At What Point Do You Dry Hop?

Now the you have decided which hops to use, you must decide at what point in the beer brewing cycle do you want to do the dry hopping.

Most consider dry hopping in the secondary fermentation stage to be the best time to dry hop. The beer is pretty much finished fermenting when it enters the glass carboy secondary fermenter. As mentioned in days past the alcohol and the low pH of the beer will help fight off any bacterial development from infusing your beer with hops which have not been sanitized. The vigorous fermentation which occurs in the primary fermenter has subsided so the hops now infused will be able to add their aromatic qualities to the beer easily.

One problem with dry hopping in the secondary is the narrow neck of the carboy. My solution to this problem has been to sanitize a muslin hop bag and a piece of string. I place my hops in the muslin bag and tie a not in the top of the bag and also tie the piece of string to the bag just below the knot. I push the bag full of hops through the carboy neck and suspend the bag in the carboy. When I am ready to bottle I simply siphon my beer out of the carboy leaving the bag of hops behind. I then pull the string with the bloated bag of hops attached up to the top of the carboy, snip a hole in the bag and shake out the spent hops. I then pull the bag through the neck and rinse the hops out of the carboy.

Some brewers like to dry hop in the primary but the bubbling action taking place may actually remove some of the aroma from the beer. One thing to consider if dry hopping in the primary is that you add extra hops to compensate for the loss caused by the fermentation process.

The final option is to dry hop in the keg. This is done similar to using the muslin bag as described above but without the string. The downside of this method is that depending on the length of time your beer remains in the keg the beer may be subjected to extended contact with the hops which could alter the taste and aroma of your beer.

Tomorrow: Hop Quantity and Type

Wine Tidbit: Pinot Noir is possibly the most challenging wine for winemakers because of this varietal's extreme sensitivity to changes in the weather. In years of weather favorable to Pinot Noir it will develop into a truly great wine.

BlueStem Winery provides homebrewers (and winemakers) in northeast Iowa with a full service source for their equipment, supplies, and ingredients. BlueStem is also on the web at www.bluestemwine.com and where we provide wine making ingredient kits, equipment, supplies and ingredients plus home brew supplies, equipment, ingredients and ingredient kits to a world market. Check out our complete line of WinExpert winemaking ingredient kits including the Selection International, Selection Original, Selection Estate, Vintner's Reserve, Selection Speciale and World Vineyard product lines. We are the newest dealer in the United States for Cellar Craft International and we offer select wines from their Showcase and Classics winemaking ingredient kit lines plus a few of their dessert wines. BlueStem's website features a $6 handling charge per order with all other shipping costs included in the price of the merchandise purchased. It's and easy way to shop! We're looking forward to being your home brewing and winemaking supply store no matter where you are located from Pakistan to Peru to Peoria.

Choosing a Hop for "Dry Hopping"

First, remember that you are now hopping your beer for flavor and aroma, not for bitterness! Many hops are listed as hops that are typically used as flavor or aroma hops rather than as bittering hops and these are the ones that you will want to look to when dry hopping your home brew.

Most hops considered to be good aroma and flavor hops have low levels of alpha acids (around 6% or less). These varieties (there are others) include Cascade, Crystal, Fuggle, Kent Goldings, Hallertau, Saaz, Tettnang and Willamette.

Want to experiment? Feel free! That is what home brewing is all about! Any hop that you like the results of when using them in the last 15 minutes of the wort boil will most likely be ones that you will like the results of when dry hopping.

Tomorrow: At what stage in the lift of your home brew should you actually do your dry hopping?

Wine Tidbit: Many, many wines are purchased because of the bottle they are in or because of the label that is on the bottle! Why do you think we purchase beautiful blue bottles imported from France for our premier Once in a Blue Moon Riesling wine? If you are collecting bottles and labels then please, be my guest! A beautiful bottle and a designer label do not guarantee a superior wine! Read the label! If you are paying a premier price you should be getting a premier wine, not a pretty bottle.

Besides Once in a Blue Moon, BlueStem Winery markets many choice Iowa wines from our store in Parkersburg, Iowa. BlueStem has a gift shop which sells wine accessories plus gourmet foods, art, antiques, Amish quilts, and rare (and not so rare) books. BlueStem also features a complete line of home brewing supplies including fermenters, siphon equipment, dry malts, liquid malt extract, malted grains plus a complete inventory of bottles, cappers, grain mills and all of the necessities a homebrew enthusiast would need. BlueStem also features a complete line of wine making equipment, supplies, ingredients and both equipment and ingredient kits for your winemaking ventures. BlueStem features premium grade ingredient kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft and has the expertise to assist you with any winemaking question. Look for us on the web at www.bluestemwine.com.

