LeadDog

Sanny that just reminded me of something else about wine and food. People have different likes and dislikes for various reasons. One of the reasons is the density of taste bubs on your tongue. The writers of the major wine publications have a low density of taste buds in the range of about 60% to 70% of them. This is just the opposite of the general population who have dense taste bud density in the range of about 60% to 70%. Now that just strike me as odd that people should follow their recommendations because they say something is good. But they can make or break a winery just by what they write in a review. Personally for me and the wine that I made, I'm the only person that has to like it. I know just by the our differences that there will be people who will not like it. That is just a given in the wine industry. I totally forgot about the common practice of having feet in the wine until today. Wienbusiness.com did a survey of wineries to see how they removed the grape skins from the red fermentors to press them. They found that 70% of the wineries put people in the tank to shovel the pomace out. And I even found a picture or two.

As I say all the time about wine it is the marketing. Agreed I drink wine that I like. If I don't like it I don't drink it. Best compliment so far is my neighbor who is a GM for a local winery. She drank some of my wine and told me she could sell it. She ended up drinking 3/4 of the bottle. Sadly I told her I couldn't sell the wine because I didn't make it at a bonded winery.

I agree. That's why the marketing people get paid all the big bucks to get people to buy that bad wine. The worst wine I ever had was so bad I could only take one sip of it. That wine sold for $45.00 per bottle at that time and sells for more now. The way to make good wine is to use good grapes. You don't hear a lot of winemakers or wineries telling you that either do you.

One of the reasons that I started this topic is the take the mystery out of how wine is make. Making wine really isn't that hard. The next thing you have to ask yourself is about the price for a bottle of wine. Now if I was selling wine I would want as much as I can get for it but you guessed it I think a lot of wine is over priced. It really isn't that hard to make wine and it doesn't cost that much to make it either. Another reason for making the post is to educate people about what goes into waking wine. Trish if you think my feet are bad then you never ever want to drink wine again. The grapes are exposed all summer long to all kind animals living among them. When the grapes are picked they are not washed or cleaned in anyway. You can't imagine what I have seen come in with the grapes. The good news is the the acid and the alcohol in the wine kills of all of that nasty stuff.

Trish every last grape was crushed by my feet. tcoliver sorry but I don't want to take the chance of shipping wine. Someday I would like to have a bonded winery but if the Feds find any black marks on your record they just deny your application.

I bottled one barrel of wine in August like I planned, 23 cases of wine. I like how it tastes. If anyone wants some wine just drop by and pick up a bottle or two.

Hey Linda nice looking avatar. I recognize the spot.

Ok grape harvest is done and the vineyard is going dormant so I have a bit of time again. This is the one sourdough formula that I really liked. 1) Whole-Wheat Poolish: About 12 to 14 hours before the final mix, make the poolish by dispersing 2 Tablespoons of mature culture in 5/8 cup of water and mix in 1&7/8 cups of whole wheat flour. Let stand in a covered container at about 70°F. 2) Mixing: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, mix for 3 minutes on first speed. The dough should be of medium looseness. Finish mixing on 2nd speed for 2 to 2.5 minutes. The gluten network should be moderatly developed. Desired dough temperature 76°F. Whole Wheat Flour: 2&1/2 cups Bread Flour: 4&1/2 cups Water: 2&7/8 cups Salt: 1 Tablespoon Levain: All of the above Poolish but 2 tablespoon kept back for the sourdough starter. 3) Bulk Fermentaion: 2.5 hours. 4) Folding: Fold the dough twice, at 50 minute intervals. Folding is like punching the dough down but different. Take the dough out of the bowl on a floured surface and pat the dough down into a thick slab. Take the left 1/3 of the slab and fold it to the middle and pat down, brush off the excess flour that the dough picked up from the work bench. Repeat for the right, bottom, and top sides. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover with plastic until the next time to fold the dough. Folding is done during the 2.5 hours of the bulk fermentation. 5) Dividing and shaping: Divide the dough into 1.5-pound pieces shape round or oblong. 6) Final Fermentation: Approximately 2 to 2.5 hours at 76°F. You can also retard for up to 8 hours at 50°F or up to 18 hours at about 42°F. Retarding the final fermentation is how sourdough gets its sour taste. I'm still working on that part. 7) Baking: With normal steam, 460°F for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool for about 2 hours before slicing.

