Wine Making

Have you ever considered making your own wine? It is really quiet simple and you can buy wine kits to make your own Merlot, Zinfandel, Sake or whatever you like from a kit for about $2.50 per bottle. How much does a bottle of wine cost retail? You can also make wine from most anything you can juice, such as, apples, peaches, blackberries, strawberries, store bought juice and even tomatoes. The best thing about making your own wine is it does not have sulfites and other chemicals in it. It taste fresh and the alcohol content is usually a little greater than store bought wine.

My wife and I are just learning and we have about 5 gallons of apple wine percolating. I am writing down the instructions as we go so this blog will be updated as we proceed to each step. I would love to have you follow along but if you get into a rush, there are many sites you can reference for making your own wine.

Since we live in apple country, we decided to try making apple wine as our first wine project. With two bushels of apples, not only do we get about 5 gallons of wine but we also canned 18 pints and 2 quarts of apple sauce. We also could have made apple cider vinegar but we decided that would be another project.

The following is our process for making apple wine and apple sauce.

We use a steam juicer so we wash our apples and slice into quarters removing any bad spots before putting them into the colander on the top of the steam juicer. We then steam as much juice out of the apples as we can and save the skins and seeds that remain in the colander. This process will occur several times until we have juiced all of our apples.

We then pour our apple juice into a large pot to heat but do not boil. The main reason for heating the apple juice is to dissolve the sugar (lots) we are going to add to it.

Fill the Hydrometer and get a beginning reading. With the apples natural sugar content, the reading will be around 5%.

Add sugar, about a cup at a time, stir until it is dissolved and test again with the Hydrometer

Do not go over 20%

You can expect to add 6 cups or more of sugar to get a 20% reading on your hydrometer.

Note:    As fermentation occurs, the yeast feeds on the sugar and what is left is alcohol. So, when you do your hydrometer test later in the fermentation process, you subtract your new hydrometer reading from the 20% and the result is the alcohol content (ie  20% - 10% = 10% alcohol   or    20% - 0% = 20% alcohol).   You also do not have to start at 20%. You can start at 18%, 15%, 10% or wherever you wish to start. Just remember what % you started at after adding your sugar.

During fermentation, when the hydrometer gets back down to 0%, you have 20% alcohol (40 Proof) or you can stop the fermentation process wherever you desire. I will tell you how to stop the fermentation process later on.

After adding the desired amount of sugar, pour the juice in either a one or five gallon Carboy bottle. Stop at the upper curve of the bottle to allow space for expansion.

Add one Campden Tablet per gallon to stop the natural fruit fermentation.

Note:   If you do not do this step, when you add the packet of yeast, juice will be overflowing the bottle.

Add one packet of Lalvin Yeast for 1 – 5 gallons of juice.

Fill the Air Trap with water up to the Max Line and cork the bottle.

 That's it. The fermentation process begins. The room temperature should be around 65 - 70 degrees.

For the next two months keep water in the trap to keep outside fragrances from getting into the wine.

Note:    The Air Trap is simply like a 'P' trap on your sink or toilet. It allows fluids to go down the drain but the water that remains in the trap keeps the odor from coming back into the house.

Making Applesauce

Take the remains (skin, seeds, etc) and put them in the Squeezo to make applesauce.

Apple sauce will come out of the side of the strainer and the skin and seeds will be deposited out of the end.

Add seasoning, such as cinnamon,  to taste.

Use the skin and seed remains of this process (Mother) to make Apple Cider Vinegar or add it to your compost bin.

America's Desire to be more European

We seem to have this burning desire to be more like Europe. Why? My guess is the people who have that desire have visited Europe but do not know anything about the culture. It all just seems so .... romantic. The old cities, castles, side walk cafe's, coffee houses. My, my, my. It is just all so different and exciting when we visit there.

When did we lose our desire to be exceptional Americans. Anyone who thinks Europeans have it better than us have never spent much time in Europe. I worked for an international company for 25 years and spent a great deal of time working with another international company based in Germany. Let me give you some insight on the European lifestyle.