Why "Dry Hop"?

Because the hops are added to your beer after the boil and cool down you benefit from the flavoring and aroma characteristics of the hop without the bittering. This happens because hops that are boiled for an extended period (longer than about 15 minutes) have the oils boiled off and what remains is the bitterness.

By not boiling off the oils (by doing your hop infusion late in the boil or by dry hopping after the cool down of your wort) you get the maximum benefit of the flavoring and aroma characteristics of your hops. Dry hopping does not add any bitterness to your beer because boiling is necessary to convert the alpha acids present in the hops to iso-alpha acids which create the bittering in your beer.

The result is a beer that has a floral essence and an intense flavor. These characteristics are very desirable in beers which are "hoppy" such as IPA's or pale ales.

What about the possibility of adding bacteria to your beer by dry hopping (remember, you are not boiling which does sanitize everything)? When I use a muslin bag and a string to dry hop beer in a carboy I boil the bag and string prior to dry hopping. What about the hops themselves? Beyond that there are several factors which actually inhibit the development of bacteria including that hops themselves do not provide an environment that is conducive to the growth of bacteria plus any bacteria which enter the wort during the primary fermentation stage will be competing with yeast which is aggressively converting the wort into alcohol. Bacteria which enters at the secondary fermentation stage will find a situation in which there is a combination of alcohol together with a low pH level both of which will tend of inhibit the growth of bacteria.

Bacteria caused by dry hopping? It could happen but not on a frequency level which should prevent you from using this method to obtain more flavor and aroma in your beer.

Tomorrow: Determining which hops to use when dry hopping

Wine Tidbit: Going out for your evening meal? Planning on taking a bottle of wine along? Be sure to call ahead and ask about the restaurant's corking policy. Most establishments will charge a nominal fee ($10 or less per bottle).

Home brew supplies? Winemaking Equipment? Iowa wines? They are all available at BlueStem Winery. BlueStem features a complete line of homebrewing equipment, supplies, hops, malts, yeast for the home beer maker plus we also stock wine making equipment, ingredients, supplies and ingredient kits and feature both Cellar Craft International and WinExpert ingredient kits. And . . . we also have a nice line of native Iowa wines featuring, of course, our own BlueStem label wines. Visit us on the web at http://www.bluestemwine.com/!

What is "Dry Hopping" Beer?

Bitterness, flavor, and aroma are all derived from the hops added to beer (beer is called wort before it is beer). Which of these three is derived from the hops depends on when the hops are added to the wort. Sometimes only bitterness is obtained from a hop infusion and sometimes your beer will get all three from a single infusion.

Bitterness in beer comes from the alpha acids prevalent in hops. Flavor and aroma in beer is derived from the oils.

Hops intended to bitter beer are added at the beginning of the wort boil while hops intended to flavor beer or give it aroma are added near the end of the boil because the oils dissipitate quickly (15 minutes or so) in the boil and if infused into the wort too early they will all disappear before the end of the boil.

Thus, most homebrewing recipes call for the infusion of "bittering" hops at the start of the boil time (usually 60 minutes) while flavoring and aroma hops are added near the end of the boil (usually with only 15 minutes of boil time remaining).

The term "dry hopping" is used to describe the process of adding hops after the wort has been cooled. Dry hopping can be done in the primary fermenter or you can wait until the beer is transferred to the secondary fermenter or hops can be added to the beer as it is being kegged. I have often used pellet hops in the secondary fermentation stage by putting the pellets in a small muslin bag and then tying a string around the top of the bag. I stuff the bag through the neck of the carboy and suspend the bag of pellets in the beer during the duration of the secondary fermentation. Of course, the bag swells up and cannot be retrieved from the carboy! Simply siphon your beer into your bottling bucket for bottling, then pull the bag up to the neck of the carboy, snip the bag with a scissors and shake out the hop residue. Throw the bag and string away and rinse the carboy.

Tomorrow: Why Dry Hop?

Wine Tidbit: There exist in the world over 5,000 different grape varietals. Of these 5,000 plus varietals there are 9 considered to be the "classic" wine grapes. These are Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Semillon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay.

