Uncorked a bottle of the riesling while mixing up the peach wine tonight. I think we’re finally to drinkability. It’s still dry for the style, but the harsh fusels were not present in this bottle.
It’s about time! Hooray! Yum!
Tag: 2011W01
Dry dry dry dry
Last week, or maybe it was the week before, we uncorked a bottle of the Riesling for dinner.
It was so very dry which is not something we were shooting for. Others might like this however.
Adding to the pain, there was a bit of fusel alcohol still hanging about. This roughed things up a bit. Looks like there are a few more weeks (months?) to go on this one before we hit peak. Will also be sweetening the next Riesling after taking it down to 1.000.
Bottling Day is tomorrow
It must be Bottling Day tomorrow. Either that or I’ve washed and de-labelled a few dozen+ wine bottles for no reason.
Went downstairs and talked to the wine tonight. She’s as ready as we are.
It’s here!
The brew kettle has been delivered! Now I just need to find a propane burner with the horsepower to boil what gets thrown in the pot. Oh, and to decide on what style to try first.
Verrrrrrry excited 😀
Been racking up non-twist top empties all vacation. Still have a long way to go before I’ve got enough to bottle a whole run but this a good problem to have. In other news, the racked wine is on a clarifying binge. Looks like wine instead of a bottle conditioned wheat ale.
Sleepytime
The burbling through the airlock has slowed considerably. I think the yeast is running out of snackers. We should be right on schedule to rack this run some time this weekend.
This brings us to a task I’ve been punting for a while now. Somehow we need to scavenge, scrounge, or rustle up about three dozen 750ml wine bottles in the next two weeks. You have any we can use? Quite likely some percentage of your empties will be returned to you in a much less empty state…just in time for the holidays.
Burble
I could (and probably will before this is all over with) watch the CO2 burble out of the airlock on the fermenter for hours. I think we’re well on our way to some glorious Riesling.
The dining room smells like one hell of a party too.
2011W01
Happy birthday, first batch of wine!
Today was the day Elizabeth and I took the leap and began making wine at home. What started as an obsession over various homemade fruit brandies at a church auction has borne fruit, as they say. After a quick trip to Cornhusker Beverage & Bridal (no, not the world’s best web presence but you get used to that living in flyover country) we wandered home with supplies.
Supplies!
Hot to trot, we set out whipping up our first run as soon as the box was opened. We definitely wanted to start with a kit first time out. There’s just enough uncertainty about what we’re doing that having the extra help is nice. Don’t get me wrong, 2011W01, we have high expectations no matter your provenance. And because both of us prefer a nice white to a nice red, we selected a Riesling. 
The Grand Cru Johannisberg Riesling kit to be exact; Lot 20046, packaged June 6, 2011.
After the initial rush to sanitize the primary fermenter and mix up the must we had to find a place for the wine to sleep. Because we wanted the wine to know we cared very much for it—and we wanted to keep a close eye on its temperature—we decided on a nice chair with a view in the dining room. 
Extra bonus points for being near the thermostat so other than the basement, probably the place with the most consistent temperature in the house.
For now we watch and wait. Nothing burbles through the airlock. That should change in the next 24 hours. This will be the sign that something good is happening inside. In two weeks we’ll sample the must with a hydrometer to check on the progress. If we get a reading that most of the digestible sugar is gone, we’ll rack this into a carboy for a few more weeks of setting out.
Initial temperature: 73ËšF
Initial specific gravity: 100.082
Potential alcohol: 11%
Born on date: 12 November, 2011
More updates to come!