Apple Cider

I post here today with the sad news that our cinnamon wine is not turning out very well after all. Joe and I have decided to dump it. We didn't get the chance today because we spent too much time dealing with apples (I don't want to look at another apple for a week), but we will figure out what to do with it tomorrow. I will explain later.

Since our cinnamon sugar water is biting the dust, we decided to make some cider next. We went and got 51 lbs (that is not a typo) of red delicious apples and 2 lbs of honey. Then we went back to his place and got to work...grueling, awful, appley work. Here are the apples ready for rinsing in the sink, gorgeous looking and perfect for luring Snow White into her sleepy pseudo-grave:

That's 15 lbs right there. To the left is the cheesecloth and cutting board, ready for chopping, juicing, and straining into this gigantic pot on the stove:

POT OF DOOOOOM! We sliced the apples into quarters and put them through this poor juicer from the 80's which seems to use centrifugal force to get the juice out. The leftovers are everything fibrous and look completely disgusting (and according to Joe, they didn't taste that good).

By the time we were FINALLY finished juicing, we had 4-5 gallons of brown apple juice, strained through the cheesecloth and heating to 60-70 C. We were supposed to simmer it for 45 minutes, and Joe might do that later tonight, but he had to get to work so we didn't have time. We had spent all of our time slicing and juicing. That's almost 3 hours of work. By the time we were finished we were soooo sick of apples.

Since he had to get going, we took the apple juice off the stove and threw it in a big bucket to ice it back down again. I added the honey while it was still warm, which might also help to keep it from oxidizing further. I will return tomorrow to rack the strawberry and grape wines, and to finish off the cider.

We are going to try to make this without sulfonation, and part of the 5 gallon batch will be carbonated, the other part not carbonated. The carbonated part is bound to have stuff at the bottom of the bottle when it's ready to drink. We are thinking that in a mass production setting, artificial mechanical means are used instead of natural ones for carbonating cider so no one gets grossed out by the yeast poo at the bottom of the bottle.

Whatever. Whimps.

When it comes time to top up to 5 gallons, I'm going to inquire about using our failed cinnamon wine instead of water. We could have an apple cider with a hint of cinnamon! Or we could boil some of it down into syrup to use for pancakes and such. Or we could just toss it if we suspect it's no good. We'll see - I will keep you posted.

Stuff from the other weekend

The weekend before last, Joe and I racked all three of our wines. Here is an update of how our strawberry is going:

Doesn't that color look AWESOME? For some reason it reminds me of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. See all the yeast poop at the bottom? Here's how our grape is doing:

Don't you LOVE that color?? Actually, all three of our wines have very interesting and cool colors. The pictures just don't do them justice. Our grape wine is this gorgeous purple. It also smells (and tastes) fantastic so far. On to the cinnamon then!

First, we had to boil cinnamon sticks. Believe it or not, this all started from about a handful, and with the water, they blew up to chunks of bark that made the entire house smell like potpourri.

Afterward, we made a cinnamon syrup out of it with tons of sugar, the cinnamon water (throw the bark away), and hot water. Then you just throw it all in and wait 24 hours before tossing in the yeast.

I did go to Joe's place just last night to rack the cinnamon wine since we accidentally waited over a week to do it (not too big a deal). There was just one problem: our specific gravity was really high! It's supposed to go down over time, and we had waited especially long. So we went ahead and tasted it and realized we didn't taste any alcohol at all. Our other two wines tasted boozey right away, but this still tasted like cinnamon syrup. Thinking that perhaps the yeast hadn't had enough natural nutrients it would normally get from fruit to grow, we mixed together some yeast energizer (super nutrients for cases like this) in warm water, then threw in another packet of yeast to be safe. We decided not to airlock and we're going to see what happens in a week or so. On the bright side, the wine, paired with the yeast and energizer, now smells like cinnamon French toast.

A final picture for your enjoyment. Don't these look delish? They smell great. All three wines are currently sitting in Joe's basement inside the boxes the jugs come in to prevent too much light exposure, these two with airlocks, the cinnamon open with a towel over it. Pictures of cinnamon wine will come whenever Joe gets around to uploading them and I'll let you know how our little yeast buddies are doing.

Sorry for the delay!

Joe and I worked with the wines last weekend but I just haven't had the drive or willpower to write until tonight. So as I sip on too much Dancing Bull cabernet sauvignon, which is the drink fueling this entire post, I shall tell you our tale.

