Long Term Home Wine Storage

My son is becoming quite the collector of wine. Personally, if I part with cash to purchase a bottle of wine I like to enjoy that wine sometime in the not too distant future. Nick (my son), on the other hand likes to have some wine that he imbibes and other wine that goes onto the shelf to enjoy (hopefully) in the distant future. This brings us to our topic for today . . . storing wine.

Wine storage does not have to be expensive but it does need to be done properly.

Three elements can affect the future well being of your wine collection. These three things are air, heat and light. Wine will rust (I mean oxidize) if exposed to air.

Minimizing air contact is accomplish by purchasing wine which has been corked with high quality cork and then by laying the wine on its side to keep the cork moist. Corks which dry out (caused by the wine bottle being stored vertically) will allow air to pass through.

Red wines are typically bottled in dark green bottles and many whites are bottled in cobalt blue or dark amber bottles. These bottles reduce the amount of ultraviolet light that the wine is exposed to. Ultraviolet light can break down the structure of the wine. Heat can also potentially damage wines.

So, to reduce the chance of environmental damage to your wine, follow these suggestions:

1. Purchase wine with quality closures and store corked bottles on their sides.

2. Purchase wines which are bottled in darker colored glass and store your wines where it is generally dark.

3. Store your wines in a cool place (not too warm, not too cold).

This cool location for wine storage is best if the temperature remains fairly constant and there is a reasonable amount of humidity (too dry and corks will suffer). A good temperature range for basement storage is from a minimum of about 40 degrees (F) to as high as 65-70 degrees. Most homes will not maintain a constant temperature but if the changes in temperature are gradual this type of storage will suffice.

A more expensive way to approach wine storage is creating an area which is both temperature and humidity controlled but in some locations this could be the only alternative for long term wine storage.

BlueStem Winery operates as a licensed and bonded Iowa winery and also operates a retail store selling beer brewing supplies, homebrew ingredients, homebrewing equipment, winemaking supplies, wine making ingredients, equipment for home winemaking, WinExpert wine kits and and also ingredient kits for making wine from Cellar Craft.

Have the perfect place to store your wine but have no wine? Let us show you the how to's of home wine making. If you want an easy way to get started in this hobby, let us help you decide on either a WinExpert ingredient kit or a Cellar Craft wine kit and with a little bit of patience you can have your wine storage full and still have wine to enjoy. Prefer a cold one? Bluestem also can help you with home brewing supplies and home brew ingredients and can help set you up with brewing equipment to get started on another fulfilling hobby. Cheers!

To Samsung or NOT to Samsung!

Andy at The Big Bald Blog got me revved up about Samsung again. His blog article yesterday about his vacuum cleaner experiences with Sears (where not to buy anything that SUCKS because it won't). You can read Andy's blog for his slant on vacuum cleaners . . . my experience is with over-the-range microwave ovens.

Yes, I know, this blog is supposed to be about BlueStem Winery, selling home brewing supplies and making wine but my tag line also says that I sometimes rant and rave about things that make me angry (or make me feel good). Today it is angry!

Apparently Samsung feels that before you purchase one of their over-the-counter microwave ovens you should read the warranty so that you know that if you install the oven and it does not work that you are responsible for paying the bill to install it, remove it and then reinstall another one. Apparently I did not understand that because Samsung makes junk and then sells junk this somehow becomes my problem.

I guess if you are big enough you obtain a license to dump on your customers at will. I operate a small winemaking supplies and homebrew ingredients store and we also retail our own label Iowa wines. If one of my customers bought something that was defective, even though they opened it in the process of finding out that it was defective, I would take responsibility for the item sold and replace it or refund the money. No cost to my customer!

We (my wife and I) bought a Samsung over-the-counter microwave oven with the thought that it would work at least for a reasonable amount of time. Silly me! It didn't work long enough to heat up one slice of cold pizza. In fact, we never were able to use it at all. But . . . we paid $268 (plus sales tax of $19) to Lowe's and then paid $140 to have the microwave installed. This was a fairly major job as we had to disassemble part of our kitchen cupboards to get the thing in. So, we are now in this for a total of $427. Before I forget, Samsung treated us like crap, Lowe's treated us with a tremendous amount of respect.

