I have some very exciting things in the works here at the 'brewery'!
First of all, I have purchased 5 gallons or so of frozen grape must for an attempt at making wine. I found some 2008 Chardonnay from
Sangiacomo family vineyards in California at a very reasonable price. I have purchased yeast and I am just waiting for the must to arrive so I can get it started!
The only homemade wine I have ever tasted was fairly disgusting, but I am hoping with my experience and knowledge I can make something palatable and maybe even good. Pricing it out, it'll cost me something like 5 dollars a bottle to make, so if it tastes at least as good as a 5 dollar bottle of wine, I'll be happy.
I will start fermentation in the bucket the must arrives in, and rack to secondary (better bottle) when the gravity is around 1.045. It'll go on 1 oz of new med toast Hungarian oak cubes and .5 oz of once used Hungarian oak. I will introduce the malolactic cultures in the late spring or early summer, and bottle sometime next winter.
Also on my radar- old stout. I will probably get this started towards the end of the month. I'll brew a basic stout, but remove two quarts and ferment that with lactobacillus before pasteurizing and adding back to the main fermentor. Guinness most notably, adds a portion of soured beer to their stout to produce that unique tang. I will also ferment solely with Brettanomyces and add some oak as well.
Also also on my radar- my
historical Saison will be bottled in March and I'll need something to take it's place. I love
Petrus' Aged Pale, and I'll be brewing something in that vein. In the past it seemed like 2 years of fermentation was more than I wanted to handle, but my opinion on that has changed.
Some labels...
