Snow Day

I rarely get a day off, besides my usual Sunday & Monday. But today's winter snow storm gave me a real treat. A snow day! And I have been enjoying the heck out of it. Time to do some of those little chores that never get accomplished. Like cleaning out the kitchen junk drawer. The one you can hardly open because it's so packed full of clutter. I bet most of us have one. Today I sorted through mine, threw out 65% of what was in there, and now I can open the drawer, and even find what I'm searching for. What else did I get done? Well I finally gave away that broken "heater that looks like a wood stove". It has been taking up space in the basement for over a year, waiting for the husbeast to decide what he wanted to do with it. I finally realized what he wanted to do was leave it down in the basement forever. So I put it on Craigslist and now it is someone else's problem. I need the basement to store...wine! Speaking of which, I moved my wine and racks down there today, and have an instant wine cellar.


I better find more wine racks, quick, as I also started another 6 gallons of wine. This time it's Cranberry Chianti.

That's A Whole Lotta Chianti

Yesterday I finally found the time (and worked up the nerve) to tackle bottling the huge 6 gallon carboy full of Chianti. I estimated I would need approximately 27 bottles and corks so got those prepared. I didn't really know how to get the corks ready so searched the Internet, and like many other things, there were 100 or so recommendations. Everything from "dip them in bleach water", "boil them for 20 minutes", to "whatever you to...don't get them wet". I decided to do what made sense to me, knowing that whatever I did would probably work just fine. I definitely don't want to soak them in any kind of chemical. But soaking them makes them easier to insert. Not possessing manly gorilla strength, soaking sounded like a good idea. And boiling water would kill most germs. So I brought some water to a boil, removed it from the heat, added the corks, stirred them around, and placed a lid on the pot. There. That should do it. Here are the cast of characters for today's drama. The Chianti carboy, the sanitized bottles, the corks, and the double lever corker.





I chose to fill the bottles inside a large Rubbermaid container, which was a good call as this is a messy job (at least the way I do it).


The part I was most worried about, seating the corks, was the easiest. You just place a cork into the slot on the corker, line it up over the top of the bottle and press down on the levers. I sat the bottles on the floor and steadied them between my feet. Really, really easy. And here are the fruits of my labor. I got about 29 bottles all told. 26 to store and 3 decanters worth to enjoy now. I'm sure it will be much better after aging a bit but it is totally drinkable now.


My husband designed the labels but I did the rest, start to finish. I'm quite proud of myself. The bottles have to remain upright for 3 days, then they need to be stored on their sides to keep the corks from drying out. I have 3 more wine kits to make, which means I'm gonna need LOTS more wine racks. I almost forgot, I racked the raspberry melomel this morning. This one is going to be high octane.

Getting Gardening Fever

The chives are sprouting, the camellias are blooming, the daffodils and tulips are sending up leaves and I am getting a serious case of spring fever. I have an overwhelming urge to go out and dig in the dirt. Unfortunately there is no time to do so this weekend. Yesterday was International Pipe Smoking Day and I spent most of it at Smokey Joe's, in Fife, WA, hanging with my homeboys. I did manage to get the hefeweizen bottled before celebrating, but not much else was accomplished besides drinking lots of beer and smoking lots of pipes. But hey, that's what the holiday was all about.

That left today to get most of my housework done. As of now I have done 6 loads of laundry, took the husbeast out to lunch (used my $20 of food for $8 Groupon), bought 2 books on gardening, and am in the process of baking some bread. Here are the 2 new books I picked up.




I used my $10 off Groupon. I probably could've got a better deal on Amazon but I wanted to be able to leaf through the books before buying. Still, 2 books for $25 is not too shabby. I was hoping they had a book on seed saving but no such luck.

Today is also "bread baking" day. I am trying something different. I ground the spent grains, then double sifted them to get most of the chaff out. Here is the chaff.


And here is the nice malted barley flour that went into today's loaves.


This is the bread dough before going into the warm oven to rise.


My friend Kristine came over to feed her bees today. The bees weren't all that keen on her poking around in their hive and are very active. Here is Singha sitting near the hive entrance watching "kitty TV".

More Racking

Today I racked the strawberry rhubarb wine into the secondary.


I also racked the orange banana and the apple raisin wines for the second time.




The orange wine still has a lot of sediment but the apple wine is getting clearer. It may need only one more racking before it's ready for bulk aging.

Speaking of bulk aging, the apple cyser mead is not dropping any more sediment so I have moved it to the bulk aging closet. It should be ready for bottling in June.

A Romantic Ocean Getaway

Rise and shine! It's time for a road trip.


The husbeast whisked me away to Moclips, WA, for a Valentine's Overnighter. A mini-vacation. An evening of peace and quiet, away from work, the house, kids, pets...all of that. We set off Monday morning and stopped at our usual place, the Coffee Coop in Elma, for an espresso. The Coffee Coop is just across the parking lot from Elma's famous restaurant, the Rusty Tractor. So named because the parking lot is filled with the rusty things. That's part of the charm. As is this exterior wall covered with jello molds.


The neon rooster is perched atop the roof. With a sufficient dose of caffeine it was back on the road and off to the ocean. Where it was storming like crazy. Which is why there aren't many pictures. I don't think my camera is waterproof. I did manage this one shot during a break in the downpour.


I love the ocean, no matter what the weather. We had a nice lunch at the Ocean Crest Resort and then dined on lobster & rib eyes at Lake Quinalt Lodge for dinner. The Mr. did manage a nice nap, mid day, while I relaxed and read through my wine making literature. Time to sit and read is a luxury I do not often enjoy. And I learned a lot about how to improve my wine making technique.

Hairy Porter: Dark Magic Ale

Today we bottled the Hairy Porter. Wow, it's REALLY dark. And it was delicious, even uncarbonated. Can't wait to try it again when it's all bubbly.


Here is a picture from when we were siphoning it into the bottling bucket.



I am especially proud of this batch as it's my husband's first "all on his own" recipe. Good job, honey! Oh, and he designed the label, too.

Visiting the Fermenting Closet

Yesterday I racked the raspberry apple wine into the secondary jug. Here is how it went. I rounded up the Mr. Wine, a clean jug and the various siphoning parts.


Then I had to remove the bag of must. All the deliciousness has been soaked out of the raspberries. There is absolutely nothing yummy about what is left.


I took an hydrometer reading, sampled a bit and finally it was time to begin siphoning.


And here is the wine in its new temporary home.


It is now ready to join the other occupants of the fermenting closet. Let's check in on a couple of them. Here's the apple raisin.


And the orange banana.


Both of which are sitting on a lot of lees and will be racked again next week. The apple raisin is taking on a nice, rich dark color. I am now glad that some of the raisin bits made it into the secondary. I love that deep color.