Never fear, the goods are under warranty. This means that Samsung will repair, replace or refund. Well, it turns out that there isn't a Samsung repair facility within a hundred miles so that takes out option 1. Option 2 was replacement. Now why on God's green earth would I want to replace this Samsung beauty with another one of their pieces of junk. Remember, it cost me $140 to put it in. Now I get to pay another $80 to remove the bad one plus another $140 to put in the replacement. We took Option 3. Not because it was a good option but because I was sick and tired of dealing with the morons at Samsung Customer Service. Do me a favor! Ship these peoples jobs off to some non-English speaking place. I couldn't have been near as mad if I had not been able to understood what they were trying to tell me as they were screwing me over!

So, we now have a new microwave oven. The total damages were zero as regards to the microwave. We paid $268 and we got back $268. But . . . we are out the $19 sales tax, the $140 for install, the $80 to remove, about $6 postage because we had to mail in the cord for the defective microwave (like I was going to fix it myself or something!) and another $20 plus gas to haul the damn thing to the landfill and dispose of it. That little Samsung gem didn't heat up even one bowl of soup and it cost me $265 plus fuel to the landfill and a whole bunch of frustration.

Thinking of buying a microwave? I think you know what my advice is. In case you don't, let me remind you that SAMSUNG SUCKS! Maybe they should start making the vacuum cleaners that Andy needs. After all, if they can make a microwave that SUCKS making a vacuum cleaner should be a piece of cake!

Looking for a great deal on some beginning wine making equipment to begin a home winemaking hobby or some homebrewing supplies to continue your beer brewing hobby? We can help you and when you call with a problem, you won't get the crap that Samsung hands out from their customer service department in New Jersey. You get to talk to me. No lies, no excuses, no problems! If it is broke we will fix it. If FedEx breaks it we will replace it (not meant to be a slam against FedEx as they do a marvelous job handling my shipping needs).

In addition to homebrew supplies and brewing equipment BlueStem Winery is a retailer for WinExpert wine kits and for Cellar Craft wine kits. Both WinExpert and Cellar Craft ingredient kits make world class wines and it is a great hobby. Where else can you spend so little (a maximum of $4 per bottle) and have a wine that is truly first rate to drink and share with your friends. Lots of friends! The more wine you make the more friends you will have! It works the same way if you are buying beer brewing supplies . . . just more friends.

Procrastinator? Then Making Wine is Your Hobby!

When a couple comes into our store and I start talking with them about making wine as a new hobby, I usually tell them that women make better winemaking hobbyists then men because there are only two simple rules: Keep your equipment clean and read and follow directions. Women are better at both!

Another attribute that makes helps when wine making is the ability to procrastinate! The great thing about wine is that if it is good today, it will be better tomorrow. This statement is for the most part true but during the very initial stages in the winemaking process you do have to stay on schedule in the addition of the various additives and moving the wine to a clean vessel when necessary. Once the process is a few weeks on its way the calendar becomes more flexible and you can go through the various stages with quite a bit of variance in the timing of the winemaking steps. In fact, I have delayed bottling wines for up to two years but for a very good reason. Wine that is stored in bulk ages about 50% faster then which which has been bottled. Here is a time when dallying is a good thing!

BlueStem Winery carries both WinExpert wine kits and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits and both make superb (even world class!) wine. We have had customers make various kinds of kit wines which they declare are the best they have ever had.

One of our special wine kits this year is one Cellar Craft's Limited Edition kits, the Super-Tuscan Rosso Fortissimo Reserve Cuvee. This kit provides twice the amount of Tuscan Sangiovese juice than Cellar Craft's Showcase Rosso Fortissimo. The crushed grape pack is 30% larger at 2.6 liters and the crushed grapes have been upgraded to Walla Walla Appellation Quality grapes.

This Rosso Fortissimo is truly special and would be a great way to start your wine making hobby.

In addition to the WinExpert wine ingredient kits and the Cellar Craft wine kits we carry, BlueStem Winery also carries its own line of homebrew ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best. BlueStem carries a complete line of wine making equipment, winemaking ingredients, and wine making supplies plus all of the homebrew supplies, home brewing ingredients and beer brewing equipment you need for these great hobbies.

Remembering (those who rescued) Dad!

