What R you doing today?

[Johngottshall]

Going to Split Rock wine&food festival 40ish wineries

 

[Runningwolf]

Going to Split Rock wine&food festival 40ish wineries

Have a good time. I was there last year as a vendor, what a zoo. An hour before opening there had to be 500 people lined up waiting to come in the gates. My issue with events like this is 90% of the people are there to drink, not taste wine. It's a good time out to get a cheap buzz. The most humorous part is listening to there pronunciations of the wines names. The two most requested is often times Chardonnay and Merlot and they don't like either. It's the two names they can think of the quickest while trying to sound like they know what they're talking about but don't have a clue. Blaufrankisch is a good seller because they like the name and never heard of it before.

 

[reefman]

Picked 15 lbs of sweet cherries today at the local U-pick farm.
None are destined for the winery (sigh!)

 

[Boatboy24]

Got the 2013 Malbec moved out of the barrel and the Petit Syrah moved in.

 

[Hokapsig]

someone must have slipped me a mushroom last night in the pizza sauce because its been a day sitting on the throne.

Looking to work in the winery this evening to do some bench testing since the wife will be out scrapbooking with her friends tonight.

 

[jojabri]

What am I doing today? Saving $122.55 today! Check out this awesome coupon haul today, all this for 13.07... Cha-ching! Behold the power of coupons!

4x 12pk Scott bathroom tissue
2x Schick Hydro 5 for men
2x Schick Hydro Silk sensitive for women
1x Suave shampoo
1x Suave body wash
5x 3pk Dove ice cream bars (they sold out of the other types, BOO!)
5x Horizon mac-n-cheese
4x Hormel protein packs
6x 7-Up Ten 2 liters
4x Chef Boyardee
1x Old Orchard frozen juice (needed one for back-sweetening a batch)

you should have seen my husband's jaw drop. It was PRICELESS!

 

[plowboy]

Fingers crossed I can sneak away from work today and pick up 4 flats of strawberries. Found a friend of my brothers who is growing them and is willing to cut me a little deal.

Last year I used 1 flat of berries to make 5 gals and it worked out ok but lacked that berry body. I figure 4 times the berries should take care of that problem. Lol

 

[cmason1957]

Stopped at our local fruit stand. They had mangoes 10 for $6.00 or $0.60 each. My wife and I picked up 60 of them and four pineapple. I believe we will be making some pineapple mango wine. It could be interesting. We have been cutting the meat off the mangoes and it is in the freezer. Probably coming out next weekend.

 

[vernsgal]

Stopped at our local fruit stand. They had mangoes 10 for $6.00 or $0.60 each. My wife and I picked up 60 of them and four pineapple. I believe we will be making some pineapple mango wine. It could be interesting. We have been cutting the meat off the mangoes and it is in the freezer. Probably coming out next weekend.

So do you have an easy way to cut the mangos? I did up a peach/mango last year and having never cut a mango, had a hell of a time. Then someone said they were easier if frozen 1st so I froze the rest and that made them too cold and slippery lol.

 

[cmason1957]

Oddly enough, I happened to see a video on Facebook that Alton Brown had posted about cutting a mango and it wasn't a horrible thing to do. I had never sliced one before. Here is the link: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcEN2t3tPhk[/ame]

And a simple walkthrough, first, cut off enough of the "bottom" to enable the mango to sit flat. Now, peel the mango, but leave a patch of the skin on either side. Put your fingers on those pieces of skin you left, then use you knife and cut down along one side of the seed, flip around and do the other side, finally, remove any more of it, you want to remove. You can then chop up the four or five pieces you have.

It took about 3-4 minutes per mango, but no fingers were harmed. My mangoes are all chopped up and in bags, sitting in my freezer.

 

[vernsgal]

LOL. The 1st two I came close to being. So is it as easy as he shows?

 

[Johngottshall]

Bottled my apple wine that has been aging since Oct.22 2013 taste is real good and crystal clear since I filtered it.

 

[cmason1957]

LOL. The 1st two I came close to being. So is it as easy as he shows?

It was much easier than I expected it to be. As easy as he shows, not really, but after doing as many of them as I did, it did get easier.

One note, sharp knife and almost like a filet knife was the way to go.

 

[Boatboy24]

I racked the South African Shiraz Cabernet to Secondary. While I was in the lab, I cleaned up the fermenter and started the Monastrell Petit Verdot.

 

[plowboy]

Happy back seat was happy and the house now smells like a berry patch.

Only took 9 large freezer bags to get it all on ice

 

[sour_grapes]

Pitched yeast on the WE LE Cabernet/Merlot.

 

[non-grapenut]

Stirred the elder flower and the Mimosa flower wines this morning. I'll be blending the Mimosa wine with peach wine when they're ready.

 

[Boatboy24]

It was much easier than I expected it to be. As easy as he shows, not really, but after doing as many of them as I did, it did get easier.

One note, sharp knife and almost like a filet knife was the way to go.

You could always grab one of these:

 

[cmason1957]

You could always grab one of these:

My bonus daughters boyfriend mentioned that and if I decide to do mango wine on a regular basis (like once a year or so), then yes, I would buy one of those. I had never heard of such a thing, before.

 

[ou8amaus]

So happy to have found some smaller containers so I can rack down instead of topping up. Bargain too... all of these for $20! Gotta love Kijiji. Soaking them in Oxyclean and we are off to the races.