BlueStem Winery invites you to check out our large inventory of homebrewing supplies, equipment, ingredients and ingredient kits at www.bluestemwine.com. BlueStem has just recently (last week!) added Cellar Craft International wine ingredient kits to our inventory (including many of the "classics" listed in the prior paragraph! Whether you need winemaking ingredients, supplies, equipment or wine making ingredient kits from either Cellar Craft or WinExpert please consider us as your beer brewing or wine making supply source! We feature a one time per order handling charge with no additional shipping charges. We look forward to serving you! We are fast, friendly and knowledgable and look forward to serving you!

Cellar Craft International Wine Ingredient Kits

I have been too busy to do blog entries for the past couple of days--our new wine kits from Cellar Craft International arrived early Thursday and we have been moving freight for several days.

Then we had to take photos, right descriptions, etc. to get these wine ingredient kits listed on our website. I have all but two done! BlueStem Winery is now prepared to market its new line of supurb wine ingredient kits from Cellar Craft International.

We have stocked the following kits initially:

From the Showcase line: Amarone, Rosso Fortissimo, Chateau du Pays, Yakima Valley Merlot, Yakima Valley Syrah, Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel, Walla Walla Cabernet-Merlot, Gewurztraminer-Riesling, Yakima Valley Viognier and Yakima Valley Pinot Gris.

From the Premium 6-Week line: Italian Reserva Pinot Grigio, Washington Reserve Late Harvest Riesling, Italian Riserva Nebbiolo, European Reserve Meritage Rouge and Washington State White Merlot.

From the Dessert Wine line: Classic Port and Porto Corinto.

BlueStem Winery stocks these fine wine ingredient kits from Cellar Craft and also stocks an extensive line of wine ingredient kits from WinExpert. See our website at www.bluestemwine.com for a complete listing and description of all of our wine ingredient kits, winemaking equipment, wine making supplies plus we carry home brewing supplies, ingredients, equipment, and a complete line of beer making ingredient kits (under the brand BlueStem's Best) for all of your homebrewing needs.

The Various Uses of Campden Tablets

Campden tablets come in two forms (Sodium Metabisulphite and Potassium Metabisulphite). BlueStem Winery stocks the potassium variety mostly because of all the warnings out there about decreasing your sodium intake. Potassium just sounded healthier to me then sodium and we discontinued carrying the sodium variety tablets several years ago.

We stock potassium metabisulphite in two forms, the granular variety and the tablet variety known as Campden tablets.

Campden tablets are just a pre-measured dosage of sulphites (or sulfites) compressed with a carrier (inert material). This measured amount of sulphites makes it much easier for the home winemaker to control the dosage of sulphites (aka sulfur dioxide or SO2) going into the wine must.

Each tablet contains 65mg/L of sulfur dioxide when dissolved into one gallon of wine must (or 13mg/L if one tablet is dissolved in 5 gallons of wine must). Potassium Metabisulphite powder is much stronger than the tablet form and only 1/4 teaspoon of powder added to one gallon of wine must provides 195mg/L of SO2 (or 39mg/L if the 1/4 teaspoon is added to 5 gallons of must).

The purpose of using potassium (or sodium) metabisulphites in wine is threefold: First, it creates an environment where yeasts which were present on your fruit (wild yeasts) cannot survive; second, it helps to inhibit the growth of bacteria which can spoil your wine; and third, it acts as a preservative so that your wine will have a longer shelf life. In addition, sulfites can also be used for sanitizing your equipment, corks, and bottles.

Commercial wine kits typically come with lower dosages of sulphites because the juice used has been pasteurized prior to packaging. However, if you are planning to age your wine for a considerable length of time, it is a good idea to add additional Campden or metabisulphite powder to your wine prior to bottling.

Crush Campden tablets with a pair of spoons (or a mortar and pestle if you have one), dissolve the powder by stirring into warm water. Add a little wine and stir again. If lumps appear, stir until they disappear and pour this liquid into your empty bucket or carboy and then rack your wine on top of the sulphite mixture.

If making wine from backyard fruit it is definitely a good idea to use one Campden tablet per gallon of wine must to clean your wine must. Crush your Campden tablets and dissolve in warm water prior to adding to your juice. Stir and wait 24 hours prior to adding the appropriate yeast to begin your wine fermentation.

Potassium Metabisulphite powder works best for sterilizing your winemaking equipment and your wine bottles because, as described previously, it is much stronger than the Campden tablets. Add one teaspoon of Potassium Metabisulphite powder to a quart of water and use this as your final rinse for your wine making equipment and for your wine bottles.