For several months now I have been writing sometimes daily blog articles about making wine an selling home brew supplies here at BlueStem Winery. Occasionally I would write about some other event or life experience that didn't relate to wine making supplies or beer brewing equipment and the other day I wrote a short blog article about my Dad and just a little, little bit about his experiences as a soldier with Battery Chicago of the 60th Coast Artillery on Corregidor Island in the Philippines prior to World War II and his subsequent imprisonment in several Japanese POW camps in the Philippines (Cabanatuan, Bilibid, Palawan) and then his transfer by hellship (the Canadian Inventor) in 1944 to Moji, Japan and then on to Nagoya Camp No. 3 at Funatsu, Japan for the remainder of the war.

Several months ago I started making up my own brewing ingredients kits at BlueStem Winery and I started to name a few of them after experiences my Dad had during the war. But, I digress! There is a story to tell before I get to naming a beer!

When my father was released from captivity he was transported by train to Nagoya harbor on the east coast of Japan. After a short medical examination he was issued a new set of clothing (to replace the rags he had worn for the last 3-1/2 years) and taken by U.S. Navy barge out into the harbor and taken aboard the British destroyer HMS Wizard (pictured above).

The Brits promptly had the ex-POWs throw their new clothes over the side. Dad was not happy! But . . . the Brits then deloused their new charges and collected extra clothing from the crew to outfit the newly freed POWs. Then it was off to the mess! Dad said they started eating breakfast in the morning and were still eating breakfast well into the evening.

Anyway, I knew that Dad had been aboard the Wizard for a short trip from Nagoya to Tokyo and when I wrote a brief article for Roger Mansell's website about Japanese POW camps, little did I know how small the world really is.

Not too long after Roger published my photos and information about Dad I received an e-mail from England. A member of the HMS Wizard Reunion Society had found the article and had read them at a meeting of the Society. It seems that a lady who attended the meeting wanted to correspond but did not have e-mail and so they had contacted Roger who provided my e-mail address and contact was made. I have been corresponding with Adeline Medford from Wales ever since. Ady's husband was a crewman on the Wizard the day they picked my Dad up off the coast of Japan!

So, my first beer brewing ingredients kit was named Morrison Hill Pale Ale (after the hill on Middleside on Corregidor where my father's battery was stationed) and I then wrote to Ady and asked for the help of the Wizard in naming the second beer. Although Ady reports that some of the ideas were a bit bawdy, the final decision was to name the brewing ingredients kit HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale.

So, in a fit of excitement over the naming of my beer, I wrote to Ady and told her that I was going to send enough ingredients to England for everyone to have a beer at the next meeting.

Soon I received a package from Ady with a Wizard silk necktie and a certificate naming me as an honorary member of the Wizard Reunion Society. Before this all could go to my head, Ady told me that she thought the the honor had little to do with the service of my Dad or her husband but more to do with free beer!

So, while I remembered by Dad in my blog article the other day, today I remember the brave crew of the very small British warship H.M.S. Wizard and all they did in the service of their country and in the rescue of my Dad from the shores of Japan. Cheers, mates!

BlueStem Winery is a full-service winemaking equipment and homebrewing supplies store located in Parkersburg, Iowa. While we are purveyors of home winemaking and homebrew supplies and both WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits we also are busy wine making, too! Our own label BlueStem wines are about to become 3 with the soon to be released Number 2 (Red Crescent) and Number 3 (Dark Side) to join our first issue Once in a Blue Moon. Blue Moon is a Riesling dessert wine, Red Crescent is a Cabernet Franc dessert wine and Dark Side is a Chilean Montepulciano.

Remembering Dad

It is slow at BlueStem Winery today which isn't really unusual for a Thursday afternoon in January! My normal blog writing consists of writing about our home brewing supplies and wine making equipment business here in Parkersburg, Iowa and trying to get as many links from my blog back to my website as is humanly possible without being too redundant. To be honest, that really gets kind of boring.

It has been almost 66 years since my father (Holger Larsen Holm) left the family farm in Grundy County, Iowa (in February 1942) and went to Fort Des Moines to take his army physical and then come home to await his call to active duty. That never happened! The coming home part, that is. After taking his physical he was put on a troop train bound for San Francisco and soon was aboard the USS Republic on his way to the Philippine Islands.

I have bumped into (well, figuratively anyway) several bloggers from the Philippines while blogging around on EntreCard and it just reminded me again of Dad. To make a very long story short, Dad wound up stationed on the tiny fortress island of Corregidor in the mouth of Manila Bay, served with Battery Chicago of the 60th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft), was awarded three Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in about a 30 day period of time in late April and early May of 1942 prior to the surrender of Corregidor.

