It has been just over 2 weeks since Jamie and I spent the day picking grapes.

The buckets were kept upstairs where the ambient temperature was warmer. Each day, I would open the buckets and punch down the pomace that had risen to the top of the must. At first, the whole room smelled like bread+rotten fruit (sorry ’bout that sam). As the fermentation began to slow, the aroma turned fruity+alcoholic.

Yesterday, I finally got my hands on the carboys. Racking the wine this first time took forever. Grape skins and seeds kep getting stuck in the siphon. I should have strained it first.

There are some tremendous grape vines growing on the south side of my house. The vines were planted years ago by my landlord and each year we get buckets of concord, himrod, and canadice grapes. Usually, we make a little juice or jelly and let the rest go to the birds. This year, Jamie and I decided to take a chance on wine.

Took most of the day to pick, de-stem and crush grapes. A press would have expedited the process, but we did fairly well with just a colander and an old pot. At the end of the day, we had 22 gallons brewing. 12 of concord, 5 of candice and 5 of a medially (mixed). This should produce at least 50 bottles of … something. Each brew was a different color. I will add the yeast tomorrow.

If it seems to be brewing well - I will come back and add the recipe.

DragonSlayer (super easy mini mash) recipe:

Slightly modified version of Greydragon’s recipe.

Ingredients

(for approximately 12 gallons)

• 6 lbs - Wheat Malt (grain - we used 5.5lb white +1/2lb “special-b” for flavor)
• 6 lbs - Amber Unhopped Malt Extract (liquid)
• 6 lbs - Light Dry Malt Extract (dry)
• 3 oz - Boiling hops (Hallertau)
• 1 oz - Finishing hops (Willamette)
• 2 tbs - Gypsum powder (for clarity)
• 2 pkg - Yeast ( Wyeast 2206:Bavarian Lager and 1214:Belgain Ale - for separate carboys)

Steps to success

Get a big pot for mash. Add cracked grain and gypsum to about 7 quarts of water @ 160 degrees. Maintain for 1 hour @ 155 degrees. Strain out grains and rinse (sparge?) with 5quarts of water @ 170 degrees. Bring to a boil. Add all the extract (liquid and dry) and the boiling hops. Boil for 30 minutes. Add finishing hops during last 2 minutes of the boil.

Fill clean carboys with cold water. You need enough so that water + condensed malt = 12 gallons. After evaporation, we had about 3 gallons of malt - so each of our 5 gallon carboys got 3 gallons of cold water. Add hot malt mixture. When temps get reasonable add the yeast.

For yeast we experimented a bit. I used a traditional ale yeast, but Jamie insisted on a bavarian lager. The 3rd carboy received a mixture of the two… What will happen?

Some of those last pictures are from bottling a previous brew “Hop-Scotch Ale”. It was a long night.

Stuck in some smoky pub watching the “big game”.

Good food, good suds, good friends…

Guess I shouldn’t complain…

Out my window

So far, the conference has been great. The day started with a quick registration, some food and then the pre-work shops. I was signed up for the “Paper Prototyping” hosted by the Penn State team (the other PSU). They were informative and had great advice to offer. After a quick run thought of the basics, groups were formed and hands on application began. This will be an invaluble way to gather data if/when we update the schedule interface. The speakers even stayed around to speak with me after the session was over. Penn State has a standers committee that posts policies online @ webstandards.psu.com.

Next, were the orientation and welcoming sessions, where many of the organizers were introduced. Then there was the hosted dinner with an open bar (good touch) and latter a movie with a second open bar (even better touch). Throughout the day I had the chance to meet, socialize and network with the organizers and other attendies. Networking seems to be a major component of conference. Already, I have met web professionals from Evergreen to Iowa State.