I've got 99 problems and my wine is one!

So the last couple weeks in my wine making world I have endured many obstacles...so..

"If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Then quit. No sense being a damn fool about it."

Ok, no just kidding I am not quitting but I will give you all an update on what has happened.

I have only encountered a few problems and only one of them was my carelessness, plain and simple.

I am and have been making 5 gallons of wine. All day every day in my head I have repeated 5 gallons, 5 gallons, 5 gallons. So of course when it came time to purchase another carboy, which is the big glass container that hold the wine,I purchased a 6 gallon. Idiot me.

 AND not even that, I didn't realize that I had too big of a container until I started transferring the previous wine into the new carboy.

After all was said and done I had to siphon the FIVE gallons of wine back into the FIVE gallon carboy. And return the SIX gallon one for a FIVE gallon one. Waste of time...

 

-Look at the difference!!-

OK, now that I have gotten over that my other issue I was and currently am still having is that my wine seems to be stuck in fermentation. It's mind boggling because it does not happen very often. I have taken all the appropriate steps to kick its ass into gear so hopefully I can get the process back on track.

After taking my readings I noticed it must be stuck because I was only getting about a 7% alcohol content in my wine and it was much too sweet for my taste.

Now I need to restart the yeast fermentation process over and cross my fingers that all goes as planned!

 -Cheers!

Do you want some cheese with that whine?

I received a thoughtful gift from my dear friend Paige and I am just so excited to share it with you all. 

She gave me Ricki's Cheese-making Kit to go with my wine-making! How clever is she!

I am able to make a mozzarella cheese and a ricotta cheese.

Make my own cheese..., that is just wild. 

My kit includes the chemicals and additives as well as the cheese cloth! 

I will most definitely be making cheese right around the time my wine is finished and 

host a wine and cheese tasting!

Can't wait...

-Cheers

Introducing Zsa Zsa Zsu Winery!

The feeling you get when you meet some'wine' you really like- the Zsa Zsa Zsu's

Waiting ever so patiently is going to be the hardest part about my wine making process. It  will be about another two weeks until I will re-rack the wine into another glass carboy, and clear the wine of the yeast sediment at the bottom. 

I have been enjoying this process so much that I have already been trying to decide what flavor my next batch will be! And with another batch comes the thought of naming my little kitchen winery.

If anyone knows me at all, they know I am huge fan of Sex and the City. On one particular episode Carrie describes "the feeling you get when you meet someone you really like," as Zsa Zsa Zsu's. 

(Pronounced Za Za Zoo)

I am taking that and revamping it to,

"The feeling you get when you meet some'wine' you really like"

So with that I can now introduce my kitchen winery as Zsa Zsa Zsu! 

I have designed my first label for my White Grape Raspberry wine. I hope you all like it!

-Cheers!

 

"Is it ready yet?"

So it has been about a week into my wine making adventures and the White Grape Raspberry has changed so much since my lost post. After I siphoned the wine I had to let it sit in the carboy which allowed the yeast to finish eating the sugar, die off and settle to the bottom. Everyday after the siphoning I took a picture. It's incredible how different my wine looks now from when I first started.

 Day 1 after siphoning

 Day 2

 Day 3

 Day 4

 Day 5

Its gross, but all that on the bottom is dead yeast!

-Cheers ;)

Siphoning the White Grape Raspberry

 Siphoning it into the carboy!

     See those little tiny bubbles? Those are a great sign!

    It's cloudy now-but as I write this it is starting to clear and settle

 

This is a "wine dog"

White Grape Raspberry

I have been very fortunate to have our friend Bobby, staying with us for a couple weeks who took out all the guesswork of wine making and who has been a wonderful teacher! He starting making his own wine while he was stationed over in Korea and created Fire Dog Winery.http://firedogwinery.blogspot.com/. His tasty wine was such an inspiration I couldn't resist making my own!

After much deliberation, I settled on making White Grape Raspberry Wine as my very first batch of wine
We started by getting all the right supplies-which was very hard to find here in Panama City..

After a lesson from Bobby of the Do's and Don't's it was showtime..
(Off topic)I did find out a disturbing fact which I hope you all take with a grain of salt-Wine is basically yeast excretion after it feasts on the sugar. Eeek..
Anyways, the next step was to sanitize all of our utensils we would be using, which is very very important because any type of bacteria that may come in contact with wine in the process will most likely lead to bacteria growth and wine "ruinage!"
And considering this is at least a four month waiting period, there is no room for error!
I chose White Grape Raspberry as my flavor and since this is my very first batch I used Welch's Juice Concentrate, which will be delicious!
I started our yeast by adding it to water to wake it up. I then mixed and stirred all of our ingredients together and ended up with about 6 gallons of "wine" I took some measurements of the sugar content which gives me an idea of the % of alcohol in my final product. My aim is to have a 12% alcohol wine!

 After about 24 hours I had very active 6 gallons of wine!-Bubbles mean the yeast is eating and secreting..which is a great sign!