We racked (siphoned) our strawberry wine into a glass secondary fermenter with an air lock. Here are some pictures of that process:

Joe got this handy dandy nifty tube thinger that siphons the liquid into the jar with the use of gravity. Kind of like how Mom and I used to change the water in the fish tank when we had one.

At the top of the tube that Joe is holding there is a pump which starts the siphoning.

The finished fermenter. We just watch it now and in about 4 weeks it should be good and clear (literally clear) to rack again. That means we leave all the yeast poop at the bottom and keep the good stuff. Joe texted me today to tell me the strawberry wine looks weird, but I'm not sure whether I should believe him because he has been threatening to send me terrifying texts about the wine that would make me have a neurotic episode.

Because apparently, that's funny.

We also spooned some of the strawberry gunk off the top before racking it. It looks like this:

And I swear it tastes about 5,000 times better than it looks. Very boozey though. I only took a spoonful of the pink water liquid, and then decided I really couldn't get past the looks of it to go for a second dip.

After we were done with the strawberry, we began making the Welch's grape wine. We used 12 containers of concentrate, another 8 lbs of sugar, and some water. Soooo much sugar. I think it might end up producing a dessert wine of some kind. Joe's report tells me it smells great at the moment.

Here's the concentrate thrown into the primary fermenter. Mmmm. Grapey. That lump in the center is one which didn't quite thaw out properly before I tossed it in. Meanwhile, in the background, Joe was busy boiling 4 L of water so we can dissolve the sugar necessary for yeast noms.

The murdered concentrate containers. Why is it always my job to murder the fruit? I do it while laughing hysterically, too, which can't be a good thing...(I'm mostly kidding).

The chemical mixture of tannin, preservative, yeast nutrient, etc. This stuff smells disgusting. Seriously. Pungent and nasty. You put the concentrate in the primary fermenter, put in the water and dissolved sugar, stir, and then pour in this stuff, and you get...:

Tadaaaaaaa. The finished product, ready to ferment for the next week or two. You're supposed to stir it every day, but Joe's just going to stir it every other day on the presumption that too much oxygen is a bad thing. When it stops fermenting, we can rack it like we did the strawberry wine, leaving some of the sediment behind...though to be honest, I don't think we'll get as much sediment with this one since we didn't use solid fruit.

So there you have it. Two developing wines hanging out in Joe's house, just waiting to be drunk a year and a half from now. Or so. Next wine: Cinnamon!

Yes, cinnamon. I know that sounds bizarre, but we are too curious to resist.

It's Official!

The jury (of four to six, if I'm counting all the people who gave input) have come to a decision. The next wine we begin to make, starting possibly this weekend or next week, is...drum roll...WELCH'S!

(http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/welchs-juice.jpg)

Believe it or not, you can make wine out of Welch's grape juice (normal juice or frozen concentrate), and rumor has it that it's not bad stuff. We're going to give it a shot! Also it is cheap...mead, as one juror suggested, would be a lot of fun. However mead is honey wine, and unfortunately, honey is effing expensive!

After the weekend, as of Sunday night, we will be at the one week mark for our strawberry wine. There will be pictures and an update of how it's going, along with information on whether or not we are growing mold, fungus, or bacteria instead of just yeast! Hopefully we're not turning into vinegar over there...

24 Hour Mark

We reached Fermentation Phase 2 tonight when we added water to 5 gallons, 8 lbs of sugar, yeast nutrient and champagne yeast to our monster mash. It didn't take too long, and here are some pictures, courtesy of Joe:

This is what we started with tonight: a watery, runny mixture of strawberries, tannin, pectin enzyme, and sodium metabisulfite. I think.

This is after adding the water to almost 5 gallons. Foamy on top!

Joe creating a vortex to stir in the sugar really well. It actually dissolved better than we thought it might.

This is what's going to sit on the dining room table for the next week as it ferments. It reminds me of traditional men's Saudi Arabian head wear. Current hydrometer reading/specific gravity: 1.083.

Now we wait. Over the next week, it will ferment. When the specific gravity reaches between 1.025 and 1.035, we'll be ready to rack (siphon) and airlock it for three months. At that point, we will decide if we want to start another wine. Hopefully our first one turns out to be a success (as far as we can tell) and will encourage us to make more in the future!

New Adventure: Making Wine!

Hello again! It's been a while since I've posted, mostly due to a lack of adventures. But I've begun a new one with my friend Joe. We're making strawberry wine!

