Punching the Cap

I do enjoy driving my Ford truck but this has nothing to do with Ford trucks or caps in the context of a baseball cap. When making wine the cap we are discussing is the layer of stems, seeds and bits of grape skins that are pushed to the surface of your primary fermenter by the carbon dioxide gasses being produced as the yeast consumes sugars present in the must. This cap is a layer of foam and the bits described previously that rise to the surface during fermentation. The term usually ascribed to breaking up this layer of foam and disbursing it back into the wine must is punching down the cap.

Why is it important for someone engaged in home winemaking to punch down the cap? If making wine from one of the Cellar Craft or WinExpert kits that we sell it is not as important (you can do it once or twice a day rather than 3 or more times per day) unless you are using one of the wine kits that include a crushed grape skin pack. Cellar Craft wine kits from their Showcase series of red wines all include a two liter package of crushed grape skins. Punching down several times (at least 3) a day when using one of these wine making kits is very important. It is also important if you are making wine from fresh grapes or any other fresh fruit and of lesser importance if the winemaking is done using juice or from one of our wine making kits which does not include grape skins.

Here is a concise list of reasons why you should punch down the cap when wine making at home:

1. Tannins and flavors and colors which are in this cap will be added back into your wine must.
2. The potential for bacteria formation in this layer of foam is reduced. Heat which is a natural product of fermentation is not allowed to be trapped under this layer. Warmth provides fertile ground for bacterial growth.
3. Yeasts which may be imbedded in this layer are moved back into the wine must.
4. By the very act of stirring and pushing down the cap oxygen (which is beneficial to your yeast) is introduced into the wine must.

BlueStem Winery offers a complete line of beer brewing and wine making supplies at our retail outlet in Parkersburg, Iowa. We are also on the web with our complete inventory of brewing equipment and winemaking ingredients. We feature both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits for wine making and hour own line of home brewing beer kits known as BlueStems Best. Visit our website at bluestemwine.com and you will find friendly service, prompt delivery and knowledgeable answers to your home brewing and winemaking questions.

Yeast Nutrition

For yeast to start the fermentation process and for it to continue the process through to a full fermentation it needs an environment rich in nutrients. If your must lacks proper nutrition you may have wine that does not begin fermentation or that becomes stuck (stops fermenting) or which develops a rotten egg smell (hydrogen sulfide develops which is caused by a shortage of nitrogen).

Nutrients which wine must requires include nitrogen (nitrogen produces protein which is required for the development of new yeast cells), oxygen (without getting too scientific, oxygen helps the initial yeast cells procreate rapidly) and trace vitamins and minerals (these include phosphorus, urea, citric acid, and amino acids among others).

BlueStem Winery markets it own line of beer brewing kits (known as BlueStems Best), home brew equipment, wine kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft for wine making at home, and home brew supplies from Muntons, Briess, Brewmart and others. Cellar Craft wines from their Showcase Collection produce world class wines as do wines from our selection of WinExpert wine kits. If you are looking at getting started in either the home winemaking or home brewing hobby, BlueStem Winery has the home brew supplies, homebrew equipment and winemaking ingredients you need for these great hobbies.

Choosing the Water to Use

Whether your are home brewing or making wine from one of the WinExpert wine kits you are using water for the boil when beer brewing or you are adding water to the juice concentrate that is in your winemaking kit. How important is the choice of the water you use? The home winemaking and home beer brewing folks at BlueStem Winery believe your choice of which water to use can have a huge impact on the quality of your final product. You have made a significant investment in either your brewing ingredients or in one of our WinExpert or Cellar Craft wine kits and you do not want to put the quality of your home brew or wine at risk because you do not use quality water.

So what are your choices? If you live in a community of any size you most likely have access to municipal water. If you live in a rural area your water may very well come from a well. Distilled water can be purchased at most every grocery store and from many other sources. Bottled water (not distilled) is also available at grocery stores and many other places and in some areas you might also have access to spring water. Which should you use?

Municipal water (tap water) has typically been treated with chlorine tor chloramines to depress bacteria levels. If you can smell chlorine in a glass of warm city water you should not use the water without first boiling or filtering the water to remove the chlorine. Boiling water removes the free chlorine but not chloramines (call the city water folks and ask them whether they treat your city's water with chlorine or chloramines). Chloramines can be removed by filtering your water with an activated charcoal filter and then treating the water with 10 parts per million of sulfites. The fact that your brewing ingredients are boiled takes care of the chlorine (not chloramine) problem for any water used in the boil. Remember that water added after the boil could still have chlorine in it. An activated charcoal filter which has been impregnated with silver will remove bacteria and also flouride from your water. If using a water filtration system remember to change your filters often to prevent bacteria growth within the filters.

