How to Hack Your Slow Cooker

I know it sounds like a joke, but during the Cheesemaking class on Saturday we started talking about how nice it would be to have a slow cooker that would heat by temperature.

Tonight I decided to go online and see how much one of these puppies would cost.  After discovering the $299 price tag, I did yet another search and found this helpful video.

Who would o' thunk?

Kat

Malolactic Fermentation (MF) in My Cellar

Wine Making 201

If you have ever made wine from fresh grapes or from fresh grape juice (not Welches frozen concentrate) late winter becomes an interesting time of the year. Your wine has been in the secondary for several months and is nice and clear. Not much is going on...the holiday season is over, the grapes from the southern hemisphere have not yet arrived (Chilean grapes and juices) and you begin thinking about filtering and bottling your wine.

The picture to the left is Malolactic Fermentation currently going on in the wine one of the wines in my cellar.  The little white ring is an accumulation of tiny bubbles.

This is the time of year that something interesting can happen to your wines. If the acid has a good amount of MALIC acid and fairly low amounts of sulfite, AND the temperature of your cellar goes up a few degrees, Malolactic Fermentation (MLF) can begin. That's the MLF you occasionally see in the winemaking publications and books you may have read.

This can be a good thing given the right circumstances. If your wine is a bit high in acid, the MLF will reduce the acid by converting the harsher MALIC acid into the softer LACTIC acid. It happens when bacteria that is naturally in your wine wakes up and begins a new kind of fermentation. You may find that your wine is nice and clear, but there is a low level fermentation activity in you air lock. You may also see a fine band of bubbles around the neck of your carboy. If you shake the carboy, you WILL blow off a bit of carbonation! During this fermentation, the wine will of course have a reduced titratable acid level AND it may take on a slight buttery/butterscotch aroma and flavor. A nice combination for a Chardonnay!

Can I sweeten my wine when I rack it into the secondary vessel?

Before you sweeten your wine, it is important that you wait until the fermentation has completed, and the wine has had plenty of time to clear out all the wine yeast. Quite often, this does not happen by the time you do the second racking.

Actually, the best time to sweeten a wine is right before bottling. This gives plenty of time for everything to settle out. There is no upside to sweetening the wine before this, only a potential for problems.

The reason clearing the wine is so important is because the wine must become stable before sweetening, otherwise all the new sugars will end up as fodder for a renewed fermentation.

Cloudiness in a wine usually indicates it still has excessive wine yeast. It is very hard to stabilize a wine that has residual wine yeast still floating throughout the wine.

Potassium sorbate is what has to be used to stabilize a wine when sugar is being added. While either potassium metabisulfite or Campden tablets should be used as well, each is not sufficient enough on its own to stabilize the wine.

Potassium sorbate stabilizes a wine in an entirely different way than any type of sulfite. It does so by putting a restrictive coating on the outside surface of each of the few remaining yeast cells. This does not necessarily kill the yeast. They will die on their own in hours or days. But it makes them unable to reproduce themselves. The ability to reproduce is the real threat that can manifests itself as full-blown fermentation.

If your wine is still even slightly visually cloudy, there may not be enough potassium sorbate to go around to do a complete stabilization. This is the downside to sweetening/stabilizing the wine sooner the necessary.

Danny V's Wine Making Tips

We are quite impressed at the quality of wines folks are bringing into Barley & Vine for us to try and to comment on. To help if you have questions about your wine, feel free to stop by the shop with a sample if you have questions about whether it is ready to be bottled. Please be sure to also bring the original gravity of your wine and the type of yeast you used.

#1 - Remember that time is the secret ingredient to making good wine.
#2 - Always allow your wine to thoroughly clear before bottling. You should be able to see through it. This often requires 2-6 months in the secondary.
#3 - Always condition your clear, finished wine with Potassium (not sodium) Meta-Bisulfite AND Potassium Sorbate. This both stabilizes your wine (keeps it from re-fermenting and causing your bottles to explode) and keeps your wine from oxidizing.
#4 - Always thoroughly clean your wine bottles inside and out. Also sanitize your bottles before filling. Potassium Meta-Bisulfite makes a great sanitizer.

New Malt Grains at Barley & Vine!

Briess Malting
- Cherry Wood Smoked Malt
There’s nothing like brewing a beer with smoked malt. Smoked malt delivers exceptional brewing creativity, making it possible to develop complexity in Scotch Ales to rich, robust smoky flavor in Rauch Beers and Porters.

- Extra Special Malt
This intense 2-Row specialty malt is not for the faint of heart. It contributes distinctive flavors associated with darker, high gravity beers like Doppelbock. Even used at small quantities, you'll find it lives up to its name and delivers something "extra special" to your biggest, maltiest brews. 130L

You can always find an updated list of new products here.

Your Yeast and Cold Weather

I have been brewing beer for over twenty years. When it gets cold outside, the places where we typically ferment our beer also gets cold. Last Sunday, we brewed a batch of Chocolate Bock and I decided keep the fermentor on the kitchen counter until the following morning when the fermentation was off to a good start. I later put the fermenter in our pantry so it would remain at a good fermentation temperature. (our pantry is now my "aroma therapy" on steroids!)

Stanton, a very accomplished homebrewer, told me about a "miracle" product that saved me several boil-overs and now, a foam over from a high gravity brew fermenting in glass, in my pantry. It's called FermCap-S As the foam in my 6.5 gallon glass carboy was approaching the top, I put 3-4 drops of FermCap S in the fermentor and the head dropped down to about an inch of foam. Amazing! If you haven't seen this work and you're tired of boil-overs and foam-overs, be sure to get a bottle from Barley & Vine today and use it in your next batch. (click here for details)

Another item to consider using is a "Brew Belt".  Simply belt this handy item around your fermentor and plug it into an outlet. It will keep your brew nice and warm so the yeast will be on their merry way fermenting your brew as if it were summertime!
(click here for details on the Brewing Belt)

I also found that a better than normal batch of yeast must go into your fresh brewed beer. Some brewers grab two packs of yeast to keep things simple. Yes it costs a dollar or two more, but your yeast will thank you! Another plan it to use a yeast starter. Barley & Vine has a good price on growlers and both 1L and 2L Erlenmeyer flasks.
(For details with pictures on making your yeast starter...)

Featured Brewer's Best Kits

Russian Imperial Stout

While this beer is pretty easy to brew, it will surely impress you with the HUGE character.
Truly the King Kong of beers!

This full-bodied dark brew has an intense roast flavor with a huge malt influence. The hop bitterness is offset by a touch of sweetness from the big malt character. Give this beer some time to mature and consider using an oak alternative for added complexity. Check out the kit!

Baltic Porter

This beer has a complex malty flavor profile containing prune, toffee and nutty notes with a hint of roast in the background. Due to its high gravity, a subtle alcohol flavor comes through. A full-bodied, smooth beer that benefits from cellar aging. Check out the kit!