Campden tablets (in vials of 50 or 100) along with Potassium Metabisulphite powder are available on our website at www.bluestemwine.com! BlueStem Winery stocks winemaking equipment, supplies, ingredients along with both WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits. We also stock all of the equipment, supplies, ingredients and our own line of ingredient kits called BlueStem's Best for the homebrew enthusiast. Whether homebrewing beer or making your own homemade wine, BlueStem has the items you need for a successful hobby.

Soaking Corks for Easier Insertion.

Some sources suggest that home winemakers insert corks into their wine bottles dry. This is the procedure used by commercial wineries but they have corking machinery which makes it much easier to do this.

BlueStem Winery suggests (see other blog entries) that corks be soaked for approximately 30 minutes completely submerged in a sulphite solution or in a no-rinse cleansing solution prior to corking your wine bottles.

Inserting a cork dry will cause stress to the cork and may damage it enough as to no longer be an effective seal. Soaking your corks will give them more pliability which will make insertion easier and it also will help prevent bacteria growth.

Still having trouble with cork insertion? Try putting a drop of glycerine on your corking device and add another drop after approximately a dozen cork insertions. Glycerine will make both insertion and removal easier and it can be obtained both at your winemaking supply store or at a drug store. Make sure that you thoroughly clean your corking device when finished as glycerine left behind will become sticky and it will become a magnet for dust, etc. and a home for bacteria growth.

We're on the web at www.bluestemwine.com with products for the home winemaker including winemaking equipment, supplies, ingredients and ingredient kits from WinExpert and Cellar Craft. We offer all the free advice on making wine that you want (and maybe some that you don't!). If you brew beer, too, we also stock a complete line of supplies, equipment, ingredients and ingredient kits for the home brewer. E-mail us at bluestemwine@mchsi.com if you have any questions on getting started with making wine at home or on learning to brew your own homebrew.

To Use or NOT to Use (Synthetic Corks, that is!)

While many tout the advantages of synthetic corks, the home winemaker should realize that there are inherent problems with using a synthetic cork to seal your wine.

If using a synthetic cork, the first visible sign that you have a problem may occur only a few short weeks after bottling. When a synthetic cork is inserted into a bottle the pressure which develops in the headspace between the wine and the bottom of the cork can be about double that when using a natural cork. This first sign will take the form of corks coming back out of bottles. An early form of this problem is that when you insert the cork into the bottle it will pop partially back out of the bottle because of the pressure built up underneath the cork.

A sidebar to this excess pressure problem is that when this pressure is doubled between the cork and the wine you have also increased the amount of oxygen between the cork and wine and this will result in a greater chance of oxidation occuring in your wine.

BlueStem Winery recommends that you continue to use corks made of natural cork product. If you want to dress up your bottle it is easy to apply a shrink capsule (these are available in many, many colors and in two sizes on our website at www.bluestemwine.com) after corking your wine or you can use bottle wax (available in at least a half dozen different colors on our website) to decorate your bottle and as a secondary oxygen barrier. BlueStem Winery has several dessert wines that we make and the bottles that we use have what is called a "bartop" cork finish. This type bottle is larger in diameter (same cork size) and the shrink capsules do not work with these so what we do is countersink the cork about 1/8 inch deeper than normal and place a small amount of colored bottle wax into this depression. It covers the end of the cork (we use silver a lot) and makes the bottles stand out when lying flat in a wine rack.

We are interested in your feedback. If you have a topic that you would like us to address please e-mail us at bluestemwine@mchsi.com or at info@bluestemwine.com and we will post your question and our answer on this blog or on our website newsletter. Your questions can be about home winemaking (equipment, supplies, ingredients, procedures or ingredient kits) or we will also respond to questions about home brewing equipment, supplies, ingredients, procedures or beer making ingredient kits.

Like Sweet Wine? Here's the How To!

Whether you are making a wine ingredient kit such as the ones we sell from WinExpert or Cellar Craft or whether you are making a wine from fruit, we get questions about how and when to sweeten wine.

Commercial wines vinted by wineries (plus a few wine ingredient kits) and intended to be finished as a sweet wine sometimes have the fermentation process stopped by the winemaker and the sweetness of the wine derives from residual sugars remaining in the wine.

Most times, however, wines (commercial wines and wine ingredient kits for home winemakers) are fermented completely dry or to very close to completely dry and then are sweetened post-fermetation.