Well water has a whole host of problems associated with it including bacteria, iron, trace minerals, and in agricultural areas nitrates. Rural water is typically very hard and many people use a water softener and this infuses the water with sodium which creates another source for bad tasting wine or beer. Use an activated charcoal filter to remove particulates and a silver impregnated one will also remove bacteria. Our first recommendation if considering the use of well water is . . . don't.

The distillation process (or a reverse osmosis water filter) removes virtually everything from your water that can impact your wine or beer . . . both negatively and positively. Wine and beer needs some mineral content in the water to provide food for the yeast. If using distilled water use a small amount of yeast nutrient to provide food for your yeast.

Bottled water is typically water which has been purified but not distilled. Perfectly good for making wine or beer but not as good as using spring water (and usually more expensive!).

Spring water is an excellent water to use for either beer brewing or wine making. Spring water has the trace minerals necessary to provide food for your yeast but it does not have the flouride, chlorine or other contaminants. Purchased spring water has been tested for purity but not all water sold as spring water is really spring water. Some spring water is just tap water being passed off as spring water. Read the bottle label and look for the source of the water. Sometimes the bottler will use a code such as PWS as the source (Public Water Source). Actual spring waters will list where the water actually came from.

BlueStem Winery is a licensed and bonded winery located in Parkersburg, Iowa. In addition to marketing its own label wines, BlueStem carries a complete inventory of beer brewing equipment and supplies for wine making at home plus wine kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and our own line of home brewing kits known as BlueStems Best. We would love to hear from you!

Paper (ur . . . Glass) or Plastic?

BlueStem Winery (in addition to being a licensed winery) operates a full-service beer brewing and home winemaking supply store in Parkersburg, Iowa and on the web. Every once in awhile I have a home brewing or winemaking customer ask about using plastic carboys (the glass jug used as a secondary fermenter for making home brew beer or for wine making at home). Some brewers also use a larger carboy as a primary fermenter.

Although I never say never, at the present time BlueStem Winery does not sell nor do we recommend the use of plastic carboys as a secondary fermentation vessel for either wine making or for homebrew beer.

Both types of carboys have inherent advantages and disadvantages but in our opinion the advantages of glass outweigh the advantages offered by the plastic carboy and the disadvantages of plastic outweigh the disadvantages of glass carboys.

Glass carboys have a few very obvious disadvantages. The number one concern regarding this piece of wine making and beer brewing equipment is its weight. The glass carboys simply weigh quite a bit more than the plastic ones. The obvious disadvantage of glass is that it will break (shatter would be a better word and this comes from experience!). Obviously, both of these disadvantages of the glass carboys are advantages for the plastic version.

Another advantage touted about the plastic carboys is that they are cheaper to purchase than plastic. I tend to agree (partially) with this statement. The carboys themselves are cheaper but they also require quite a bit of peripheral equipment that dollars up fairly fast.

Glass carboys offer the following advantages over plastic:

1. Glass is easier to clean and sanitize than plastic and will not scratch when cleaned (every scratch is a potential hiding place for bacteria);

2. It is easier with glass to get a good seal between the carboy and an airlock. Bad seals equal potentially bad wine (it is called oxidation but it tastes like vinegar);

3. Glass is not capable of transferring a chemical or solvent from within the glass itself. Plastic can possibly leach solvents (and bad flavors) from its own chemical composition into the wine;

4. Plastics are not immune to the passage of air through the very plastic itself. Although this is probably of very little consequence during a brief fermentation period it can have negative effects during long term storage. In this sense, plastic would be more viable as a secondary fermentation vessel used for beer (where secondary fermentation is a short period of time) as compared to the secondary fermentation of wine.

Looking for a reliable source for purchasing your beer ingredients or your wine kits? BlueStem Winery is a great place to purchase your home beer brewing equipment, supplies and ingredients. We also stock a great line of winemaking ingredients, supplies and equipment plus a super lineup of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits.

Beer Brewing 101

Home brewing is a four step process (but most home brewers only do three of the four).

Malting is the first step and is also the one that most home brewers do not do themselves. They instead allow a malting company to do this for them. After the malting process is complete the grains are kilned (dried) which allows for longer storage times. They drying also enhances flavors and aromas which are then removed in the brewing process.

