Expirements in Homebrew
Early beginnings
Drinking is something I've never been very good at or done a lot by any means. Growing up jewish - wine is part of every holiday and meal so I was exposed to it but never shared. Think I was spooked by stories from my father of college binge drinking (one time someone he was with bite the head off a duck).
As a child I had a sip of wine one time but didn't like it at all. From there the next time I really drank anything was on my 21st birthday. The story doesn't go quite how you think it would...
21st Birthday
I really wanted to conquer mount nacheesemo at Tio's in Ann Arbor Michigan
So from age 16 to age 21 my dad promised me that as my gift. It had to happen at 21 because it included a pitcher of beer. After about 10 minutes that cheese solidifies in both the mountain and your stomach so I ended up sharing the nachos with my family and friends.
That weekend I went out with a few friends for a dinner and one said "lets get fireballs" but luckily another friend suggested that may be a bit too much for my first drink. I will say, shots still dont agree with me (I breathe through my nose when I drink them (don't recommend))
Current state
As of now I'll have a beer/cider with dinner on the nights where I'm not waking up with the baby in the morning. Otherwise I dont really have more than one drink unless its an open bar. Even then I really nurse my drinks. Don't really enjoy being drunk like I think some people do.
Decision to Homebrew
I wanted something that wasn't very active (see woodworking) but also could have a fun experience at the end. There was a store called Gnome Brew that had everything anyone could ever need to get started with home brewing. They are more beer centric but I told them I wanted to make a cider and they were really helpful giving me all the required equipment. The core of it being:
- A 3 gallon jug with a spout
- Airlock
- cork
- yeast
- I dont remember what the yeast I used which is a mistake I wont be making going forward
- fermaid
- cleaning solution
Once that was complete I went to jewel and got some martinellis apple juice. Mixed it all together and then waited. The drink started bubbling and burping like mad for 4 days and then slowed for 3 more days and then nothing. I was convinced that it was dead but after 3 weeks I decided to taste. It had some real Alcohol burn (tasted a bit like rubbing alcohol). Luckily 5 more weeks of leaving it and a few tastes later, I decided to finally bottle it! It ended up as a 7% wind and cider (wine was the still hooch and cider is the one I put in a 6 pack bottles with some bubbles).
Its a dry white wine with some apple notes. Not really a wine drinker but Ive had a few glasses of it and Its growing on me. Really proud of this creation! Looking forward to trying more homebrew, no idea where I'm going to go next.