If they were brother/sister, the wine would be the girl

Well, it is Wednesday. That means my beer and wine have been fermenting away for almost four days in my basement. Please ignore the ugly wood-paneled walls, as the house was built in 1968. I hear it was all the rage back then. Speaking of history, let’s throw down with some fun homebrewing facts for you. Of course, during Prohibition, brewing at home was illegal. After prohibition, the home brewing of wine was legalized. However, a stenographer’s omission resulting in the words “and/or beer” being left out. This meant that it was illegal to home brew beer until February of 1979. That means modern homebrewing is about to turn 31, which is only slightly older than me. Current laws allow for an adult, age 21 or older, to brew “not more than one hundred gallons of beer in a year.” Thanks to the fact that my wife also lives in this house, our house can legally brew 200 gallons per year. If I continue with 5-gallon batches, that means I would have brewed 40 different beers in one year. It is good to have goals. Interesting historical homebrewers of note: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin. Seriously, ole Benny boy harnessed the power of lightning. If he did that, and still found homebrewing interesting, then it is a good enough hobby for me. Lastly, as shout-out to my (theoretical) international readers; these dates are all based on US laws. Look up the homebrew history for your own country, and add it in the comments. I’m curious like that.

Now, back to my beer and wine. The wine you can’t see, because of the dumb plastic bucket. Seriously, I really need to get some more of those carboys from Better Bottle. I like being able to see the process in action. For the first couple of days of fermentation

Fermentation photo from 4 days after cooking.

I was worried about temperature. The wine kit says 65 to 75, and the beer kit said 60 to 75. Despite trying to adjust the temperature of the house to be warmer, I was still showing 62 to 64 on the wine for the first two days. This didn’t seem to slow the fermentation process of the wine, though. It was chugging along full speed ahead, or at least what I could tell from the CO2 escaping the airlock. Yesterday and today have been better, hovering in the 65 to 67 range when I’ve checked. Hopefully a couple of degrees won’t impact the flavor too much. Regardless, you can see a clear head forming on the beer. Until this morning, it had been growing steadily in the carboy. I think it has gone back down a little since yesterday, though. This means we’re starting on the downhill side of the fermentation mountain. At this rate, we’ll be on pace to bottle Monday or Tuesday. After bottling, though, I’ve still got a couple of weeks before drinking. So don’t get too excited yet.

So far I’ve primarily talked about beer and wine here, and I wanted to touch a little on something else. A fantastic, bubbly beverage that most people have been drinking the majority of their life. Soda. Now, we’re all familiar with a variety of mass produced sodas out there, so I don’t think I need to go over those. However, there are a variety of awesome sodas out there. Lately I’ve been grabbing different flavors of Oogave sodas from Whole Foods, which use agave nectar as their sweetener. I’m particularly fond of their Mandarin-Key Lime. However, the real king here (and those who know me should find no surprise in this) is Virgils. Their root beer is hands-down the best soda I’ve ever had. Plus, it even comes in mini-kegs! What is not to love? Their cream soda is also a clear category winner. If you like root beer or cream soda, even a little, then go get some Virgils. I often buy them at World Market or Whole Foods, but (at least the root beer) shouldn’t be hard to find. And as a little aside, the company that owns Virgils is called Reeds, and their ginger sodas are really good if you like ginger. Their “Extra Ginger Brew” packs quite the ginger punch. Of course, in the realm of fruity or citrus sodas, it is really hard to beat out IZZE. They have quality drinks in a variety of interesting flavors. In fact, though non-fruity, I have some “Birch” flavored IZZE in my fridge right now. It sounds weird, but actually is quite good. Their Clementine is also one of my favorites. Now, I’d be really slacking if I didn’t mention that making your own soda at home isn’t hard at all. In fact, it is very much like brewing beer. Only you don’t want to give this yeast but a day or two to eat the sugars, naturally carbonating the soda, but not eating all the sugars and producing alcohol.  Now, since I’m contemplating a batch of soda sometime in the near future, I’d really like to hear what your ideal soda flavors would be.

An American Pale Ale, to be specific.

Drink of the Day

Occasionally, I’ll be adding a “drink of the day” to the bottom of a post. This highlights what I’m drinking while I write the post. After all, it would seem a bit silly to have nothing to drink while writing a blog about beverages. Our local Whole Foods has a Merchant of Vino, where they sell a great variety of beer, wine, and a small selection of liquor. Handily, they have a “create your own six pack” wall, and that’s where I first had something from Boulevard Brewing, but I’ll touch on that specific beer later. I recently grabbed their sampler case, and decided to break out their Pale Ale for this post. I’m more typically a wine guy when it comes to really identifying flavors, aromas, and complexities. So this will be a learning experience for me as well.

American Pale Ales are characterized by dominate hoppy bitterness, flavor, and aroma. They’re also fairly low on maltiness, and have a medium body. I like hoppy beers, but I’m no crazy hop-head like some are. The aromatic hops used in this pale ale really do a great job, really adding some wildflower and fresh green aromas on the nose. This is what I like hoppy beers to smell like; a green, herby floral aroma. The bitterness is crisp, and I would really love this beside some good BBQ. A sweet, smokey BBQ sauce would really be awesome next to the bitter, green taste of this pale ale. Just a hint of sweet on the finish adds a little complexity that makes this a solid Pale Ale. Perfect with a lunch, or when you’re in the mood for something not too heavy. Well done, Boulevard. Glad my faith in your sampler pack was not misplaced!

Tags: Beer Brewing, first try, history, Homebrewing, pale ale, Soda, Winemaking