Tonight we bought 13 lbs of frozen strawberries, 5 gallons of water, and a bunch of different wine making chemicals which were all for sale in the liquor department of a grocery store. Then we got to work microwaving the strawberries in batches to make them soft enough to mash. My triceps received a workout, and the potato masher we used to mash the fruit seems, in Joe's words, "a little more concave." The strawberries won a small victory after all...but mostly they lost the war to my mashing skills. I laughed evilly and Joe cowered in terror as I crushed squishy chunks of red nastiness. Pouring it into the primary fermenter made an even grosser noise...kind of like diarrhea. =) I know you really want to drink it now.

The strawberries are beginning their fermentation, without the help of yeast, in a huge 5 gallon food stock pail. That's right - we are making 5 GALLONS of strawberry wine. It is currently being sterilized and breaking down into a syrup. It looks like a monster mash that should go on a shortcake. After the first ~24 hours, depending on what the gravity meter tells us (I still don't know what it tests for), the syrup will be ready to go into full swing fermentation mode with the champagne yeast. And then it will sit for a week and Joe will buy a secondary fermenter to transfer the beginning wine. After that, since we have to wait about three months to siphon the crap out, we will decide whether we want to make another kind of wine, and if so, when to start.

Any thoughts on what we should make next if the strawberry wine turns out to be a success? Anyone know other easy things to start with?

Galaxy Radio Jams

Inspired by Contact clip shown in class. Earth has been broadcasting over radio waves for over a century. What does the rest of the galaxy hear?

Thanks to: http://www.alaskajim.com/index.htm and www.wikipedia.org

At 3:38 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, our Sun was listening to “Head Like a Hole” by Nine Inch Nails from 94.1 WJJO in Watertown, WI (playing on Earth 8 minutes before).

At 3:42 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Mercury was listening to “Mr. Crowley” - Ozzy Osbourne from 92.9 The Big Cheese in Elk Mound, WI (playing on Earth 4 minutes before).

At 3:44 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Venus was listening to “Good Girls Go Bad” - Cobra Starship from Z 104.1 in Madison, WI (playing on Earth 3 minutes before).

At 3:48 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Mars was listening to “Use Somebody” - Kings of Leon from Z 100.7 in Eau Claire, WI (playing on Earth 4 minutes before).

At 4:24 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Jupiter was listening to “Be Mine” - David Gray from 98.1 The Mix in Altoona, WI (playing on Earth about half an hour before).

At 5:08 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Saturn was listening to “My Generation” - The Who from 105.5 Triple M in Madison, WI (playing on Earth about an hour and ten minutes before).

At 6:43 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Uranus was listening to “Cry Little Sister” - Seasons After from 94.1 WJJO in Watertown, WI (playing on Earth 2.5 hours before).

At 8:17 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Neptune was listening to “Waitin for the Bus” - ZZ Top from 92.9 The Big Cheese in Elk Mound, WI (playing on Earth 4 hours before).

At 9:30 pm CDT on May 13, 2010, Pluto was listening to “Hey, Soul Sister” - Train from Z 104.1 in Madison, WI (playing over 5 hours before).

On May 13, 2010, Alpha Centauri was (were?) listening to “Photograph” - Nickelback, which hit the top 5 charts in the United States in January of 2006 (four and a quarter years before).

"Number Stations" report in 2006

On the same day, Sirius was listening to “Hanging by a Moment” - Lifehouse, which hit the charts in the United States by the end of 2001.

September 11th Terrorist Attack

The brown dwarf UGPS 0722-05 was listening to “Last Resort” - Papa Roach from 2000.

George W. Bush gives his Stump Speech.

Vega was listening to “Don't You (Forget About Me)” - Simple Minds from 1985.

The Titanic is seen for the first time since it wrecked.

The “Star of Joy” Arcturus was listening to “Sweet Home Alabama” - Lynyrd Skynyrd, which hit the charts in 1974.

President Nixon resigns.

Capella was listening to “Hey Jude” - the Beatles from 1968.

Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated. "So I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Aldebaran was listening to “Sentimental Journey” - the Les Brown Orchestra from 1945.

Adolf Hitler commits suicide, and Germany surrenders. This news report is a re-reading of the original report, done again 50 years later.

The sextuple system Mizar and Alcor was listening to “Night and Day” - Fred Astaire from 1932.

Amelia Earhart makes her historic Trans-Atlantic Flight.

Seginus (or Gamma Boötis) was listening to “Sweet Georgia Brown” - the Ben Bernie Orchestra from 1925.

Balto leads his sled team to deliver serum to a plague-stricken Nome, AK.

Most famous/coolest dog ever.