He then was imprisoned for about 3-1/2 years at Cabanatuan, Bilibid and Palawan POW camps in the Philippines and was transported by hellship (the Canadian Inventor) in mid-1944 to Mogi, Japan and then on to Nagoya Camp No. 3 at Funatsu, Japan. Links are provided to articles about Cabantuan and Bilibid. Dad was lucky enough to be sent away from Palawan prior to the murder of the POWs remaining there. A link is provided for reading about this atrocity by the Japanese, too. A special link is provided for information about Nagoya Camp No. 3 including information I provided to Roger Mansell who maintains this site about Japanese POW camps.

You know, wine making is my job. Selling homebrewing supplies, brewing ingredients, and beer brewing equipment is something I also do. Teaching people about home winemaking using either Cellar Craft or WinExpert wine kits is fun . . . but, that whole thing pales in importance when I think about the sacrifices my father (and his whole generation) made by bringing the Germans, Italians and Japanese to their knees during World War II.

Somehow, talking about WinExpert kits, Cellar Craft wine kits, winemaking supplies and home brew supplies just is not too significant in comparison. Dad has been gone since 1995 but he always was and always will be my hero. He won 4 very distinguished medals for bravery in combat and won 2 medals for being wounded and he never fired a shot himself! He was a lineman who repaired the wires in the communication equipment so that the anti-aircraft batteries would fire in unison. If what had happened to Dad had happened to me, I would have hated the Japanese for the rest of my life. Dad never felt that way. In fact, my brother's son lives on Okinawa (he is a civilian employee of the US Air Force there but had been stationed there previously with the Marines) and is married to a lovely Japanese girl. So, Dad, if you are watching . . . it has been 12 years . . . and I still think of you every day.

Wine Clarification -- Filtration

The final method of wine clarification for home winemaking that we will discuss is filtration.

To filter or not to filter is a frequent debate among wine makers. Some believe that when wine is filtered that the process removes flavor and color from the wine and the fact is that high quality wines are most often not filtered and that wines will maintain a higher level of quality if they are fined and not filtered.

Lower quality wines are usually produced with the intention of bringing them to market quickly and the purchaser of this type of wine does not like sediment deposits in their wine. Purchasers of high quality wines realize that the wines which have been aged for a significant length of time will throw sediment.

When wine making and when the intention is to filter your wine, this process is typically done after the wine has been stabilized and has been aged. Filtration is the immediate prelude to bottling.

BlueStem Winery is a full-service wine making equipment, winemaking supplies and ingredients retailer located in Parkersburg, Iowa. Our inventory also includes homebrewing supplies, home brew ingredients and homebrew equipment. We also stock a very large inventory of WinExpert wine kits and also an inventory of Cellar Craft kits plus our own line of beer brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best.

We would encourage you to visit us on our website for your next WinExpert or Cellar Craft wine kits or any of the brewing supplies you may need. We promise knowledgeable advice, friendly service and prompt delivery of any homebrew supplies, beer brewing equipment or any ingredients, supplies, or wine kits you need for making wine.

The Crossing Paths of Holger Larsen Holm and the H.M.S. Wizard

It is Christmas Eve 2007 and it was a little over 62 years ago that the paths of my father, Holger Larsen Holm and that of the British destroyer H.M.S. Wizard crossed paths. Our business is making wine and selling winemaking supplies and homebrewing supplies so my blogs just have to be about beer brewing ingredients or wine making equipment but this blog is about a not so long ago war, heroes and eventually, beer.

Holger Larsen Holm was born in October 1916 to Peter Holm and Karoline Swensen Holm. Peter and Karoline immigrated to Iowa from Denmark in the early part of the 20th Century and purchased an 80 acre farm in northeast Grundy County, Iowa about 3 miles southwest of New Hartford. Peter and Karoline were always known as Bestefa and Bestamor to me (Grandpa and Grandma in Dane). There children were Martin, Mary, Carl, Peter, Eva and my father, Holger.

In early 1941 my father enlisted in the United States Army. He traveled to Fort Des Moines for his physical and thought he would be home for a little while waiting to ship out. Instead, with no chance to say good-bye he was placed on a troop train and was on his way to San Francisco where he boarded the S.S. Republic and sailed for the Philippine Islands.

