Winemaking 101: Chapter 4

After letting the wine sit and ferment for a month and a half, all the sediment is down at the bottom and the wine is transparent and ready to bottle, though not quite ready to drink.

Look at the beautiful colors!  First we moved it over to our primary fermenting bucket, leaving ALL the sediment behind so that we could bottle it upstairs and not have to worry about bottling any of the sediment.

After a few spills/dribbles trying to figure out who to have where and how to switch bottles, we finally got a good rhythm going.  We wound up with 12 bottles, 8 of them 1.5 liters because that's what we were able to get easiest free, one 64 oz beer growler (because we ran out of bottles!), and a glass and a half of wine.

We have classy labels, too!

Now it is supposed to age for at least 6 months before drinking.  So we had to find a cool, dark location.  Unfortunately, we are still in the process of unpacking and finishing our basement, so we actually used a padded case that is currently not in use.  It'll be easier to move around as necessary, too.

Of course, having a glass and a half that couldn't be bottled, we had to try some.  Since, before bottling, we added Campden tablets again, which my husband says is for pasteurization and stopping the yeast from continuing to ferment, it really did not taste very good the night we bottled, though we could taste the wine behind it.  We've been keeping it in the refrigerator in the open glass and taste it every day.  It just keeps tasting better, so that's a good sign.  We're excited about cracking into a bottle in about April.  

The Sourdough Pancake Part X

I have good news!!  There are two answers to the question I asked previously about chemistry.  Answer one.  You can artificially increase the acidity and thus the sour flavor of the pancake.  Answer two, you can get a really sour pancake without doing this.

Over the last couple of weeks I've worked my starter on the counter to get it really hot and bothered.  I feed it regularly but only when it needs it.  I've been watching it's stages as it starts by rising, then it becomes sponge like and then it builds up the "water" which is the sourdough alcohol and byproducts.  I can tell you that until you have a good amount of "water" you won't have really sour pancakes.

You might also hear that you should pour off the water before making the pancakes or even bread.  This is dead wrong.  That water is where the flavor is at.  It's your sign of having a hot active sourdough.  If it takes too long to get to that stage then you likely don't have a very strong starter yet.  Don't worry about that, just give it a few feedings and some sugar (for hyperdrive) and let it rock and roll.

I have now mastered the sour part of the pancake but haven't really gotten to the fluffy.  No matter what they aren't going to be as fluffy as buttermilk pancakes but you can get them a lot more fluffy than mine.  Today's iteration seemed to be a result of my batter being too thin.  I also tried making waffles which was a fail as I used an old iron which wasn't seasoned well and it stuck.

The "secret" ingredient to making cheater sourdough is:  Lemon juice

I haven't tried ascorbic acid (pure vitamin C) yet but I'm guessing that would work as well.

This week I may titrate some lemon juice with baking soda to see what will yield a neutral pH.  Then I can mix those parts in with an already sour sourdough and that should yield fluffy but still sour pancakes.  Hope this works.

The Pancake Saga Part IX

This has been a busy pancake week.  My sister came to visit and we had pancakes at least three times while she's been here.  The first time was the most sourdoughy I've made and my wife was a fan.  What I tried that made the difference.  This time instead of using 1 teaspoon of soda I used 1/4 and I made enough for another adult so the batch size was bigger.

The problem.  Less soda=less fluffy.  So I'm getting more sour but the fluff is going down.  I've also started getting up, adding all of the ingredients, egg and sugar and then placing in a warm spot while I take a shower.  This is similar to the concept when making sourdough bread when you add the flour and let it sit for an hour before making the dough and letting it leaven.  My thought is that the 30-45 min from adding sugar (high energy) until I cook the cakes should energize the yeast.  I'm not sure if it's worked as I haven't repeated the process.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to take my sister to Sam's Sourdough Cafe and I tried to eek their secret out of the waitress with the resulting comment of "it's complicated".  Perhaps if I eat enough pancakes there, they will have sympathy.  Then again I think I may have stumbled on the solution but I won't mention it until I've tried it.

Until next time.