Recent content by adiochiro3

Just looked up International Pipe Smoking Day; I had no idea. Looks like I'm a couple of days late, but I'll catch up this afternoon. Beautiful Pipes, BTW. My dad smokes basket pipes. My best pipes are Petersons. A friend keeps promising me his Meerschaum once he finds it as he has sworn...

That's simply a reference to the really low death rate -- not the infection rate. Just laugh. It was funny.

My wife identified this morning's visitor as a Rufous Hummingbird...

Went snowshoeing at Crater Lake right before Christmas...

9itj6 I have

9itj6 I have

9itj6 I have

If it has a black finish on it it's called Japanning and it is not like a cast-iron skillet finish. Do not strip it off until you're willing to redo the entire thing. Soapy water; use; rinse; repeat.

I use my Enterprise cast iron press with the false bottom and a fine mesh bag for the fruit. Works great.

+1 for Craigslist. I found Gewurtztraminer last year and a smoking deal on Tempranillo this year.

Update: Gravity hit 0.996, so we pressed Monday evening. We found it interesting how the taste of the wine changed as the press progressed. We probably cut the press a little short, but figured quality over quantity was the wise choice. Yielded a total of 8+ gallons.

Same here. The same thing applies to degassing.

Another Update: The Lalvin BM 4X4 batch hit 1.030 and the Wyeast 4767 gravity is 1.034. I pulled off 14.2L of wine (7L of each) and blended for an average of 10.9% ABV. I fortified with 5.25L E&J XO Brandy for a calculated 18.8% ABV. What a glorious thing! Now to find a 5 gallon oak barrel...

Update: I split the must and pitched Wyeast 4767 in one half and Lalvin BM 4X4 in the other half. Fermentation took off quickly in both batches.

You'd think, but these were leftovers after the commercial harvesters had their fill. You can bet I kept their name and number and that I will drop off some of the grape jelly and wine I'm making to stay on their short list for next year!