Holger (aka Dad) took his basic training in the Philippines and was assigned to Battery C (Chicago) of the 60th Coast Artillery and was duty stationed on Morrison Hill (hence the name of one of our beer brewing ingredients kits known as Morrison Hill Pale Ale) on Corregidor Island. It was an island paradise until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 (Dad always said it was December 8 where he was at!), 1941. The war came quickly to the Philippines and to Corregidor with the Bataan Peninsula surrendering in early April 1942 and Corregidor surrendering in early May. Dad spent time in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps at Cabanatuan, Bilibid and Palawan in the Philippines and in 1944 was put aboard the Hell Ship Canadian Inventor and sailed for Mogi, Japan. From there Dad was sent to Nagoya Camp No. 3 at Funatsu, Japan where he spent the remainder of the war as a slave laborer at a Japanese zinc mine.

With the war's end in August of 1945 the camp was liberated and the prisoners were taken by train to Nagoya harbor on the east coast of Japan. After a brief physical the now ex-prisoners (about half Americans and the other half British and Australians) were issued new clothing, placed aboard a U.S. Navy barge and taken out into Nagoya harbor where Dad's path crossed with that of the H.M.S. Wizard.

The Wizard had been charged with transporting the ex-prisoners to Tokyo. The ex-P.O.W.'s were taken aboard the Wizard and were immediately told to strip and throw their new clothes into the harbor. Lice! Dad was very unhappy with losing his new clothes. After delousing the men were issued a new set of clothes (extra clothing given to them by the crew of the Wizard). They were then taken below to the mess. Dad said they started eating breakfast at 0930 and 12 hours later they were still eating breakfast with many getting quite ill from the overindulgence.

After sailing to Tokyo the prisoners were taken ashore and Dad's trip home via Guam began. Imagine the joy of the family back home as the first word they received of Dad's survival of the war came with a phone call to his brother Martin when he docked in San Francisco.

Several years ago I was surfing the web and found a website built by Roger Mansell which was a compilation of information about all of the Japanese P.O.W. camps. Nagoya Camp No. 3 at Funatsu (click on the link for photos and information at the Mansell website) was listed but that was it. I e-mailed Roger to tell him that I enjoyed his site but was disappointed that there was no information posted about Funatsu. Roger promptly replied and I soon was e-mailing what information I had to him.

And soon my path would cross with H.M.S. Wizard. A couple of years after the information I had provided to Roger was posted on the web I received an e-mail from Great Britain. A member of the H.M.S. Wizard reunion society had seen the website, contacted Roger to get my e-mail address, and had printed copies of the website and had shown them at a reunion meeting. He wanted my address because a lady from Wales wanted to correspond with me and did not have the internet.

Shortly I received a letter from this lady from Wales and so I now gained a friend. Adeline Medford's husband had been a crewman on the Wizard and this initial contact has made us pen pals and we have written back and forth many times over the past five or six years.

When my wife and I started our new wine making and beer brewing supplies store in 2004 I soon started developing beer recipes for homebrew ingredients kits that I sell. I began naming a few of them in honor of my Dad's war experiences with the first being Morrison Hill Pale Ale (a clone of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) and when I started looking for a name for the second home brew ingredients kit I looked to Adeline and the Wizard reunion society. The second brewing ingredients kit was named by the Wizard group as HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale.

Adeline forwarded to me a blazer patch (pictured above) and when she informed me that she had read my letter to the reunion society that a beer had been named in their honor and that I was going to ship the ingredients to Britain so all could have a beer on me she said that it was moved and seconded and I was unanimously voted in as an honorary member of the H.M.S. Wizard Society. She also said that my being honored so probably had more to do with free beer than with the service of my father or her husband! Thanks, Ady!

Anyway, the home brewing ingredients will soon be on their way to Wales so that when the next reunion meeting is held in April 2008 a toast can be made to my Dad and to all the brave men who fought in World War II and especially to the crew of the H.M.S. Wizard.

