Help My Wine Making! Episode 13 Scott “The Wine Making Guy” A Salute to All of My Fellow Resolution Keepers and The Fallout of Letting your Airlocks Run Dry
June 26, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Featured, Podcast, Resolution Keepers
See you next week where we’ll be discussing a great way to test your wines at various stages throughout the aging process … 
Have a great week!
How can I Get the Most Fruit from my Fruit Trees?
June 19, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Food and Drink
When planting fruit trees, most gardeners are not simply looking for a pretty addition to the garden: they are also hoping for a crop of delicious fruit in the years to come. While fruit trees are quite lovely, sometimes yields of fruit can be disappointing, specially in the early years. There are a few ways to get the most out of fruit trees, ranging from planting them in the most optimal place to proper pruning. Fruit trees require attention to fruit evenly and well, and they are not low-maintenance trees by any stretch of the imagination if the gardener wants to get a serious crop.
Proper plant placement starts with sandy or loamy soil. Fruit trees do not like dense soils heavy in clay, and if the soil is not appropriate, it should be conditioned before planting. The soil should drain well, and the area where the fruit trees are planted should be minimally exposed to wind. Fruit trees like to get at least six hours of sun each day, so keep that in mind when planting them, keeping the fruit trees evenly spaced and out of the shadow of bigger trees.
If possible, scope out the garden in the spring the year before planting to see where frost most commonly forms. Pockets of frost can damage trees and significantly reduce fruit yield. Therefore, many gardeners recommend planting fruit trees on a slope, if possible, and away from divots or pockets in the ground that may frost over when the rest of the garden is fine. Be aware when planting fruit trees that most take at least two years to flower and begin yielding fruit. Fruit trees are a study in patience, and the first few years are an opportunity to prune for the best tree shape, fertilize the trees, and establish them so that when they begin to flower, they will produce a crop of excellent fruit.
Excessive nitrogen in the soil may lead to the development of too many leaves and not enough fruit. Likewise, nitrogen added late in the season may lead to degraded fruit quality. A great source of fertilizer is healthy compost layered in mulch, and if chickens or other fowl are allowed to wander the orchard, they will turn the fertilizer, eat grubs and bugs, and do a little fertilizing of their own.
Proper pruning is also vital to the care of fruit trees. Apples, pears, cherries, and plums all produce their highest quality and most plentiful fruit on two to three year old wood. When pruning these trees, keep this fact in mind, and make sure there are a large number of older spurs in the tree on which buds can form. Peaches, however, grow on spurs from the year before. Various fruit trees prefer wood of various ages, and a thoughtful pruner will balance the growth and the fruit on the tree to get the best yield.
Sometimes, trees produce a bumper crop of fruit, which seems promising but actually leaches the tree’s energy and will result in a smaller crop the next year, as well as smaller and lower quality fruit in the bumper year. Crops of fruit that are too big should be carefully culled to reduce weight that may break the branches and to distribute the tree’s energy in an efficient manner. Pollination is also important for many species of fruit, especially apples. The best way to enhance pollination is to keep bees in the garden, which will pollinate your fruit trees and provide flavorful honey in exchange. Where beekeeping is not feasible, some gardeners graft multiple varieties of apple onto one tree, hand pollinate, or distribute sweetened water to attract pollinating insects.
All of the above factors combine with weather conditions to influence fruit production. The cardinal rules for getting the most out of your fruit trees are tender loving care, thoughtful maintenance, and patience. Fruit trees can provide large, dependable yields for over one hundred years if well cared for, leaving a legacy that can be eaten for generations.
How Are Nonalcoholic Beer and Wine Made?
March 9, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Ask The Wine Making Guy, Beer, Tips
I was recently asked this questions via my blog and found this great article that explains the process.
Certainly worth reading.
How Are Nonalcoholic Beer and Wine Made?
By Jason Horn
Secrets of fake booze revealed
How are nonalcoholic beer and wine made?
Put simply, you make alcoholic beer or wine, and then remove the alcohol. You do this by distilling the beverage, as if you were going to make liquor. But rather than save the booze and throw out the rest, you throw out the booze.
When you make alcohol, you typically heat up whatever it is you’re distilling to boil off the alcohol (which you collect in vapor form, then cool back into liquid). It doesn’t matter all that much if the water, syrups, herbs, and whatever else that’s in your base get a little cooked in the process, because you’re tossing out most of that in the end anyway. When making nonalcoholic beverages, though, maintaining the flavor of the base is important, because you’ll save that part, and you want it to taste as much like real beer or wine as possible. So you don’t want to cook it.
There are two ways to get the booze out that don’t require high heat. The first is a process called vacuum distillation. The beer or wine is put under a vacuum. The change in atmospheric pressure allows the producer to boil the liquids at a lower temperature, or in some cases with no heat at all, and distill off the alcohol.
The second process is called reverse osmosis, and is the same method often used to purify drinking water. It doesn’t require any heating. The wine or beer is passed through a filter with pores so small that only alcohol and water (and a few volatile acids) can pass through. The alcohol is distilled out of the alcohol-water mix using conventional distillation methods, and the water and remaining acids are added back into the syrupy mixture of sugars and flavor compounds left on the other side of the filter. Bingo—a nonalcoholic (or dealcoholized, as winemakers call it) brew.