Dennis I think PC is right on about the dough. I have yet to try Sourdough for Pizza crust but the grape harvest is about over and I might try it. If you make your own dough then you can avoid the difficulties you had with the dough from the bakery.

Oh well that recipe was back before I knew anything. Here is a better recipe but maybe something you don't want to try just yet. viewtopic.php?t=1393 Grape harvest is going to be over in a couple of weeks and will have some free time on my hands again. There is another sourdough recipe that I really like and I will post it then.

What recipe are you following? The preferment I normally let go over night about 8-12 hours. The ferment is 2.5 hours folded twice instead of punched down. The final rise is 2 to 2.5 hours. My first breads where dense. I think it takes a while for the starter to get to where it makes good bread. Then again I was a complete newbie so it could have been me. The temperature of all your ingredients will change your fermenting time too. Have you considered that?

Welcome Linda, looks like a KK cluster on California's Central Coast. I live just a ways from you in Paso Robles.

Curly I never did a close up of them growing. I'm planning on getting pictures of them next year when they are growing. It is lots of work and I just quit taking pictures after we planted it. Whiz yea I would be curious to see how our charcoal compares to the rest. We would never be able to supply it beyond our local area so I wasn't motivated to get it tested. There is one characteristic of our charcoal that I over look and that is the flavor that the charcoal imparts I guess because it is a fruit wood. To me it is just normal because that is the wood we have BBQed with most of my life.

Curly didn't you check out the link to the pictures? The vines are getting ready for winter so no pictures right now. Some of the vines thought it would be nice to have some grapes this year but of course they didn't get ripe. I might start harvesting grapes in two more years.

I have been busy planting a vineyard. http://vineyard.jardineranch.com/ IT is like having 3025 hungry children wanting to be fed all of the time. I'm still not done.

I put the heat deflector on the main grill and heat it up for about 30 mins. Most of my bread is cooked at 460°. If you have a problem with the botttom of the bread getting burnt then after 10 or 15 mins invert a flat round pan and place it between the bread and the heat deflector.

If it smells sour it is going in the right direction. You should have a starter by now.

Curly are you asking me to send you deer horns? You know in Asia deer horns are considered an aphrodisiac. They are also laws here in the US against selling Wildlife parts. Now what did you want me to do? Check out this site and you might be able to get some. http://www.bigantlers.com/ I don't want to have any police looking for me just because I sold you some deer horns.

@Curly we have a lot in common but not your purdy thing. I'm not type of dog. Work vs Deer Hunting? No contest. Yes it has been a long busy season for me and it still isn't over.

I'm number 52 if you sort by location and decending. I also turned 52 in June.

Dennis check this wiki out as it is intergrated into Joomla. http://extensions.joomla.org/component/ ... Itemid,35/

The bread is getting good reviews here at work. The flavor of the bread reminds me of Roman Meal bread that I used to eat when I was a youngster.

Yea I thought that one group of beer looked like VB. They gave us a six pack of VB here at work a couple of years ago.

Well you know I am just following the directions of the book. The rest of the breads that I have made say to wait 2 hours. I did some looking around at other formulas in the book and there is at least one that says to wait 72 hours. I think for this formula the 12 hours is needed because the dough was so wet. Maybe the author of the book was all wet? Then again he was on the US baking team that won the baking Olympics. I will let you know if it was worth the wait and how great it tastes. The smell alone is much better than any other bread that I have baked. That alone makes me want to cook it again.

Did you turn all of the labels of the beer and wine away from the camera? How are we supposed to know what you are drinking?