Yeasts are kind of funny plants. Maybe it's our relationship with them that's funny, eh?
Yeast will survive, apparently on nothing but water, sugar and oxygen. The results of their activities is what's in question in beer and wine making. Some possible ingredients are changed so much by the yeast that the results aren't what we expect or desire.
I belong to a Wild Wines forum (Yahoo) and have for years. However, when my daughter was in her late teens, I decided it was best for me to limit my interest in the subject for a few years. Wine making attempts go way back and what I always seemed to want was something different than what I could buy. Fortunately for me, what I can buy is usually pretty good stuff. What I made, wasn't always.
I never tried tomato wine or peapod wine altho' just mentioning them brings my attention levels up. Should I try . . .
? But, there were all these other things I tried - pear, peach, plum, apple, elderberry.
I made apple cider that was a good deal better than my apple wine. The elderberry certainly came out well but the fruit ripens at the busiest time of my year. Still, a person could go with blossoms in the spring and fruit in the summer with those big plants - there for the taking!
As I said, beer came out the best. Dad was my beer-making partner. I bought a kit for his 70th birthday and we made beer together for probably about 12 years. I joke that we'd still be doing it but he got tired of washing the bottles
. Truth be known, we always made better beer together than I have on my own.
Making assumptions about what the
yeast can do was always my serious failing. It is
a living plant. It "wants" certain conditions and foods. If you give it exactly what it wants - you get a reward. Crude products have very little value, to my way of thinking.
Grapes seem to provide the very best avenue for quality wine just as barley malt is the best ingredient for beer. With a multitude of grape varieties and, not just varieties, but methods of kiln-drying barley malt - - you are never going to run out of ingredients and combinations.
What I have done, in my simplistic way, is put the 2 primary ingredients of wine and beer together - grapes and barley. This isn't alchemy - there are all sorts of recipes out there that call for the use of raisins in beer. It doesn't take much, a pound or less of dark or golden raisins in the brewkettle are just another ingredient that the yeast particularly appreciates and make good use of.
The prospect for me seems to be where I might want to go with these simple ingredients. I've made barley wine, that works bu it's mostly just a strong ale. Malt extract and honey
may not be such different ingredients. I've not liked mead flavor in the past but there are so many, many variations that I've not tried. And, then there are the grapes . . .
Steve
I started two batches of grape juice concentrate tonight, which will hopefully turn into wine soon. I'm trying something a little different with wine making, this would be my first time making it from concentrates. I'll keep you guys updated on the progress of it, in case anyone is interested in trying.
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