River...

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"River" ~ Sarah McLachlan

It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace

Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m going to make a lot of money
And then I’m going to quit this crazy scene

Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly high

Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

I made my baby cry

He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees


Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

But I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I've gone and lost the
Best baby that I’ve ever had

Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

Oh I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly high
Oh I wish I had a river
That I could skate away on

I made my baby say goodbye

It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
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Seinfeld...

I never watched Seinfeld in the 90s. I watched a few minutes of one episode and found it boring. Last year I watched a few episodes with Mike in Thailand and started to like it. I started watching it here on Tv tropolis. I would get home from Convergys and watch two episodes. I decided to obtain all nine season so I could watch them in sequential order. Since then I have watched all nine seasons twice and am working on my third round. I can't get enough of it. Here is one of my favourite scenes, from the episode "The Package" in season 8.


Jerry: So we're going to make the Post Office pay for my stereo?
Kramer: It's just a write-off for them.
Jerry: How is it a write-off?
Kramer: They just write it off.
Jerry: Write it off what?
Kramer: Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry: You don't even know what a write-off is.
Kramer: Do you?
Jerry: No, I don't.
Kramer: But they do and they are the ones writing it off.
Jerry: I wish I just had the last twenty seconds of my life back.

Karis...

I just wanted to say congratulations to my dear friends Craig and Michelle. This morning I checked my email and found out that they are parents! Karis Esther was born on Saturday. I obviously didn't take the pic (although I wish I was there to take it). Craig gave me a call on Skype today so I got to talk to Karis. She made some baby noises and then started crying. I hope the crying wasn't a result of the lullaby I sang her. Come to think of it that lullaby is a little creepy what with the wind blowing and rocking the cradle and making it fall. Anyways, congratulations!

Secondary Fermentation...

My red wine has been happily bubbling away all week. As the fermentation slowed down and the specific gravity dropped below 1, it was time to transfer the contents to the secondary fermentor, a glass carboy. A syphon is used to transfer the contents from one container to another. This process is known as racking. The dead yeast cells that have formed a sediment at the bottom get left behind during racking.




















During this stage you want to avoid exposure to oxygen, as components in the wine may be oxidized, negatively affecting taste. During racking, the syphon is placed at the very bottom of the receiving container to prevent splashing and absoption of oxygen. After racking is completed, the carboy is fitted with an airlock which allows carbon dioxide out but does not let any air in.

The wine will stay in the carboy untouched for about twelve days while fermentation completes, so I can sit back and relax.

Riesling...

Here's how the wine I bottle this past Sunday turned out.

Vieux Chateau du Roi...

I bottled my Riesling white wine this afternoon. It was the first batch of wine I had ever made and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm sampling some of it as I type (didn't have quite enough to fill the 29th bottle). Started a new batch today also, a red wine called Vieux Chateau du Roi. I thought I'd share with you how the process works. It'll take a month from start to finish.
The first thing you need is the grape juice, which can be purchased in a kit like the one above. The kits are handy because they have both the juice and other chemicals you need (bentonite, yeast, potossium metabisulfite, potassium sorbate, fining agent). This particular kit begins with 7.5 liters of juice.First, I poured this juice into the primary fermentor (basically a large, food-grade plastic pail). Next I added the bentonite which helps yeast activity and removes proteins. I added bottle water to a total volume of 23 L which is the standard volume of wine made in winemaking kits in Canada. This stuff is really dark. Since my last batch was white, I'll have to be extra careful not to spatter this stuff. This solution is called "must". It gets stirred up with a big plastic spoon. My house gets cold at night and when we're not home (generally around 15 °C). The optimal temperature for fermentation is 20-25 °C. If the temperature is too below 20 °C it will slow down the yeast activity and temperatures above 30 °C will inactivate the yeast. Too prevent the must from getting to cool, I put a heat belt on it. Next, the yeast was rehydrated in 40 °C water for 15 minutes and then poured into the must. I measured the initial specific gravity (density) using a hydrometer: 1.080. Pure water has a density of about 1. The more sugar that is added, the higher the specific gravity will be. As the yeast converts the sugars into ethanol, the specific gravity will drop below 1. Basically, it helps you measure the progress of fermentation. The higher your initial specific gravity, the higher the potential alcohol content will be.

I put the plastic lid on loosely (to let the carbon dioxide formed during fermentation excape). After a couple of days it will start to release carbon dioxide (you'll be able to hear it, kind of like how you can hear pop fizzing) and the specific gravity will start to drop. Keeping everything clean is very important. Everything that comes into contact with the wine is sterilized with a sodium metabisulfite solution. If you get the wrong bacteria growing in there, you could end up making vinegar instead of ethanol! Oxygen exposure is kept at a minimum thoughout the process to reduce oxidation of the wine which can affect the flavour and colour. This is not a problem during primary fermentation because the carbon dioxide being released by the wine will minimize oxygen exposure. So basically I don't have to touch anything for about a week, but I like to peek at it to see how it looks and smells.