But do nonalcoholic beers and wines taste the same as alcoholic ones? Almost. Most of the flavor of real beer and wine comes from the grain or grapes, plus flavor compounds from the fermentation and aging process. Nonalcoholic beers and wines still have all that. Alcohol in the real stuff contributes mouthfeel and a small amount of flavor. It actually makes wine taste sweeter, says Jeff Meier, vice president of winemaking for J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, which makes Ariel nonalcoholic wines. This means that a dealcoholized wine needs about 2.5 percent residual sugar content to best match a completely dry (no residual sugar) alcoholic wine.
“Nonalcoholic” beverages still contain some alcohol, because it’s difficult and prohibitively expensive to get every single bit of it out. In order to be called nonalcoholic under federal laws, a beverage can contain up to half a percent of alcohol by volume. (Something with no alcohol at all is called alcohol-free.) So people who are forbidden to drink alcohol, like devout Muslims, can’t partake in so-called nonalcoholic beer and wine. Nor can people under the age of 21, according to the law. It takes about 10 nonalcoholic malt beverages to equal the alcohol in one American-style lager, says George Reisch, a veteran brewer with Anheuser-Busch and the former brewmaster of O’Doul’s.
One last point, about carbonation: When making nonalcoholic sparkling wine, producers do a secondary fermentation just like they do with regular sparkling wine. But the alcohol it produces is less than .5 percent, so the wine is still considered nonalcoholic. As for the carbonation in beer, like in most alcoholic beer, it’s “forced” with a charge of carbon dioxide at the brewery.
A former editorial intern at CHOW, Jason Horn is now an online editorial specialist at travel website VisitSouth.com in Birmingham, Alabama. He loves sweet tea and barbecue, but pines constantly for a San Francisco burrito. Or sushi.
Help My Wine Making! Episode 12 Scott “The Wine Making Guy” The Resolution Keepers Wine Making Contest, How to Easily Remove Labels from Wine Bottles and Do Wine Kits Have Expiry Dates?
January 24, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Featured, Podcast, Resolution Keepers, Videos
Click here to sign up for the Resolutions Keepers Wine Making Contest!
See you next week where we’ll be discussing a great way to test your wines at various stages throughout the aging process …
Have a great week!
Resolution Keepers Wine Making Contest 2010
January 23, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Resolution Keepers, contests
PURPOSE:
- To help people who resolved to make more wine this year make more wine!
TIMEFRAME:
- Three months from the start date (January 31rst, 2010) to get rolling and report on your progress
WHY YOU SHOULD ENTER:
- You’ll get to submit photos and stories of you making wine and will be featured on my blog & podcast
- Opportunity to meet other wine makers with similar interests from around the world
CONTEST ENTRY FORM:
* = Required
Help Spread the Word! Tell Your Friends on Facebook & Twitter About The Contest!
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Help My Wine Making! Episode 11 Scott “The Wine Making Guy” Holiday Recap, Two Upcoming Wine Making Contests, My Free Upcoming iPhone App, and Getting Un-Stuck (Part II)
January 15, 2010 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Featured, Podcast, Videos
See you next week where we’ll be discussing if wine kits have “best before dates” …
Have a great week!
Help My Wine Making! Episode 10 – Different Ways to Use Old T-Shirts to Make Wine, A Nifty Free Website For Wine Making Calculations and Getting Un-Stuck (Part I)
December 13, 2009 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Featured, Podcast, Videos
Here’s that link to the free wine calculation website:
See you next week where we’ll have Part II of what makes a wine “stuck”!
Have a great week!
Help My Wine Making! Episode 9 – Rocky Mountain Update, What Kind of Primary Do You Have and Why Keeping Eye on the Temperature In Your Wine is Important
November 20, 2009 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Featured, Podcast, Videos
See you next week where we’ll be discussing what makes a wine “stuck”!
Have a great week!
Help My Wine Making! Episode 8 – Follow Up Trick To Our Carboy Discussion From Episode 7, The “Wine Flu” and Why Acid Is Considered The “Backbone” of Your Wine
November 1, 2009 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Podcast, Videos
Help My Wine Making Episode #8
Resources Mentioned In This Podcast:
- [amazon-product text="The Wine Makers Answer Book (Answer Book (Storey))" type="text"]1580176569[/amazon-product]
- How to Adjust the Level of Acidity in Your Wine (Free PDF Download)
See you next week where we’ll be discussing why keeping an on the temperature of your wine must is important!
Have a great week!
Help My Wine Making! Episode 7 – A Quick Idea for All You Grape Wine Folks, The Dangers of Using A Plastic Water Bottle as A Carboy & A Wine Storage Alternative From “Down Under”
October 25, 2009 by Scott "The Wine Making Guy"
Filed under Podcast, Videos
Help My Wine Making Episode #7
Resources mentioned in the show:
Crusher & Destemmer:
Using A Water Bottle As A Carboy:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Recycling_Code
- http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html
- http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ice-mountain-water-jugs-better-bottles-56936/
- http://www.drinksplanet.com/5-gallon-water-bottles-as-carboy-3223110.html
- Google “Using a water bottle as a carboy”
Flex-Tank Wine Storage:
See you next week where we’ll be discussing why acid is considered the backbone of your wine!
Have a great week!