BlueStem Winery offers a complete line of wine making equipment, winemaking supplies and ingredients for making wine along with all of the homebrewing equipment, home brewing supplies and home brew ingredients you need to make your own H.M.S. Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale, Morrison Hill Pale Ale or any other recipe that you choose to make (or you can purchase the home brew ingredients kits we call BlueStems Best from the BlueStem Winery website.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this brief account of the crossing of paths of an Iowa farm boy turned American soldier and that of the Royal Navy destroyer H.M.S. Wizard. If you desire to read additional information about what my Dad and so many others endured, click on this link and also search for information about the atrocities committed by the Japanese on the island of Palawan (this link will tell you about Glenn McDole of Des Moines, Iowa, who was a friend of my Dad's at Palawan and after the war) where approximately 150 soldiers, sailors and Marines were murdered. Fortunately, my father had been transported out of this camp several months before these brave Americans were murdered by the Japanese.

Are you making wine this winter? Would you like to get into wine making this winter? BlueStem Winery has all of the wine making supplies and winemaking equipment you need and our WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits are the very best! We have sold WinExpert ingredient kits from the day we opened our store and just about six months ago we started offering the Cellar Craft wine kits. There are none better! Excellent products with easy to understand instructions and the wine (with a little patience!) ages into some of the best wine you can imagine.

Wine Clarification -- Liquor Quik Super-Kleer K.C.

Liquor Quik Super-Kleer K.C. is a 2-stage Euro-fining which BlueStem Winery has come to recommend to its wine making customers in most circumstances.

This fining contains two pouches, one of kieselsol and another of chitosan. This fining works by creating both strong positive and strong negative charges in the wine. This creates larger yeast clumping and faster clearing.

The type of fining has been used successfully in commercial wine kits such as WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits for years and has been a staple at BlueStem Winery since we opened our store.

LQ Super-Kleer can be used when making wine and should also be kept on hand as one of your standard home brewing supplies as it can also be used to help clear beer.

Add the kieselsol packet to your carboy. It is recommended that this 2-stage fining be added to your carboy prior to racking. Stir gently and bring the sediment up from the bottom of the carboy. Dissolve the chitosan packet in one fluid ounce of warm water and then add this to the carboy. Again, stir gently. Attach bung and airlock and wait from 12 to 48 hours (or longer). This product may not clear pectin haze or wine or beer made with hard water (water high in dissolved minerals).

BlueStem Winery recommends the use of LQ Super-Kleer for use with any of the Cellar Craft or WinExpert wine kits that it sells and it can also be used with any wine made from concentrates or fresh fruit juices.

Are you looking for a good selection of winemaking equipment or homebrew supplies? We may be what you are looking for! BlueStem Winery offers everything in wine making equipment and home brew supplies that the amateur vintner or brewer needs. If you find a piece of homebrewing equipment or some brewing supplies or some WinExpert ingredient kits that we do not have we will be happy to accommodate you by ordering the homebrewing supplies or the kits you want.

In addition to home winemaking kits we also stock a complete line of winemaking supplies for the vintner who wants to make their wine from fruit or concentrates. Ditto for the homebrew enthusiast. We have our own line of beer brewing ingredients kits called BlueStems Best or you can choose a recipe of your own and purchase the beer brewing supplies and brewing equipment you need to make it.

Stop in if you are in the area or we are open 24 / 7 on the web and can have your purchase on its way right away.

Blogging Away!

First, let me tell you that I am computer illiterate! When I sent to college (then known as State College of Iowa or S.C.I. and later as University of Northern Iowa or U.N.I.) my computer programming class consisted of punch cards! Although I have used computers and the internet with great frequency over the years at work and at home I am most happy when the thing works the way it is supposed to! If it doesn't I am usually in trouble.

We built our first website for our wine making equipment and homebrew supplies store in 2005 and all that I learned was that you have to be careful who you choose to build your site! Anyone choosing a web developer out of Clear Lake, Iowa should use extra caution. After building this site we very shortly contacted a second web development company out of Waterloo, Iowa and it has made a huge difference! Andy Mullinex at Impact Marketing built us a great site that is very easy to maintain and update and he is a constant supplier of ideas to promote our winemaking ingredients and homebrew equipment site. The Clear Lake web developer had lots of great ideas to take our money away but did very little to earn it! If anyone tries to sell you on the idea of website optimization just give me an e-mail. It is easy to do yourself and you will probably do a better job, too!

