Winemaking Tip: Leaving WIne on the Lees

      One thing I have noticed about home winemakers, mead makers, and brewers is how overly controlling many van be about making their product.  It is great that in this modern age, we have science, precise measuring tools and the technology to replicate earlier recipes.  However, one shouldn't get so involved in all the details that wine making, mead making or brewing loose their charms.  Too often, I have encountered brewers that have two-thousand dollars worth of equipment and fret over the most minuscule details, but their beer isn't all that great.  On many occasions people have even complimented me on one of my creations, and then after asking me how I made it, they seem upset when I explain my techniques and they then proceed to tell me what I did "wrong."  What is both frustrating and amusing is these people usually don't make wine, mead, or beer that tastes as good as mine.  Don't misinterpret me, I still use good techniques (e.g. proper sanitation, record keeping, utilize high quality ingredients), but I do believe that sometimes too much effort is invested for too little returns.  In these cases, it may be easier to just do it the simple way.  So, in my new series of posts, I will be giving little tips on how to brew, make wine, or make mead the simple (not to mention cheap and easy) way!  I have already discussed many of these techniques with both friends and strangers at bars and I've got plenty of resistance.  To any doubters I will say the same thing I say to everyone else.  Before you label my techniques as rubbish, come on over to my place and try some of my drinks that are made simply.  Then (like some ignorant people) you can tell me how wrong I am while we both drink some delicious, improperly-made drinks.  Any, I have vented enough, on to tip number 1!

On to Auburn (and other updates)

A scene from Auburn University.

      Many of you have probably noticed that I haven't posted in a while.  Well, I was actually living in a tent while I looked for a place in Auburn.  In some ways it was nice.  I caught my first Alabama fish (a largemouth bass from a deep pool in a woodland stream), found three species of edible chanterelles (more on them in a future post), and explored around the cool, mesic forests that were a welcome change from the xeric pine communities of Navarre, Florida.  In other ways it was not so nice.  The frontal system that moved through on Saturday and Sunday literally dampened my spirits.  I spent the night in my gore-tex rain gear because my tent seems were all leaking.  However, I did get to rough the worst of the storm with two random guys who were also living at the campground, Cody and Hootie.  They construct large, concrete holding tanks around the country and were proud of their work.  That seems pretty rare these days.  They sometimes stay at campgrounds to save cash and, like me, they had to face the storm.  So, we had a couple beers, some homemade loquat mead, played banjo, and listened to the sound of the rain resonate as it forcefully collided with the tin roof of the picnic pavilion.  It was great having some friends to weather the storm with.  Although I probably won't see them again, it was one of many encounters I've had with complete strangers that I won't forget.  It's something you can't understand if you live your life secluded in an apartment or locked up in a hotel room.

I caught my first AL fish here at Chewacla Creek.

Some smooth chanterelles are breaking through the moss and leaf litter.

Some cinnabar red chanterelles.

      So why did I come to Auburn in the first place?  Well, I'm starting grad school!  I'll be working with Dr. Johnston in the Fisheries Department.  My main focus will be conservation of the pygmy sculpin (Cottus paulus), but I'll have two years to write about that, so I won't go into detail today.  I've already met some cool people, went on a fish collecting trip (more on that later), found chanterelles and blueberries, and found some local jams, all in less than a week.  I think I'll like it here.

Other updates:

Daylilly
      The daylilly had a spectacular bloom this year.  There were some typical six tepaled (they are technically not all petals...see earlier post) flowers and some with extra tepals as I hoped for.

The daylillies in bloom.

Mountain Banjo
      I got to put a little time in on the mountain banjo project.  I laminated three pieces of wood together so I had a large block that I roughed the neck out of.  I have not done the final shaping yet.  I'll write a more detailed post on the banjo soon.

Muscadine Mead

Muscadine Pymet bottled in January 2010.  The label was drawn by Thomas Matechik.

      I recently opened a bottle of my 2010 muscadine pymet.  For those of you who don't know, a muscadine is a southern species of wild grape (Vitis rotundifolia) that is sweeter than normal table grapes with a slight "musty" (though not unpleassent) flavor.  There are many different wild varieties and domestic cultivars, including large and small bronze, green, or purple grapes.  I used to find the most prized variety, the wild scuppernong, all over in and around Tallahassee.  It seemed that almost every rural roadside or city fence had muscadines growing on them.  Also for those of you who don't already know, a pymet is a mead with added grapes (or grape juice).  It is sort of a mead and wine hybrid.

An Introduction to Mead

The benches were filled with famous men who fell to with relish, round upon round of mead was passed; those powerful kinsmen, Hrothgar and Hrothulf were high in spirits in the raftered hall.  Inside Heorot there was nothing but friendship.

 - Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation

Blackberry Buzz, one of my meads.  The label was produced by my friend John Dougherty.  Sorry for the picture quality.  I like my point and shoot but it was not really designed for these types of photos.

      I wanted to post this on Thanksgiving but I ended up going gigging instead, so here it is.  After moving out of Tallahassee last May, I realized that I have stockpiled a lot more homemade beer, mead, and wine than I thought.  I need to drink some up before my next move.  So, this year I added a bottle of my blackberry mead to our Thanksgiving feast.  I’ll provide a brief, general description of mead for those of you who are not familiar with this drink of the gods.  Then, I’ll describe my particular mead to the best of my ability.  I’m no connoisseur but I know enough about wine and mead to make them so I should be able to describe them.