Sunday, June 17, 2012

I am an alchemist

Or:  everything can ferment!

Of my many hobbies one of the most fascinating is brewing.  While I am slowly closing in on a good process for small batch beer brewing, that is not my main area of research.  I am primarily researching the exotic field of non-grape winemaking.  Right now everything is working simply, and aging gently.

I have one gallon of date wine, one gallon of mango wine, and one gallon of banana wine.  Today I will add one gallon of coconut wine to the cellars.  These are all fermented from fresh fruit blended and filtered by me.  The big exception is the coconut water, which I purchased at Costco and thus making it the most expensive wine base at 12 dollars a gallon.

The process of fermenting feels like alchemy, but the next step is the real magic.  The next step is blending.  Mango banana wine.  Banana coconut wine.  You know, like that.  My highest hopes are for the banana wine and various iterations:  a mulled banana wine brewed with cinnamon and vanilla (that's next on deck), and the banana wine blends.  I will share some of my best recipes with you boozehounds because you can't find these sorts of wines at the local liquor store.

Much like blending is the esoteric arts of whiskey distilling, wine blending is an art and one that I hope to master.  After all, who else is making grocery store fruit wine?  And who knows, perhaps this skill will port over into beer making.  Beer blends?  Why not?

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