Mashing is the second step. The grains are soaked in hot water which dissolves the starches. Maltose (the most prevalent sugar produced in this process) and other malt sugars are what the yeast converts to alcohol during the fermentation process. This mashing process has been done for you, too, if you use malt extracts (liquid or dry) instead of grain when you brew.

Step 3 is the boil. Malt sugars, water and other ingredients are combined in a brewpot to make what is called wort (beer before it is beer). Boiling sanitizes the beer ingredients. Hops are added at various times with the first hops providing bittering (the boil removes oils from the hops to do this). Later hop additions provide both flavor and aroma. After the boil (usually about 60 minutes) the wort is cooled and yeast is added.

Usually within about 12 hours the yeast will be at home in the wort and it will begin to convert the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This fermentation process will take from four to seven days. Some beers (especially lagers) may take several months to fully ferment. When fermentation is complete the beer is ready to bottle or keg.

If you would like to brew your own beer, BlueStem Winery has the brewing equipment you need and will assist you in your beer brewing endeavors.

BlueStem also stocks everything you need if your preference leans toward making wine. BlueStem stocks wine making kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and is always ready to answer your winemaking questions.

Removing Labels from Recycled Bottles

Soak . . . scrub . . . rinse . . . soak . . .

Yes, BlueStem Winery sells new wine and beer bottles as part of our inventory of wine making and beer brewing equipment inventory but we have also acquired many used (recycled as we call them) ones over the years and have spent spent a significant amount of time removing the labels so the bottles can be reused.

Some of them just darn near refuse to let you have your way!

Whether you are using new bottles or bottles with a little experience, the most important thing is that you get these bottles clean and sanitized. Inside! Outside! Period!!

The easy labels can be removed by simply filling a large sink or tub or basin with warm water and letting the bottles soak. Be sure to fill the bottles with water so that they will remain submerged.

Most labels will peal off fairly easily (or if necessary you can scrub them a little with a Scotch Brite pad).

The more difficult labels require a little persistence. If they are plastic you will need to get under them with a sharp knife and peal them off. If they are just stubborn you will need to soak them and then peal off the outer layer (sometimes this layer is metallic) and then soak them again. If a persistent glue residue remains use products such as Goo Gone (available in most hardware stores) to soften up the glue and then remove it. Read and follow the safety instructions for the product you are using as some will require the wearing of gloves or that you use the product in a well ventilated area.

Or . . . you can purchase new bottles from our inventory of beer making supplies and winemaking supplies. Our beer bottles are available in several sizes and styles, including the E-Z cap bottles (like a Grolsch bottle). Our wine bottles are available in several sizes, shapes and colors and with cork or screw top finishes.

Try out one of our BlueStems Best beer making kits which are available in many beer styles or if you are into wine making at home you can purchase ingredients for numerous fruit wines or try your favorite grape wine with one of our wine making kits from either WinExpert or Cellar Craft. The WinExpert wine kits produce world class wine if you have patience to wait through the aging process. The Cellar Craft wine kits are first rate with all of the Showcase Series reds featuring a 2-liter bag of crushed grape skins for on the skin wine making!

Sanitation is Essential for Making Good Wine (or Beer!)

Wine (and beer) is created when yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The environment created when you mix sugar and water and put it in a warm place is perfect for beer brewing or winemaking but it is also a perfect place for the growth of bacteria.

The way to make sure that it is your brewer's or wine yeast that gets a good start and not a bacteria culture that can overwhelm your beer, make sure that you take extreme care to sanitize everything that comes in contact with your wort (beer before it is beer) or must (wine before it is wine).

Wash (with dish soap and water), then rinse with clear hot water and then soak your equipment in sanitizing solution for 10 minutes (or longer). Fill your fermenter with sanitizing solution and then place all of your equipment into the fermenter to soak.

When ready to use a piece of equipment remove it from the fermenter and rinse it with very hot water (unless you are using a no rinse sanitizer such as Easy Clean).

BlueStem Winery is a full service home brewing supply retailer located in Parkersburg, Iowa. In addition to stocking a complete line of beer brewing kits, supplies and equipment, BlueStem also stocks a large inventory of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits for the person who enjoys making wine at home.

Stop in the store in Northeast Iowa or visit the BlueStem Winery website for all your homebrew beer and winemaking equipment.

What You Should Know About Acid Blend

BlueStem Winery opened for business in mid-2004 selling a complete line of beer brewing ingredients and supplies for making wine. One of the items we purchased from our wholesaler was their acid blend product.

