Woozie Review and Givaway

This is another great product and review from my wife's blog. Don't forget to take a chance at the giveaway. http://www.mysocalledbalancedlife.com/2012/08/woozie-review-and-giveaway.html

Woozie Review and Giveaway

Woozie

I am a big wine drinker and often give it as gifts. I love to find other unique items to pair with my wine gifts. I found a great company that offers the most unique wine themed items I have seen it is call Woozie. Here is some information about Woozie taken off of their website:

Woozie is the original wine glass sleeve made from top quality neoprene which insulates your wine glass and feels soft to the touch! It is fun, functional, and fashionable. Woozie flaunts the “cute” little drawstring that assures the perfect fit on your glass. Woozie is stretchable, washable, foldable and reusable.

No more warm wine to tolerate or wet glass to hold. The perfect answer for your white or red wine…keeps the temperature constant summer or winter, inside or outside.

I received the Perky Paisley Woozie (4 pack) and a Perky Paisley Bottle Bag. As you can imagine I was thrilled with these items. Being a wine drinker, as well as, a wine maker I love all things that are wine themed. I love these items.

Perfect fit and super cute!

The Woozie fits perfect on my wine glass and keeps it from getting warm. It is also super cute! The Bottle Bag fits perfect on my wine bottles and keeps the wine at a perfect temperature. Woozie offers an array of products such as; Napkins, Stoppers, Coasters, Bottle Bags and of course the Original Woozie to name a few. They have an array of designs and styles. I love these products! They make a perfect gift to pair with your favorite bottle of wine or a great item for yourself. You can find out about Woozie and their products here, as well as, follow them on Facebook. If you would like to enter to win a Bottle Bag and a 4 Pack in Perky Paisley Woozie enter the giveaway

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Ozeri Nouveaux Electric Wine Opener

This is from Wife's Blog and it's pretty cool. You can check this out and more; as well as taking the chance to win products during her giveaways.

http://www.mysocalledbalancedlife.com/2012/08/ozeri-nouveaux-electric-wine-opener.html

Ozeri Nouveaux Electric Wine Opener Review

Ozeri Nouveaux Electric Wine Opener

I don’t know about you but when I open a bottle of wine I hate fumbling with a corkscrew. I find the average corkscrew to be difficult to operate effectively and I have been known to break the corkscrew while I attempt to open a bottle of wine. I found a fast, effective way to open a bottle of wine without any struggles. It is the Ozeri Nouveaux Electric Wine Opener; yes you read that correctly ELECTRIC wine opener. I can’t even begin to tell you how incredibly happy this wine opener makes me. This unique wine opener features:

· Features a European inspired curved design with ergonomic grip that stands vertically without the need for a separate base stand.

· Ships with a wine pourer & stopper and a patent-pending removable lid that converts into a foil cutter.

· Newly designed motor now opens up to 60 bottles on a single charge, all with the single push of a button.

· Unique transparent shell makes the entire cork removal process visual.

· Illuminates with a soft blue light when in use and while recharging.

I no longer struggle to open a bottle of wine using the old corkscrew. Here is my husband opening wine using the Ozeri Nouveaux Wine opener.

Easy as 1,2,3

Done

As you can probably tell he is pretty happy with this little gadget. The wine opener is fast, easy and effective in opening a bottle of wine; because it is electric there is no awkward fumbling or endless turning. I also love the wine pourer & stopper that come with this wine opener; it makes pouring and storing clean and simple.

Wine pourer and stopper

Not only is this a great product for your home it also makes a great gift. If you would like to learn more about this product it can be viewed and purchased here on Amazon. You can also connect with Ozeri through Facebook to stay up to date with their products and sales.

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Degassing Wine

Degassing wine can be a cumbersome task depending on the tools or techniques you use. I have tried a few things and I found that I always go back to the basics. I have tried drill mounted devices that use a bung to center it. The problems I found with it was the rubber on the bung will crumble and leave little floaters in the wine. Then someone will say just lube the center with something to keep that from happening. Well I am sanitary freak and I fear that microbes will contaminate the wine, or give it an off flavor. I also worry about the dust, dirt and electrical dust expelled from the drill finding its’ way into the wine during use. I stick to the basics of swirling the carboy and using the backside of my brew spoon to remove unwanted carbon dioxide gasses.

