Biere de Garde

Here's the recipe to my Biere de Garde.  It's a style I've been meaning to try, and Brewathon 2.1 was as good a time as any.  Plus it's the spring, and this seems like a late-winter / early-summer staple.  It's nice and big, and I was thinking of calling it Biere de Guerre ("beer for war," rather than "beer to keep") but other than a nice high gravity, there's nothing particularly warlike about it.  So, I'm saving that name for something special in the future.

On the blogging side of things, I'm leveraging synergies between having my Blogger Blog update my friends Wordpress-based site with a link post.  I've updated the recipe that links the two on IFTTT; hopefully that HTML will work this time.  I'd hate to do it manually, that's too much like work.

Wine Sheves

The first one, with space for 16 bottles in 48 inches.  It's a little crowded, so for subsequent shelves, I made space for 15 bottles, and that makes a huge difference.  There are still some bottles that clink together, or don't quite lay flat, but you can usually arrange them to fit.  The bottles I used for my Port are the worst offenders.

I would have liked them to fit a little closer vertically, but between the unit spacing on the shelf rails, and the space you need for the bracket itself, that's as close as they get.  Perhaps I could have been a little more strategic matching the spacing of the rails with the spacing of the bottles to squeeze things a little closer.  In the end I am happy with them.  They are the same style of construction as the beer shelves, so theoretically, I can stack beer over here, or wine over there, and they are totally modular, so I can remove them and reconfigure to whatever I need.  

The vertical spacing thing doesn't really bother me either, since as you can see, if I make a few more shelves, and can store ~120 bottles of wine, I should just stop.

Updates in Jars

First, the preserved lemons.  I'm not calling these pickled lemons for some reason, I think because they are so salty; but then what's pickling?  There's definitely some bacterial activity going on, because it's building pressure and releasing gas when I loosen the lid.  I did not put it in the refrigerator, as recommended by the recipe, it's been in a cabinet under the counter, in the dark, relatively cool.  I opened it once or twice, and the lemons are definitely softer and somehow "greasier" if that's possible.  Also, now, after a week, they are yellower, too; more "lemon-colored."  The jar is usually pressurized a little when I look at it, and I always open the lid *just* until it vents some gas.  it always heaves a sigh of relief and bubbles a little bit.  Sometimes I think it's just air slowly escaping from the pulp of the rind, but the pressure buildup tells me there's definitely lactic acid bacteria afoot.  I want to rush out and fill another dozen jars with lemons, but not until I cook something that calls for preserved lemons.

Next, Vinegars.  There seem to be conflicting reports out there about exactly how long and under what conditions vinegar is made.  The instructor and several people I talked to in Reedsburg said it took weeks or less.  Some of my vinegars have been going for nearly two months.  Admittedly, they are in my basement which is in the low 60s, but I've got them above my furnace, which is the warmest spot.  I'm just now starting to see what looks like a thin film of mother starting to form on a couple of them.

Other sources indicate that it takes much longer to make vinegar.  The Cooks Illustrated DIY book mentions 3 months in a crock, and talking about it with my mom on the phone over the weekend, she said her grandparents used to make vinegar, and it took all winter in the basement.  She also said they guarded the mother with their lives, I assume until they could get another batch going.  The Kentucky Housewife Cookbook (from 18-who-knows-when) lists a recipe for vinegar something along the lines of: "in the fall, throw all your apple cores into an open topped barrel.  Set it under a tree, out of the sun, but where it fill with rainwater.  By the middle of the next summer, it will be vinegar."  For real.

I think my results are more in line with the second set.  I made some salad dressing with the Concord grape vinegar I got from my Fermentation Fest friend, and it was darn good.  I really hope my batches take off and I can get some real production going.  I have a couple cases of questionable beer bottled that I would *love* to turn into vinegar, and I think I would make a quart of vinegar out of every batch of wine I make.  Come on, acetobacter.

No Dearth of Beer

The shelves are well stocked.  A little too well.  I like going down to pick out a beer that suits my mood or meal, but geez-loiuse, things have gotten out of hand.  For about 50% of my beers, this is not actually an issue, because the gravity is high enough that they will just keep getting better for years.  I do have some low-gravity lagers and other things that just aren't going to be awesome forever, so I try to drink them first; it keeps me out of the good stuff.  Also, I should stop buying beer.  And making beer.  And wine.

After setting another case and a half out on the shelves, I set the carboy of Malbec pictured here up for transfer.  I don't remember if I've oaked it yet or not.  I'm going to bottle my Port soon (soon...) and when I do, I'll transfer this wine, taste it, and if it needs oak, then oak it shall have.   Otherwise, it will be degassed, and bottled shortly thereafter.  Or I'll leave it indefinitely...  house rules.

If my wine shelf project goes well, then I will need to purchase some wood soon for more shelving over there, and I'll probably get some more shelving for this side as well.  The set on the right is in need of an additional upright and to have the outermost ones moved in a little bit.  It's a little precarious.  I try to make it a little cleaner every time I go down there, but that does not always happen.  When I do clean up and get rid of some junk I've been hoarding, it starts to look really nice.

Wine Shelves

So last night I worked on my wine shelf project.  I've got a little nook of the basement that's set back about a foot in the block wall and just a hair over 48" wide.  I've got adjustable shelving rails anchored to the wall, and last night I started making pieces for shelves.  I'm going to do two 48" rails with 3/4" slats on 3" spacing.  I should be able to get 16 wine bottles/shelf; not sure yet how many shelves I can get, until I make at least two and measure the vertical spacing.

I had to stop because my table saw was making a lot of smoke for some reason.  I think it was some thicker poplar that I was ripping down, or maybe the fence is not well aligned.  I'll give it a shot again tonight or tomorrow and see if it still does it on the thinner pine boards I have.

This has been one of those projects that I get stuck on, and everything else kind of gets hung up because of it.  It feels good to get started, and hopefully it will go much faster now that I am started.  At 16 bottles per shelf, I already need like 5 shelves before I am caught up with what I have bottled, not to mention the Malbec and Port waiting to be bottled...