Without the appropriate level of acid wines can taste stale (flat) so it is important during the winemaking process to check acid levels and adjust to the recommended level. There are typically three types of acid used to prepare the typical acid blend. Our wholesaler was using 50% Citric Acid, 40% Malic Acid and 10% Tartaric Acid.

I used this mix myself when doing some home wine making from fruit and thought that my wines tasted a little too much like a grapefruit or a lemon. I did some on-line investigation and discovered rather easily that acid blend has changed a little over the years. Years ago acid blend was typically made with a 50/50 mix of Tartaric and Malic Acids or a 40/40/20 blend of Tartaric, Malic and Citric Acids. Why the change?

In an effort to control costs the Acid Blend was made using a much larger amount of Citric Acid and less of the Tartaric Acid which is the more expensive of the three acids.

BlueStem Winery started blending its own mix of Acid Blend for wine making shortly after that. Our Acid Blend is a 50/40/10 blend of Tartaric, Malic and Citric acids. A little costlier to prepare but with the makings for a much better wine.

BlueStem Winery is a licensed and bonded winery with (at present) a total of six BlueStem label wines for sale: Once in a Blue Moon is our Riesling dessert wine, Red Crescent is our Cabernet Franc dessert wine, Dark Side is a dry Montepulciano, Prairie Fire is our off-dry Riesling, Feelin' Groovy is an off-dry Gruner Veltliner, and Crystal Moon is our Gewurztraminer dessert wine. We will have an off-dry Gewurztraminer, a Late Harvest Riesling and a Blush Zinfandel on the wine racks before summer's end.

BlueStem presently carries wine making kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and a very nice line of beer making kits, brewing equipment and everything else you need for home beer brewing. We are looking to expand our line-up of wine kits by slightly expanding our line Cellar Craft wine kits, greatly expanding the number of Winexpert kits that we inventory plus possibly carrying the Mosti Mondiale line of 23 liter pure juice wine kits. We will also be expanding our line of brewing supplies later in 2009 as we finish our new warehouse.

BlueStem Wine Featured in Navy News

BlueStem Winery has truly gone international this month as an article appeared in Navy News which featured both BlueStem Winery and its relationship with the British Navy destroyer HMS Wizard.

If you have been a long time reader of my blog you will remember articles that I have written about my father and the fact that he was a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II. He was stationed on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay at the start of the war and from May of 1942 until September of 1945 he was a prisoner of the Japanese. His final prison camp address was at Nagoya Camp No. 3 located near Funatsu, Japan.

When the war ended my father was transported to Nagoya, Japan by rail and then was transported by the British destroyer HMS Wizard from Nagoya to Tokyo. Several years ago I wrote an article and provided photographs for a website done by a Roger Mansell which provides information about Japanese prisoner of war camps. Through this article contact was made with a lady named Adeline Medford of Wales in Great Britain whose husband John had been a crewman on the HMS Wizard when my father was rescued.

I recently named one of my beer brewing kits in honor of the crew of the Wizard (the kit is called HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale) and shipped ingredients for 100 bottles of beer to Wales. The ingredients were brewed in England, bottled and enjoyed at the last reunion held by former shipmates of the HMS Wizard. The article in Navy News retold this story.

In addition to HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale, our brewing supply store features approximately 30 other beer brewing ingredients kits, plus a complete line of home winemaking kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft.

Our blog provides beginning and advanced information about both the home brewing and home wine making process and brewing and home winemaking problems and their solutions. Making wine is our specialty and we can help with your selection of either a WinExpert of Cellar Craft wine kit but we also provide information about home brewing.

Welcome aboard!

BlueStem Winery in Make Mine Wine

BlueStem Winery is featured in two articles in the Summer 2008 edition of Make Mine Wine magazine, a publication which explores the midwestern wine scene. The first article (starting on page 26) titled Homemade Wine: Make Some Magic!! explores home winemaking using backyard fruits and vegetables and provides step-by-step instructions for making wine. The article also features using WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits as an alternative to wine making using fruits and vegetables. The second article features the national and international aspects of BlueStem Winery's business with its sales of wine making ingredients, home brewing supplies and brewing equipment plus the sales of Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine ingredient kits via their website.

BlueStem Winery was also recently featured in the pages of The Insider which is published on Wednesdays as a supplement to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. This article also provided information about BlueStem's business selling homebrewing equipment, homebrew supplies, and everything needed for home wine making including both Cellar Craft kits and WinExpert wine kits. In addition to beer brewing supplies and wine making supplies and its large inventory of Cellar Craft and WinExpert kits, BlueStem also manufactures its own line of beer brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best.