Andy's latest ideas have been linking my blog into Technorati and yesterday he e-mails me about linking my blog into EntreCard. Although I have linked to Technorati I really haven't done anything to take advantage of it yet. I signed into EntreCard yesterday and have been inundated with requests to advertise on our blog. My only goal is to drive as much business as possible to the BlueStem Winery website and ultimately to sell as much wine making supplies, homebrewing equipment, home brew ingredients, WinExpert wine ingredient kits, Cellar Craft kits and our own line of home brewing ingredients kits (known as BlueStems Best) as possible. If doing all of this linking and exchanging helps to promote our blog and ultimately our website then let's do it!

In addition to selling winemaking equipment, winemaking supplies, homebrewing supplies and other products for making wine and beer, BlueStem is also a licensed winery and we are busy with our own wine making endeavors quite a bit of the time. So, if you are into home winemaking or need home brewing supplies we are the ones to see. We can also help you find the right Cellar Craft of WinExpert kits to try when you are looking to expand your wine horizons.

Beer Brewing Ingredients Shortages

Panic! Panic! Panic! Everyone in the homebrewing supplies industry is very concerned about two of the basic ingredients needed to brew beer: hops and malt.

My wholesaler has been in contact with me several times recently announcing the allocation of hops for the 2008 season and are attempting to spread the supply of hops among its retailers as fairly as possible.

But . . . there is panic buying going on at all levels of the hop industry with some elements trying to corner the market by purchasing large quantities of hops from retailers. BlueStem Winery's first step to regulate the panic buying of hops was to remove all hops from our website. We are gradually adding hops back to our site as the market stabilizes but will continue to limit hop purchases, especially to customers who have not purchased from us before and who want to jump in and buy only hops from our website. Our first loyalty will be to our prior customers!

On the malt side of the equation, the continued deterioration of the dollar has put an inflationary spin on the price of malts and malt extracts.

This all mean that brewers may need to alter their purchases of brewing supplies and move toward brewing less hoppy beers until the hop situation is corrected.

BlueStem Winery will do its best to maintain a good selection of home brewing ingredients, including malt and hops but we will not be able to control all aspects of this situation.

In addition to offering a complete line of homebrew supplies, BlueStem Winery also inventories a complete line of brewing equipment and beer brewing ingredients. On the wine side of the business, we stock wine making equipment, winemaking supplies and home wine making ingredients plus a super array of WinExpert wine ingredient kits and we have just recently added Cellar Craft kits to our wine making lineup. We have marketed WinExpert kits since our opening in 2004 and added the Cellar Craft ingredient kits in mid-2007.

Our beer brewing ingredients kits are headlined by our selection of BlueStems Best kits (about 80% of these are clones of the Brewers Best kit line while the other 20% are kits designed by BlueStem).

BlueStem has recently implemented a discount program on all home brewing supplies and winemaking equipment purchased on the website. All purchases accumulate towards larger discounts. BlueStem wants to be your regular source for home brew supplies and wine making ingredients.

Wine Clarification: Pectic Enzymes

Pectins present in wines can cause the wine to remain cloudy. Excess pectins are removed by the addition of pectic enzymes and this treatment is effective for red wines, white wines and for fruit wines. The addition of pectic enzyme prior to fermentation will, in addition to clarification, increase juice yield.

The pectic enzyme powder should be dissolved in water and added prior to fermentation when used to increase juice yields and and as a haze prevention. It can also be added after fermentation to reduce existing haze. Pectic enzymes are most effective at a minimum temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the haze persists you can test to see if the wine still contains excess pectins by adding your wine to methanol at a rate of 1:4. If a heavy, off-white precipitate forms the wine contains excess pectins and it should be treated again with pectic enzymes. If the problem continues it will most likely be necessary to filter the wine.

BlueStem Winery is your full-service supplier for winemaking equipment, wine making supplies, WinExpert ingredient kits, Cellar Craft kits, and all of your other home wine making needs. BlueStem also provides its home brewing clients with a complete line of homebrewing supplies, beer brewing ingredients, and brewing equipment plus we are your exclusive supplier of our own BlueStems Best brewing ingredients kits.

Whether you are making wine from backyard fruit, a WinExpert or Cellar Craft kit or brewing your own beer, we can help you with homebrew supplies or wine making advice. We look forward to being your source for home winemaking ingredients or home brew supplies.

What's Hot at BlueStem Winery!

What's hot a BlueStem Winery? Lots of great wine making and beer brewing ingredients kits but not the weather!