*    They pay 50% and greater of their salary (mandatory) in taxes to support their social programs
*    They do not jump jobs to better their salaries and position in life. Basically, if you work at a retail store, restaurant, motel, or corporation, you will most likely retire from there.
*    Only the upper middle class and upper class own homes and apartments (A one bedroom apartment will cost over $200,000). Everyone else lives in high rises and usually rent just one room and use a shared bathroom with the rest of the hall. Europe is very class oriented and you remain in your station for life.
*    Very few people own campers or boats because gas and licensing is just too expensive.
*    Compared to the population, few people own cars. Too expensive to buy or operate. Most people use public transportation (bike, walk, bus, train and cab).
*    It cost a minimum of $5,000 for a hunting license and you must have written permission of where you will hunt.
*    Most Europeans do not like taking a bath more than once a week. Too expensive. Why do you think the best perfumes come out of France. Just a few years ago the Prime Minister of France was trying to get their citizens to take a bath a minimum of 3 times a week. I doubt he succeeded.
*    Restaurants do not rely on you to leave a proper gratuity so they include 20% in the price of the meal.
*    Universities set a quota on the number of people that can enter each major every year based on what the government estimates will be needed. When those quotas are met, that is ALL THE PEOPLE allowed into the universities for that year. Not only that but only the cream of the crop is allowed to enter college.
*    You are not allowed to work overtime except for very short term reasons. If a companies employees book too much overtime, the government will require the company to hire more people.
*    Cities are very compact which makes it easier for transportation, such as, walking, riding bikes and busses. Unlike America where we are spread out all over surburbia and rural areas.

If you think you wouldn't mind the State making all your decisions for you, read this article from Jan 3, 2013.

By Anna Andersen, The Associated Press                                                         Jan 03, 2013

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Call her the girl with no name.

A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means "light breeze" in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government.

Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don't question the Personal Names Register, a list of 1,712 male names and 1,853 female names that fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules and that officials maintain will protect children from embarrassment. Parents can take from the list or apply to a special committee that has the power to say yea or nay.

In Blaer's case, her mother said she learned the name wasn't on the register only after the priest who baptized the child later informed her he had mistakenly allowed it.

"I had no idea that the name wasn't on the list, the famous list of names that you can choose from," said Bjork Eidsdottir, adding she knew a Blaer whose name was accepted in 1973. This time, the panel turned it down on the grounds that the word Blaer takes a masculine article, despite the fact that it was used for a female character in a novel by Iceland's revered Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness.

Given names are even more significant in tiny Iceland than in many other countries: Everyone is listed in the phone book by their first names. Surnames are based on a parent's given name. Even the president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, is addressed simply as Olafur.

Blaer is identified as "Stulka" — or "Girl" — on all her official documents, which has led to years of frustration as she has had to explain the whole story at the bank, renewing her passport and dealing with the country's bureaucracy.

Her mother is hoping that will change with her suit, the first time someone has challenged a names committee decision in court.

Though the law has become more relaxed in recent years — with the name Elvis permitted, inspired by the charismatic rock and roll icon whose name fits Icelandic guidelines — choices like Cara, Carolina, Cesil, and Christa have been rejected outright because the letter "c" is not part of Iceland's 32-letter alphabet.

Full international coverage from NBC News

"The law is pretty straightforward so in many cases it's clearly going to be a yes or a no," said Agusta Thorbergsdottir, the head of the committee, a panel of three people appointed by the government to a four-year term.

Other cases are more subjective.

"What one person finds beautiful, another person may find ugly," she acknowledged. She pointed to "Satania" as one unacceptable case because it was deemed too close to "Satan."

'Basic human right'

The board also has veto power over people who want to change their names later in life, rejecting, for instance, middle names like Zeppelin and X.

Eidsdottir says she is prepared to take her case all the way to the country's Supreme Court if a court doesn't overturn the commission decision on Jan. 25.

"So many strange names have been allowed, which makes this even more frustrating because Blaer is a perfectly Icelandic name," Eidsdottir said. "It seems like a basic human right to be able to name your child what you want, especially if it doesn't harm your child in any way."

"And my daughter loves her name," she added.

End of Article

So, if you think you want to be more like the Europeans, you had better look over the above list to see if you are OK living under those conditions. I am sure there are a lot more because the Europeans are very rule oriented. There is a rule for everything and everyone is expected to follow the rules without exception.. Forget individualism because it doesn't exist in Europe. The funniest part of this issue is there are many Europeans who would like to be Americans.


So, for those people wanting to be more like Europeans, they should simply move to Europe. For us Patriots, we'll proudly remain Americans.