I did however find a new technique that seems to fit into my world not contaminating my wine with microorganisms from various devices. I saw a video clip from Scott “the wine making guy” at YouTube (an ingenious way to degas wine) that uses a wine bottle pump. The pump preserves a partial bottle of wine by creating reverse pressure vacuum removing the oxygen that can cause oxidation, discoloration and bad taste in the wine. The pump he used is quite common and requires the use of an oversized bung plug. It was very cool and simple to set up. I started to think about what he said and used and I realized I had a Houdini wine saver set in my bar. I went digging to find it as I have yet to use it, because it seems when the bottle is opened it gets drank fairly soon thereafter. I looked at the Houdini and I thought how I could make this work the same way; so I grabbed an air-lock and saw the outer diameter of the neck was close to the inner diameter of the Houdini plug. My first thought was to cut the neck off with a fine hacksaw blade and attach the plug to the existing bung. Then I thought why waste an airlock (I am cheap), it fits in the top of the airlock just fine and the seal was great. Now that I had my new setup I was eager to try it. Today just happens to be the day for me to degas my World Vineyard California Trinity Red.
Degassing the Trinity Red:

I started by adding the clearing agents and swirled the carboy around with the bung removed and a paper towel wrapped around the top to prevent splashing during the whirlpool stir. I then used my brew spoon and stirred it vigorously for a few minutes. I then put the Houdini set up on it and pumped it about 50 times until I saw the bubbles rise. I burped it a few times and repeated the process about three times. I left the Houdini on it and two hours later I burped it and pumped it back up again.  As I look back on the Houdini degassing process I did not see any real benefit using it to degas 6 gallons of wine. I did see some bubbles rise up and it did look like it worked to some extent, but not like I had hoped. I am sure it needed a much larger type of vacuum device to be more effective. I then burped it and removed the Houdini and stirred it vigorously again with my brew spoon. I placed the normal air lock back on and plan on stirring it one more time.

So the idea sounded good and looked good on paper, but the basics are what worked best for me in this situation.  The Trinity red turned out great; it had nice color and was very clear. So for now I will stick to the basics and see what the next G-whiz thing has to offer.

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Cherry Ale

So I decided on brewing my first fruit flavored beer. I have always wanted to brew nice cherry ale, after having one years' ago called Cherry Rail. I did a lot of research and I figured I would find my base beer to infuse my cherry flavor. I went with a Kolsch recipe that I came up with. Although I have never brewed a kolsch beer, it alone caught my interest. I researched the history of the kolsch and found it more intriguing, so I just had to brew one. I figured I would brew 10 gallons and use 5 for the cherry and 5 for traditional Kolsch. It seems a Kolsch or a wheat is a good base to balance the fruit flavors during the secondary fermentation (according to many brewers). I racked the kolsch after one week, it tasted great. I added a 3lb can of Vinters Harvest sweet cherry puree during the rack into the second 5 gallons. Another week went by and I kegged the Kolsch; its’ a really good beer and I am happy with the base recipe. I tried the Cherry Ale during the second rack off the puree and it did not have hardly any cherry flavor. The color looked like cherry ale and a slight hint of cherry smell. After the third week I tasted the cherry ale and it still looks the same and does not have any real cherry flavor. I am going to think of a few things to infuse some cherry flavor without ruining the beer. I guess I will try something different next time. Like I said I do like the Kolsch recipe and I will brew it again soon.  I guess I can’t check this one off my bucket list yet.

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Krausen overflow (New brewer panic)

 

Today I woke up to find my carboy of hefeweizen spewing the krausen out and the airlock lying on the floor two feet away. I laugh when I think of the panic I used to go through when I first started brewing. I would run through the house gathering up an air lock, a hose and an overflow jug. I would throw out anything in the sink and start sanitizing the items needed. The whole time, thoughts that my beer is going to go bad ran through my head. I would put the blow by tube on and worry about if the beer is going to taste bad when its’ finished. I would get on the internet and research anything I could find about carboy’s overflowing during primary fermentation. I would call my fellow brewers and ask them if they think it will be ok, and they would say don’t worry it will be fine.