If you are interested in either wine making or beer brewing as a hobby, contact Vern via the BlueStem Winery website.

Feelin' Groovy

Besides marketing wine making supplies, homebrew equipment, home brewing ingredients plus both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits, BlueStem Winery is also a licensed and bonded winery. Our store, which features everything you need for making wine and also home brew supplies, opened in 2004, but our wine making activities did not start until 2006 and our first wine was not available for sale until May of 2007.

Our fourth wine is now ready to be bottled. The labels (pictured at left) have been approved by the government and have been ordered so within just a few weeks this wine will be available. The wine is an Austrian Gruner Veltliner (pronounced Feltleener) and is an off-dry wine. If you cannot remember Gruner Veltliner just think Gru-V and thus the name Feelin' Groovy.

Three more wines (all whites) should be available shortly as they are all ready to be bottled. We are working on the label for number five and need name ideas for six and seven. Number five is an off-dry Riesling and will be called Prairie Fire. These two will join Once in a Blue Moon (a Riesling dessert wine), Red Crescent (a Cabernet Franc dessert wine), and Dark Side (a Chilean Montepulciano dry red).

If you are interested in making great wine at home, contact us a bluestemwine@mchsi.com. BlueStem Winery offers a large selection of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft ingredient kits and we would be more than pleased to help you get started with your new wine making hobby. For several years we carried only the WinExpert kits and were very pleased with the selection and quality of these kits. In 2007 we expanded our inventory to include Cellar Craft kits and have been very pleased with the response our customers have given our selection of Cellar Craft wine kits. Home wine making is a great hobby which has the benefit of providing great wine at a very minimal cost per bottle.

Ford Mustang Owners / Restorers Beware

As anyone who reads my blog articles knows, BlueStem Winery is in the business of wine making for retail sale but we also operate a retail store and web business for marketing winemaking ingredients and homebrew supplies plus the WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits we stock. If you have been following our blog and website you are also aware that we are huge Ford Mustang fans as is my son and his wife. My daughter-in-law's parents are also Mustang fanatics. I have also written blog articles and have published information on my website about the huge F5 tornado that destroyed a third of our town on May 25 of this year.

So what am I blogging about today? Well, quite some time ago while we were rebuilding a Mustang to race at the drag strip, we purchased (on eBay) a pair of motor mounts from a company in Elkton, Virginia. The owner's name is John and that is who we dealt with. Several days after purchasing the parts and after hearing nothing from them I sent an e-mail inquiring about our parts. John took offense that we would even question him about this and proceeded to unleash a series of profane e-mails. As I said, this all occured quite some time ago.

So, a week or so ago I revised my website and put an article on the site about the tornado and how it destroyed my son's home, damaged ours and pretty much destroyed our collection of Mustang automobiles plus several other vehicles.

So, a few days ago, I get a message (through eBay) from John and here is the text:

I am glad to hear that God took care of such horrible people like you. If anyone deserved to have their vehicles destroyed it was you. It is nice to see that karma really works!!

I am not sure which God John is referring to as karma is not necessarily a Christian belief but that is irrelevant. I also find it hard to believe that anyone with any faith at all would even write such a message. I also find it hard to believe that if he has a business worth tending to that he has the time to monitor my website and then take the time to send a message which now tells the world what a low life he really is.

My message: If you are a Ford Mustang enthusiast and want good parts from a reputable parts dealer, you need to look at sources other than Elkton, Virginia from which to purchase your parts. Contact the Western Virginia Better Business Bureau for additional comments from other purchasers as to the way this business conducts business or go on-line to various chat rooms and do a search and see what other Mustang parts purchasers have to say about this dealer. It is an eye opener! So, a word to the wise, if you are a Blue Oval Mustang owner then you need to be aware that one of the industries real dirt bags is out there trying to sell his junk to you. He is probably okay, as long as you never contact him or question any of his less then reputable business tactics and dealings.

If you are looking for home brewing equipment, home brew ingredients, any supplies necessary for home wine making, or either Cellar Craft or WinExpert kits for making wine, then BlueStem Winery is your go to place. You will be treated with respect, your purchase will be well packed and it will be shipped promptly. Any questions you have about either WinExpert kits or Cellar Craft kits or any general questions about home winemaking or home brewing will be answered quickly and professionally.

How does anyone even stay in business treating customers in the way that this business does? Go figure!