Is the procedure of stopping a fermentation early (the wine is not yet dry) a practice that you should attempt on a batch of homemade wine from fruit or a purchased wine ingredient kit? We consider this way of making sweet wine an advanced winemaking technique and really do recommend against this unless you have developed the expertise to make sweet wine this way or unless the ingredient kit you purchased is intended to be made this way.

Our recommendation is that your wine be fermented to dry or to virtually dry. The wine should then be treated with a preservative (sodium metabisulphite or potassium metabisulphite) and a yeast stabilizer (potassium sorbate) and then sweetened to taste.

You can sweeten your wine in two ways. You can purchase a commercial sweetener (such as WinExpert's Wine Conditioner) or you can make your own sugar syrup by heating two cups of sugar and one cup of water in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. This sugar syrup can then be gradually added to your wine (add, stir, taste) and repeat until you reach the desired sweetness level.

Have questions about sweetening wine? You can e-mail your questions to me at bluestemwine@mchsi.com or to info@bluestemwine.com. Visit us on the web at www.bluestemwine.com for a complete line of winemaking and home brewing equipment, supplies, ingredients and ingredient kits. We offer prompt, friendly service and are always willing to take the time to help with any questions or concerns.

Bad Business on the Internet

This post has absolutely nothing to do with wine. It has to do with the risk you run when you do business with less than reputable companies on the web (and on eBay).

This is all about a company in Elkton, Virginia that sells parts for Mustangs and Fords. My guess is this company is not the star member of the Elkton Chamber of Commerce! After reading absolutely tons of information (all bad!) about these folks it is a wonder that these folks have any business whatsoever!

We purchased a relatively cheap part for a Mustang we own (a pair of motor mounts). Like I said, they were cheap and they were cheaply made. But my complaint is not about the product, it is about the way we were treated!

Five days after purchase (on eBay) we had not heard a peep from them. Payment had been made immediately after the purchase was made and this was acknowledged by the seller. I e-mailed to ask about the part. I forgot that my e-mail was done on my work computer and so they did not have a record of my purchase. A rather curt e-mail informed me that I did not exist as a customer of theirs. I e-mailed back what my name was and was then informed that I had received an autoreply after purchase and had also received notice of pending delivery from UPS. Neither of these events had happened and I was then informed that I had too many filters on my e-mail. Not so as we operate a business and I receive e-mails from everyone--most of which I would not get!

John (if this guy is an owner he sure doesn't believe in the customer being right--ever) then said he would contact UPS and have the shipment returned to them. Well, the item was already on the truck and was delivered to us about 3 hours later. But, John decided that negative feedback was in order (I am now the worst of the worst on eBay). This was our first negative feedback after over 5,000 eBay sales (maybe we should just sell, not buy!). Then, to top it off, he files a non-paying bidder notice with eBay (like I don't have enough proof that this is a lie!) and requests his eBay commissions to be refunded. I guess business is so good in Elkton, Virginia that he doesn't need to sell on eBay. We have now turned him in for fraud, filed two complaints with the Western Virginia Better Business Bureau and another with the Chamber of Commerce.

Now, today, he opens fraudulent websites (at least 3 of them) using names very similar to our website name and using my personal name and is attempting to re-direct traffic away from our website.

Contemplating doing business with anyone selling Mustang or Ford parts in Elkton, Virginia? Do a little web research and see what everyone has to say about this company--they will be easy to find as Elkton is a burg of about 2,000. After reading the information out there I find it hard to believe that anyone would want to do business with these people! Do a search and find a myriad of similar experiences related by others out there. It only took me a few minutes to find a pile of them!

We are legitimate and we are on the web at http://www.bluestemwine.com/ with a complete line of wine and beer making supplies and unlike others, we treat our customers with respect.

Do what you can to stop this sort of web business--patronize other businesses.

To Do or Not To Do ~ Rehydrating Yeast

When making wine at home from a wine ingredient kit such as WinExpert or Cellar Craft the instructions usually tell you to prepare the ingredients and to sprinkle the yeast on top of the must prior to covering. Sometimes the instructions will also tell you to wait 24 hours prior to sprinkling the yeast.

However, when reading texts (or the back of the wine yeast packet) they will often recommend that you rehydrate the yeast prior to pitching it into your wine must. This generates quite a few questions from both home winemakers and home brewers.

The simple answer is that the more yeast cells that can be delivered into your must or wort, the better the chance that your wine or beer will get off to a successful start.

