Kevin's Watch

I think I once heard Mario Batali say that it's never a bad idea to pair a food with a wine from the same region. Of course, the world is globalized now. . . but it makes sense that the same things that influence the taste of food (nutrients, climates, etc) would influence the grapes as well.

I (very obviously) am not an expert on wine. But I did recently enjoy some domestic Port. I'll have to save up a bit to sample some of the imported kinds.

And if you are interested in looking about, this link is to my favorite local wine seller.

Wyldewode wrote:And if you are interested in looking about, this link is to my favorite local wine seller.

Yum

www.brownderby.com/wineproduct.php?pf_id=60534

That looks good, Vader! I have to be careful when I go into that store. . . they sell all kinds of amazing gormet food and imported things (like cheese, chocolate, and balsamic vinegar) and I usually spend a lot more than I'd planned to.

I started drinking very, very dry white wines and now I can't drink any sweet wine without shuddering.

I'd say my favorite would be pinot noir. Any kind will do. I lived in Napa in my early twenties and was blessed to do so! I'd love to become a better connoisseur, but for the time being, I'm anything but picky. I don't like sweet wine, I don't like merlot.

Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio have become our favorites as well. Crisp and dry.

New Zealand Savignon Blanc is all very well and good, but my taste buds are going tonight!

I think I like the Sancerre you posted a while ago better ... at least it is my favo(u)rite wine for a warm summer evening on the porch, watching the goosberries grow ...

oh...
you are so wicked, Vader!

"...watching the gooseberries grow..."

At the Celtic festival today, I picked up a packet of herbs and directions for making Midsummer mead. The herbs in the kit include rosehips, elderflowers, chamomile, spearmint, meadowsweet and vervain. There's also a small packet of yeast. The additional ingredients are two pounds of honey and a gallon of spring water, and it claims it will make about a gallon of mean in 7 to 14 days. If I start it today or tomorrow, I could have mead for Midsummer! Er, assuming it works. I'll let y'all know.

They had a bunch of other herb blends for making mead, too, but the Midsummer one sounded kind of, y'know, seasonal.

Oh cool!

If you can find out what type of yeast is included now that you have instructions, I hope you will consider sharing the process of how it is done. I love mead, but have never seen a fermenting kit for it.

Indeed. While Menolly was here, Dam-sel and I took her to visit a local meadery, but all we really saw was a tasting room...no production spaces. Their prices were pretty steep, too.

Menolly wrote:Oh cool!

If you can find out what type of yeast is included now that you have instructions, I hope you will consider sharing the process of how it is done. I love mead, but have never seen a fermenting kit for it.

Hunh. Just says "yeast".

Here's a link to the people who made the kit I bought.

Menolly wrote:oh...
you are so wicked, Vader!

"...watching the gooseberries grow..."

Everything darker than everything else.

And thanks for correcting my spelling mistake in "gooseberries". (no irony)

Mad Dog goes well with pizza.

Harbinger wrote:Mad Dog goes well with pizza.

That might be the saddest post I've ever seen in the Galley....

Oh fine, I'll double-post.

Today is Midsummer Day, day 8 of the mead-making adventure. Magickmaker and I tasted the brew this evening and pronounced it done. So I poured it off into bottles and stuck 'em in the fridge. And of course we each had to have a glass.

It doesn't seem to have a whole lot of kick to it. I suspect if we'd let it ferment the full two weeks, it would have a higher alcohol content. But it tastes like wine. And Magickmaker likes her wines sweet anyhow.

I got 4 bottles of mead out of the deal. One is going back to the friend who donated an empty wine bottle out of her recycling bin; one will likely go home with Batty and Shara Lunison this weekend; and if there's one left by Sunday, I'll take it to book club.

I would definitely try this again, maybe at Yule. But I would buy another kit, and not try to use a recipe from the intarwebz. Gotmead.com has a ton of recipes -- and technical terms and advice on buying specialized equipment and so on. They just generally make it into a freaking science. *Way* too technical for me.

Happy solstice, everybody!

I now feel less guilty for only giving my last batch three months. If only it took me that long to drink all five gallons of it.

My next one is going to be a melomel. I'm going to use peaches and lime and call it diamondraught.

Cool, Syl!

The recipe in this kit produces what the directions call a short mead -- because it doesn't have to ferment very long. Perfect for people with short attention spans like me.

Awesome! I think I may have to give making mead a shot.

For some reason, this just reminded me that my godmother is given to making various homemade fruit wines. I shall have to have her teach me to make a batch.

aliantha wrote:

Syl wrote:

aliantha wrote:I would definitely try this again, maybe at Yule. But I would buy another kit, and not try to use a recipe from the intarwebz. Gotmead.com has a ton of recipes -- and technical terms and advice on buying specialized equipment and so on. They just generally make it into a freaking science. *Way* too technical for me.

I now feel less guilty for only giving my last batch three months. If only it took me that long to drink all five gallons of it.

My next one is going to be a melomel. I'm going to use peaches and lime and call it diamondraught.

Cool, Syl!

The recipe in this kit produces what the directions call a short mead -- because it doesn't have to ferment very long. Perfect for people with short attention spans like me.

I would love to do the all-out method like on gotmead.com, but the jargon totally flies over my head. If it could be put in total amateur newbie terms though I would definitely give it a try.

I want to make some diamondraught, and maybe bring some with me to next summer's elohimfest to share with everyone...