Welcome to my wine and beer making site!

I made my first batch of wine in May 1981 and my first beer in January 1984. On these pages I record my adventures in both arenas, along with a few white papers I’ve written on these subjects.

While this site is a personal record that means more to me than anyone, I’ve recorded most of my recipes including the methods used and wine/beer making notes, so the information may be useful to others.

As of February 2021, I moved the posts regarding making liqueurs from the food site to this one, as these posts fit better here. Clicking the Liqueurs menu will display these posts.

I also added pages that organize non-wine log posts of a common these. See the left side bar.

 

Oak Stix Experiment

Updated: 08/30/2021

I am conducting an experiment using Next Level Oak’s oak kit product, comparing American, French, and Hungarian oak against Hungarian oak cubes. The post will be updated, roughly every 4 weeks, as I compare how the 4 wines age.

 

Current Updates

I recently started a Barbera kit from Finer Wine Kits. I’m recording an in-depth description of the winemaking process. FWK stands out as their documentation and videos are the best I’ve experienced for kit wine making, and folks on WineMakingTalk are raving about the quality of the kits. So I’m in for the experiment!

News for the 2021 grapes is mixed. We may have a supply problem due to an early grape harvest conflicting with the coordinator’s unmovable travel plans, and there may be quality issues. I’m investigating alternatives if the normal grape source fails.

The 2020 wines are progressing nicely. I’m thinking of bottling the varietals currently in gallon jugs, while the barrels won’t be bottled until I have new wine to go into the barrels.

The wines currently in production are:

2021 Barbera	updated 09/14/2021
2020 Meritage	updated 09/14/2021
2020 Meritage Plus	updated 03/07/2021
2020 Merlot	updated 02/27/2021
2020 Zinfandel	updated 02/27/2021
2020 Vinifera Blend	updated 02/27/2021

 

Recent Wines

These are wines bottled in the last 12 months (or so):

2020 Sauvignon Blanc	updated 07/05/2021
2020 Chardonnay	updated 04/17/2020
2020 Cabernet Sauvignon	updated 04/17/2020
2019 Second Run Malbec / Merlot / Zinfandel (barrel)	updated 10/23/2020
2020 Pinot Noir	updated 09/27/2020
2019 Merlot #3	updated 09/27/2020
2019 Zinfandel	updated 08/22/2020
2019 Second Run Malbec / Merlot / Zinfandel (Squeezins’)	updated 08/22/2020
2019 Malbec	updated 06/28/2020
2020 Exotic Fruit – White Zinfandel	updated 04/04/2020

 

Navigation

Current posts are displayed on the right, with the most current ones first.

Wine Making: This menu contains lists of current and finished wines, along with various lists of everything I’ve made.

Beer Making: This menu contains lists of current and finished beers. I don’t have an overall list as I don’t make a lot of beer.

Blogs: Here’s you’ll find general blog posts (non-recipes) that talk about wine or beer making in general. There are also “white papers”, documents that describe technical points to the best of my ability.

Enjoy!