The not-so-simple answer is that rehydrating the yeast is not as simple as adding water and pitching it into your fermenting bucket. There are many factors involved in the rehydration of yeast including: using the correct amount of water (the Lalvin people suggest that you add the yeast to water weighing 10 times the weight of the yeast) and having the water at a very precise temperature (the range suggested is that the water be between 104 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit). Without going into a long description, the yeast hydration will fail if the water is either too cold or too hot.

Now the easy part--just sprinkle the yeast. Although you will have fewer yeast cells at the start (hence a slightly slower start) they will reproduce rapidly and without all the possible wrong turns that can occur with rehydration. How much yeast do you need? We use one packet for a batch of yeast (anywhere from one gallon to six gallons). Here at BlueStem Winery we start 50 gallon batches with 30 grams (equivalent to 6 packets of Red Star yeast) of yeast and we do not rehydrate--we sprinkle!

If you are looking for a prompt, friendly, reputable and reliable source for your wine making supplies or your home brewing ingredients we would appreciate your consideration. We are on the web at www.bluestemwine.com with a complete line of winemaking equipment, supplies, and ingredients and we also have a complete line of home beer making equipment, supplies, and ingredients for the home brewing enthusiast. We put together our own line of home brew ingredient kits (called BlueStem's Best) and we sell three lines of winemaking ingredient kits including those from Cellar Craft (we stock most of the Showcase line, a few if their dessert wine kits and several of their Premium 6-week 16 liter kits from their Regional Classics and Global Series lines), those from WinExpert (we stock about 80% of the wine kits available from WinExpert including from their Selection Original, Selection International, Selection Estate, Island Mist, Vintner's Reserve and World Vineyard series wine kits) plus we have our own brand of fruit wine kits with or without the necessary winemaking equipment for 3, 5 or 6 gallon batches of your favorite fruit wine.

Cellar Craft Showcase Gewurztraminer-Riesling

Today we are looking at Cellar Craft International's Showcase Gewurztraminer-Riesling wine. The grapes for this award winning wine are again from the Yakima Valley in Washington State.

The peach and melon undertones from the Riesling grapes meld perfectly with the spice, mango, grapefruit and lychee flavors of the Gewurztraminer.

This wine is absolutely elegant with a hint of sweetness coming from the Riesling flavor reserve pack which accompanies this wine. This full-bodied white wine can be enjoyed young or you can age this wine to let its rich flavors develop even more. Enjoy this wine just slightly chilled!

Hey! We're on the web at http://www.bluestemwine.com/ and we have a complete line of home wine making equipment, home winemaking supplies, wine making ingredient kits (Cellar Craft and WinExpert) plus all the winemaking ingredients necessary to make your own recipes from backyard fruit.

Anything else? You bet! We also have our store chock full of homebrewing ingredients, supplies, equipment and our very own BlueStem's Best home brew ingredient kits. These kits come complete with all the ingredients necessary (even the beer bottle caps) for you to make a five gallon batch of homemade beer. The best part is that it tastes as good or better as the upscale craft brews you purchase for much more in the store.

We want to put in a plug for our website people! We had a very bad experience with our first website builder and host provider out of Clear Lake, Iowa. After fighting a never ending battle to get things done on our site we finally contacted Impact Marketing out of Waterloo, Iowa to assist us in building our present website. In a few words, Impact Marketing has been everything to us that our first website provider was not! Thinking of building a website? I very strongly recommend that you contact Andy at http://www.impactmt.com/. You can also visit Andy's blog (there is information about our own website on Andy's blog) at http://blog.impactmt.com/.

Another subject of great importance to me is racing and in particular racing Ford Mustangs. We are regulars at our local track (Cedar Falls Raceway) and also are known to frequent Cordova and Byron, Illinois on occasion to race and we make an annual trek to the World Ford Challenge whether it is in Indianapolis, Joliet or East St. Louis. We own several Mustangs (plus several other Fords) and we race a few of these at the track. We recently purchased parts on the internet from a company that thinks they are a big time Ford parts supplier (located in Elkton, Virginia). They won't be hard to find (Elkton is only about 2,000 people). We were treated to a shipment of low quality merchandise, excessive shipping expense and when we had the gall to ask the status of our purchase we were treated to a tirade of e-mail abuse. We have filed a complaint against the Ford aftermarket parts supplier with both the Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce. Buying Ford parts in Virginia? Beware of this one!!