it is not full of chemical preservatives like commercial wines are. It will be at it’s best in another year and should be prime for the next 5 years.
Posted on: October 14th, 2007
My Cabernet Sauvignon is now sleeping quietly for a couple of months. I stopped fermentation about 2 weeks ago, added the clearing agents, and then racked it into a clean carboy to bulk age for a month or so. Making wine really tests my ability to take it slow.
Last night I took off the air lock for a second and took a little whiff. Mmmmm. Any issue with sulfur that I may have had before is now officially gone and has been replaced with the sweet smell of aging wine. I will let you know when I bottle it.
Posted on: February 12th, 2007
Though the site has been up for over five months now, I am finally getting around to posting on it. I’m playing catch up for all the missed posts in 2006.
Six guys, including myself, needed a reason to drink more. So we started a blog on beer. Mug Warrior is a blog on all things related to beer and beer culture. Currently the blog is using Wordpress with an open source template. Eventually we will get a kick ass design once we get all the posts rolling. So mosey on over to http://www.mugwarrior.com and have a drink or two with us.
Posted on: January 21st, 2007
I am new to the wine world and just learning to taste the diminutive details wine has to offer. From the nose to the finish, I can only detect about 2% of it all. I think the key to truly learning to taste wine is to dissect everything you eat, drink, and smell. I have always stuffed food down my throat, but wine is teaching me to slow it down and enjoy the flavors.
While reading wine blogs and watching video wine blogs, I keep running into people talking about Argentinean Malbec. So on the way home today, I decided to stop by the wine store and pick me up a bottle of Malbec with out reading anything about it before I hit the store.
I ended up with a bottle of QUARA Malbec. The label is playful and has a great quote on the back. “QUARA, For people who take living seriously, but don’t live too seriously.” That is a great motto to have.
With my limited experience, I can say this wine is tremendous. There is a ton of dark fruit flavor with spicy undertones. This wine would go great with steak or a buffalo chicken sandwich. Anything that is somewhat spicy. I am sipping a glass as I type this and it is making my mouth water for more.
As you all know, I am fermenting my first batch of wine, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon. I was going to ferment a batch of Pinot Noir for my next batch, but I am starting to think that Malbec may overthrow that decision. I will have to try another bottle of a different brand to tell.
Tastings.com gave this wine 90 points. I must agree. It is exceptional.
Posted on: January 16th, 2007
Not that there was much difficulty with siphoning out the wine in the fermentor and into the Carboy, but it was a step needed to be done. When the Specific Gravity of the must drops below 1.010, it is time to rack (aka siphon) into a sterile carboy (large glass jug).
My SG was around 1.005, so I was good to go. Mission accomplished. In addition, the H2S smell was a lot lighter. I think I am heading down the right path. I hope I did not oxidize the wine during the transfer.
I am happy of this step taken for simple one reason. My wine is now out of an opaque fermenting bucket and finally into a clear carboy. I get to watch the color change, the juice clear, and a wine come to life.
I now have to wait another 12 days until secondary fermentation is complete. From there I will add the Potassium Sorbate and the fining agent. I will write some more about them when the time is closer.
Posted on: January 15th, 2007
That smell would be my first batch of wine. Of course, the easy direction and simple process did not warn me of a special problem with the fermentation and the obnoxious rotten egg smell that could happen. Ah, this is nature at its finest. Turns out, I have a problem with some radical sulfur particles combining with some excess hydrogen and creating Hydrogen Sulfate (H2S).
After reading up on the issue and some ideas of what to do about it, I decided to hit the local Homebrew store and get some live help. This issue seems to happen from time to time and the big wineries use a solution of Copper Sulfate in a small, non-lethal dose. I say non-lethal because copper sulfate is poisonous. I am trying to stay away from poisoning my wine (and myself) just to have it smell good.
The kind gentleman at the store (Paul), ensured me that this happens periodically and most of the time, it clears itself up. There is also yeast nutrient and racking techniques that can help. Over the next week, I have to monitor the progress of the smell and act accordingly.
During this whole stink bomb explosion, I measured the specific gravity of the wine. I am down to 1.020. I only have .010 to go before racking into my carboy. I will do this on Monday night after 24. I am hoping once I remove the wine from the yeast sediment at the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel, the H2S rotten egg smell issue disappears. Paul from the homebrew shop told me to keep trying. I will gain a lot of experience at making wine dealing with issues when they arrive. Hopefully, this will be one lesson I pass.
Posted on: January 14th, 2007
So I am in day three of my primary fermentation and the yeasts are going wild. From what I have read, the first couple days of fermentation, the yeast are just growing and are more interested in reproducing than they are in converting sugar to alcohol. Now in day three, I can hear them fixing in their vessel from about 10 feet away. The air-lock, which is filled half way with distilled water, is bubbling up a storm. I still have about 5 days left before the next stage and I am excited to move the must from the solid primary fermentation vessel to the clear carboy for secondary fermentation.
I never though watching a little piece of plastic (the air-lock) with bubbling water could be so exciting. But I guess that is the science geek in me.
Posted on: January 11th, 2007
After a long time researching and tasting wine, I officially started my new hobby of winemaking. Since this is my first time, I didn’t buy fresh grapes, take off my shoes, and stomp press them for hours to extract the juice. My wife bought me a starter wine kit for Christmas off of E.C. Kraus with the concentrated juice of the Cabernet Sauvignon wine grape.
The instructions were pretty clear. The California Connoisseur juice kit came with pre-measured ingredients and a check list of what to do and when to do it. The grape juice had some water removed to reduce storage and shipping weights, so it was concentrated to about 2 gallons of juice. As per the directions, I topped up the juice to 6 gallons by adding natural spring water. I mixed in the pre measured Bentonite (a type of clay used in wine clarification.) and hydrated my yeast by leaving them in warm water for 15 minutes before mixing them into the must. I then put the lid onto the fermentation vessel and fitted it with an Air Lock to allow the C02 that the yeast creates to escape.
I have about 8-10 days until primary fermentation is complete. At that time I will siphon the wine into a Carboy for secondary fermentation. Instead of a glass carboy, I decided to go with a specially treated plastic “Better-Bottle”. These bottles offer many advantages over tradition glass carboys. The Better Bottle doesn’t break if you drop it. It also is a fraction of the weight of a glass carboy. Though I just started winemaking and I have never broken a glass carboy full of 6 gallons of red wine, I can just imagine the devastation that fermenting red wine would leave behind if mishandled and exploded all over the floor.
I am hoping to become well educated in winemaking and begin to order whole grapes during harvest time from the Napa Valley area. I would then de-stem, crush, press, and ferment the grapes in their own skins. I have also been reading up on making Aged Tripel Ale or Barley Wine. So I may have some 10%+ abv beer to sip by the fire.
This is a hobby that I will have the rest of my life to master and will benefit greatly from the hours of research and work. It sure will be nice having some of the best wine and beer for about a couple bucks a bottle.
Posted on: January 10th, 2007
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