After a whole lot of overflows in the middle of the night, I realize that I have come a long way since then. I have learned a lot over the years, especially in the overflow department. I always used to think something would get inside and contaminate my brew when the airlock popped off. After understanding that the amount of CO2 pressure coming out of the small neck during the primary fermentation; would not allow that, I am a very calm brewer now. I also have gotten to know my brews and can usually predict which ones will ferment like that.

So for that new brewer out there in a mad panic, don’t worry about it. Be prepared and listen to your fellow brewers and know that its’ all good.

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Bojon Brew

 

Bojon brew is not a brewery in a business sense but more so a school we attended, while learning to brew. The name is something that came up one day during conversation over a few beers. The owners, Doug and Linda were our inspiration to homebrew and wine crafting. While we were living in Germany they came to visit and we discussed the opportunity to have them teach us the craft of home brewing and wine making; as they have been doing it for many years. We explained how we want to have the same type of flavors we have in Europe when we get home but did not want to pay a fortune to get them. They assured us that we could achieve the flavors we craved as long as we put in the effort and dedication to make good brew and wine.

After returning to the States we got right into wine making and brewing. We spent many hours in didactic lessons and took lot of notes. Doug and Linda are the best teachers as well as great friends. They made it very easy to learn and love the whole concept of brewing and wine making. We would have dinners or BBQ during brew and wine making days and a lot of other friends would stop by. It was a huge family affair with great company, great food, and classes on how to brew and make wine. Now I should clear up a couple of things. We have known Doug and Linda for a long time and it is not an official school they run. In fact they are a family that loves to share and enjoys entertaining with great wine, beer, food and friendship.

We owe them a lot of thanks for all they do for us and the time spent with them is very precious to us. We really enjoy brewing, wine making and spending time with them. They are an extension of our family and we are proud to pass on their legacy of making great beer, wine and also their entertaining values. So with a heart filled and sincere thank you; we thank you Doug and Linda at Bojon Brew. Love ya both.

Sincerely; Melinda, Steve and Spencer

Left: Steve, Linda, Doug. Right: Melinda, Spencer, Sandy, Jerry

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Paulaner Beer Clone (10 Gal all grain)

Paulaner Clone (10 Gal all grain)

After spending a few years in Germany we knew that we would miss the flavors of the beer we love. Germany is such a great place for food, fun and drinks. The beer is great and what makes it better is that each of the 16 States (regions) within Germany has their own beers that represent that specific state. Not all the beers can be purchased outside of a particular state, so when we found one we liked we would stock up and bring it back home with us. Paulaner was prominent throughout Europe and it is a great beer that everyone should try. After returning to the States we knew we would want to have that same flavor to enjoy. We tried some of the import versions and found the flavor to be off and not very good. I hope it is not due to preservatives, as that would go against the Reinheitsgebot purity law of 1516. This began our quest to brew it and love it. We have come up with this recipe and we agree it is very close to the same flavor as what we had in Germany. We did bring a few cases back from Germany with us to compare to. We won’t claim it to be a dead ringer as Germany has and will continue to master the art of Hefewiezen beer. This is a simple recipe, I hope you enjoy it.

Grain:

11 lbs German wheat

10 lbs 2row pale works but (Pilsner malt for a more true taste)

8 oz Munich malt 20L

Mash 60 minutes @152 degrees. Sparge with 170 degrees over 50 minutes. I do sparge until I have enough wort to make 12 gallons. I have not had any astringent flavors and my efficiency is very good.

Hops:

2.5 oz Hallertau /60 minutes on the boil

Additions:

1 tsp Irish moss last 15 minutes of boil

Yeast:

Weihenstephan Wyeast 3068

I pitch a yeast starter about 1qt and ferment between 60-72 degrees in primary for 1 week and secondary for 1 week until FG is met. I still use a primary and secondary based of specific gravity, even with short fermentation times. I will adjust times based on gravity and clearing (usually due to temperature)

OG: 1.054            FG: 1.013             ABV: 5.2%           Color: 4.9sm       Bitterness: 17.1IBU

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