It's Iowa! It's winter! Enuf said! I spent part of my day before I opened the store today chipping two inches of ice off the front sidewalk. Obviously the photo at left was taken during warmer times! I cannot wait for spring!

The past days I have been talking about different fining agents for wine. It was a very busy day at the store and on the website today. I spent all morning chipping ice and packaging web sales for shipment. We opened at 11:00 and I spent the rest of the day packaging when I could and waiting on store customers the rest of the time. Tonight . . . well, I am tired . . . and rather than try to be creative and writing an article about LQ Super-Kleer or another fining agent I am just going to list the various WinExpert kits we have at BlueStem for making wine. In days to come, I will also provide our line-up of brewing ingredients with emphasis on our great array of beer brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best, and our great line-up of Cellar Craft kits for wine making.

Links are provided to our website so that you can read the description on each of our kits.

We offer the following WinExpert ingredent kits:

Selection Estate Washington Columbia Valley Riesling
Selection Estate Sonoma Dry Creek Valley Unwooded Chardonnay
Selection Estate Yamhill County Pinot Gris
Selection Estate Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel
Selection Estate Washington Columbia Valley Cabernet Franc-Merlot
Selection Estate Napa Valley Stag's Leap District Merlot
Selection Original Viognier (aka known as Selection Premium)
Selection Original Gewurztraminer
Selection Original Liebfraumilch
Selection Original Piesporter
Selection Original Sauvignon Blanc
Selection Original Chardonnay-Semillon
Selection Original Johannisberg Riesling
Selection Original Barolo
Selection Original Pinot Noir
Selection Original Cabernet Sauvignon
Selection Original Merlot
Selection Original Symphony
Selection Original Luna Rossa
Selection Original White Zinfandel
Selection Original Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot
Selection Original Chianti
Selection Original Domaine des Brumes (Brouilly)
Selection Original White Merlot
Selection International Italian Pinot Grigio
Selection International German Muller-Thurgau
Selection International Australian Chardonnay
Selection International French Merlot
Selection International Chilean Merlot
Selection International Spanish Rioja
Selection International Australian Cabernet-Shiraz
Selection International Italian Montepulciano
Selection International Italian Amarone
Vintners Reserve Gewurztraminer
Vintners Reserve Chamblais (Chablis)
Vintners Reserve Liebfraumilch
Vintners Reserve Riesling
Vintners Reserve Sauvignon Blanc
Vintners Reserve Bourgeron Blanc (White Burgundy)
Vintners Reserve Bordailles Blanc (White Bordeaux)
Vintners Reserve Piesporter
Vintners Reserve Chardonnay
Vintners Reserve Bordailles Rouge (Red Bordeaux)
Vintners Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintners Reserve Bourgeron Rouge (Red Burgundy)
Vintners Reserve White Zinfandel
Vintners Reserve Blush
Vintners Reserve Bergamais (Beaujolais)
Vintners Reserve Pinot Noir
Vintners Reserve Merlot
Vintners Reserve Barolo
Vintners Reserve Shiraz
Vintners Reserve Zinfandel
Selection Speciale Millennium Sparkling Wine
Selection Speciale Port
Selection Speciale Riesling Icewine Style
Selection Speciale Cream Sherry
Selection Speciale Dry Sherry
Selection Speciale Cabernet Franc Icewine Style
Vintners Reserve World Vineyard Australian Chardonnay
Vintners Reserve World Vineyard California Zinfandel-Shiraz
Vintners Reserve World Vineyard Chilean Merlot
Island Mist Peach Apricot Chardonnay
Island Mist Exotic Fruits White Zinfandel
Island Mist Black Raspberry Merlot
Island Mist Green Apple Riesling
Island Mist Strawberry White Merlot
Island Mist Blackberry Cabernet
Island Mist Mango Citrus Symphony
Island Mist Kiwi Pear Sauvignon Blanc
Island Mist Blueberry Pinot Noir

Visit BlueStem Winery's website for all the winemaking supplies and wine making equipment you need for your home winemaking hobby plus check out our beer brewing ingredients, brewing supplies and home brew equipment in the beer making section of our website. BlueStem would very much like to be your home wine making and home brew equipment, supplies and ingredients supplier. Friendly service, knowledgeable advice and prompt shipping are how we want you to remember BlueStem Winery.