Saving Wine

By now, I’ve talked about my oak leaf wine a few times. It’s been fermenting for close to 9 months, and it is still horribly sweet. OK, it’s not really horrible, but it’s way too sweet. I’m guess in the Montrachet yeast is pretty much finished.

After talking to some other brewers, I came up with a plan to try to kick the fermentation into high gear again. Pitching dry yeast right into the carboy isn’t going to do much, since there isn’t enough oxygen to allow the yeast to reproduce and the alcohol will kill the yeast before it can get going.

In order to overcome those challenges, you need the yeast to be super active and chowing down when it goes into that high-sugar/high-alcohol environment.

I sanitized this half-gallon jar,added a cup of water and the champagne yeast to start the re-hydration process.

After that, I got the starter solution going. I mixed 13 ounces of sugar with 3 pints of water and brought it up to a boil. Once it boiled for a couple minutes, I took it off the heat and added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient.

I put a cover on the pan and cooled it down in a cold water bath. Once it got down into the mid-80s Fahrenheit, I added the liquid to the jar and shook it up. Once it get going (tonight or tomorrow morning), I’m going to pitch it into the the carboy of wine and hope for the best.

Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know what happens in a few months.

Unexpected Results

Sometimes, you just want things to move more smoothly. On bottling day, I wish there was something I could do to make the process more efficient.

Brewing 12 gallons at a time, and bottle-conditioning, the day I fill bottles is the day that never passes as efficiently as I wish. Based on that frustration, I decided to create pints of priming solution.

I placed 1 and 1/4 cup of dry malt extract(DME) in each pint jar, since that is what I use for priming 5 gallons. I progressed to add enough water to fill the pint jar, shook until it was as dissolved as possible. Then I added water to fill up to a full pint.

After mixing, I placed the pints into my pressure cooker and processed at 15 pounds for 30 minutes.

There were several differences in creating the solution that caused some problems, and now I have four pints of over-dark priming solution with chunks in it.

My normal procedure is to dissolve 1 and 1/4 cup DME in two cups of water. Looking back, I realize there was probably one cup of water in this solution. The resulting solution is the consistency of maple syrup, not quite the thickness of liquid malt extract. I had concerns before the processing in the pressure cooker, but thought it would be OK.

The increased temperature from the extra 15 pounds of pressure, increased the darkening reactions to the point where it appears to be stout colored. Dilution will lighten the color, but the clumps of DME prevent me from using it for bottling. Bottle-to-bottle variation would just be too great.

I will probably use these to add gravity during fermentation in stages. Hopefully these extracts will be good for staged additions.

Have you had experiences that don’t turn out as expected? Please comment below and let me know whether you were able to put the surprise(s) to use.

Ice Cream

Before I got interested in homebrewing, I had a life-changing experience with a stout ice cream. The beer was used in a ripple mixed into vanilla ice cream. I had never thought of using beer in ice cream before that point.

A few years ago, my wife decided to take up making ice cream as a hobby. Being an ice cream lover, there is no way I was going to protest. Shortly after she began, she found a wonderful book: The Perfect Scoop. One of the recipes in the book is for Guinness-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream. While the original version is good, we changed a few things to really make this one of my favorite ice creams.

Dark Chocolate Porter Ice Cream

7 ounces dark chocolate (we like the Trader Joe’s 72% Bittersweet), chopped fine

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch salt

4 large eggs yolk

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup homebrewed porter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Warm the milk enough to dissolve the sugar and salt in a pan on the stove.
Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl and slowly add the warmed milk mixture while whisking the eggs vigorously. Pour back into the original pan.
Stir the mixture, while heating, until thickened.
Strain a small amount of the egg mixture into a bowl containing the chocolate. Begin with a small amount and add only enough to melt the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, add the mixture in small additions to keep the base smooth.
Once smooth, whisk in the heavy cream, then the beer & vanilla.
Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Warnings

When melting the chocolate, do not add all the liquid at once. We have had problems with the chocolate forming particles which do not re-integrate and result in a grainy final ice cream.
Same problem as #1 can occur if you add the heavy cream or beer too quickly, although we have had fewer problems with adding the beer & vanilla quickly.

Tips

Another option for the beer to include is a good Russian imperial stout. If you want to do a stout ice cream, I prefer a stronger stout than Guinness.
For a firmer ice cream, transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Push wax paper down against the surface of the ice cream, and place in the freezer for several hours.

Topping

2 ounces dark chocolate
1 Tablespoon butter

Place both chocolate and butter in a small bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments and mix until smooth. Once the butter is melted, use shorter increments. Spoon over ice cream and enjoy.