Recent content by Erik the Awful

It's been a while since I've started a wine, and last week I embarked on this again. I probably should have read these notes, because I didn't blend the corn. A little after noon on the 8th I filled my crockpot 2/3 full with corn and then added water flush with the top. I had to add water every...

I'm on my second go-around trying to make corn wine with Angel Leavening. It almost immediately developed flowers of wine. I think corn has to be baby-sat and you have to turn the cap under morning, noon, and night every day during primary fermentation. I think I managed to save one of my...

Yeah, I have whole corn, which is even less efficient than cracked corn. This next attempt I'm going to put the corn in a crock pot all day, and then I'm going to blend it. I'm thinking that with the leavening amalyse enzyme won't be necessary. That's the whole purpose of this experiment, to use...

Bananas, simply because I needed room in the freezer.

I opened my buckets yesterday to check. One had turned gray and smelled foul. The other had severe flowers-of-wine going on. The corn was still very stiff and there was more solid corn than liquid. Both buckets went into the trash. I still have about a third of a bag of corn left, so sometime...

I'm no pro, but my research says they're different. Koji uses aspergillus oryzae while Chinese yeast balls use rhizopus oryzae.

Before I got a press I did all my fruit wines with a blender. Apples and pears blend very well. I recommend pectic enzyme to help break down their cell structure and yield more juice. When you finish primary fermentation, you'll probably want to use a strain it with a mesh colander instead of...

Those look like sand plums to me. Here in Oklahoma they're about the same size as small cherries. In my experience sand plums are fairly tart compared to cherries.

Most of my wines are combinations that most people don't think of - usually because my freezer space is limited and I never have enough of one fruit to make a whole batch. Cherry-jalapeno is my most popular, so I make it every year now. My potato-mint was far better than expected. I recently...

I use bentonite right when I put a wine in secondary and sparkolloid two weeks before bottling. It's very effective. If it matters to you, note that bentonite/sparkolloid are vegan friendly, while kieselsol/chitosan are not, and neither is gelatin.

My biggest note right now is that next time I'll use a large pot and simmer batches of corn on the stove for a couple hours at a time. The buckets are in the garage. Time will tell if it works.

There are no "not for human consumption" warnings anywhere on the bags. I did look for that before I bought. I've been spritzing the top of the corn with water morning and evening, and I have a nice, thin layer of white mold on top of the corn each time. The liquid level is now just about flush...

Since I haven't had anybody tell me I'm stupid yet, I'll take y'all along on the adventure. I went to Tractor Supply looking for cracked corn, but they only had whole corn. That's what I got, for a whopping $14. I think I spend about $40 just on cherries for this year's batch of cherry-jalapeno...

Yeah, no. I was getting the full rainbow of molds; every color. I'm pretty sure that's not good. Keeping it spritzed worked fine.

I just bottled my rice wine a week ago, and as I opened the cabinet to inventory my wine making supplies, I still have a couple dozen packets of Angel leavening. I was at Tractor Supply last week buying wood pellets, and I saw they have a pretty good stock of feed. Now the wheels are turning. I...