Homemade Hunchpunch Experiment

[East Coast Hustle]

I would love to, ECH...but unless I get back into the "bidness," I'm sort of at a loss...luckily, I live in California.  So, it's not like I am without resources...boutique wineries are my garden, so I'm actually NOT at sea here at all.

But stuff from France, Spain and Italy that's worth drinking is pretty much shit for prices at this point.  So fuck 'em...I'll stick to South African, New Zealand, Australian and Argentinians for now.

most of what I've been drinking lately has been from New Zealand or Chile. Some decent South Australian stuff too, although the prices are creeping up on that stuff. It's a shame that Italy got so overpriced so quick. I remember a few years ago when I could get cases of good italian wine for under $10 a bottle.

[Jenne]

You heard about the scandal, right?  Italy's having "issues" with its appellations...

Chileans are fuckin' awesome right now, too, forgot those.  I'm still a fan of cheap Spanish riojas...don't get me wrong.  And there are some really well-priced French blushes out there still, too, because they're drier and America's punch-loving wine-drinking public still hasn't learned to appreciate their finer points.  Be that as it may, I do miss the better bordeaux, though the red is not my favorite at all, but rather the white. 

German wines now, those are still mid-priced...I still dig those from time to time as well.

[Bruno]

you're one of those people who looks forward to Nouveau Beaujolais, aren't you?

I have to admit that I am not a wine drinker, or even much of a drinker at all, at least not lately. I am completely ignorant as to what makes a wine "good" or "bad". I do know the worst wine I've ever had was some kind of Jewish sacrament wine.

The best wine I've ever had was some homemade stuff made by mashing up some grapes in a bucket with table sugar and water. This stuff almost always winds up sweet from unfermented sugar, slightly vinegary, and of moderate alcohol content.

Except for the excess sugar, it's probably pretty healthy.

[Jenne]

Meneschevitz?  *spits*  blech.  Poor Jerry_F!

[Bruno]

It's ok, it was a long time ago. I'm better now. 

The sad part of the story is that it was my first taste of wine.   

[Jenne]

Ugh.  What an education.  Well, luckily for you, it only gets better from here on out...

[Bruno]

Unfortunately, I have a similar taste for wine as Fozzie "You know if you put enough sugar in this stuff, it tastes like ginger ale." Bear.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Dude you have to tell us how this turns out.
i'm interested in hearing about it, but wouldnt try it myself.

i did however buy some of those muscadine grapes that only grow around here (south east) and i now see where that weird flavor/wang in florida wine comes from.

...Florida wine?

  I never said it was good.

but the grapes are good, albeit weird tasting.

[Jenne]

This reminds me:  I gotta get shoppin for your wine this week! 

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I'm still lookin for someone who sells boxes of moonpies.
all i can find are single serving.
and who the hell wants that.
i'm gonna try the wholesale place this weekend.

[Bruno]

Do you have RC cola to go with those moonpies?

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I think there may be one place left that sells RC

[Triple Zero]

- mix 1 packet of bread yeast with half a spoon of sugar with a cup of lukewarm water (not above body temp! this kills the yeasties)
- put it in a longdrink glass cause it can foam quite high. cover the glass to prevent other organisms from falling in.
- mix 3L (100oz) Apple Juice + 1L (33oz) water + 1Kg (2.2lbs) sugar, heat in a pan till it boils and the sugar dissolves.
- let it cool (with the lid on!! place it in a bath of cold water to speed up the cooling)
- stir in the (now) active yeast. if the yeast's not foaming and smelling like bread and alcohol by now, throw it away, it's dead, use a new package as bread yeast is cheap anyway.

put the stuff in some bottles with a water-lock or whatever contraption you can come up with. anything that allows the CO2 to come out (pressure will get HIGH otherwise and exploding bottles is no fun) but no bacteria and stuff to get in. balloons work (but turn them inside-out! there's talcum powder on the inside of balloons!), but i heard from a friend that using big plastic soda bottles, and screwing open the lid just a tiny bit that you can hear "pssssh" the air slowly escaping creates a perfectly fine pressure lock as well (super easy solution, that).

if you wanna get semi-fancy, fabricate something like this: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=1615.msg438540#msg438540
(you put a dash of water in the bottom loop, so you can see the bubbles escaping, and no bacteria can come in, plus it gives you a good indication of how active it still is).

[LMNO]

Ah yes, the "global warming" reason...*shrug*  It's as good as any, I suppose.  I just see more and more glut to the market of so-so wine, especially now that the "better" wines are being priced out of the market by those who collect and have the yachts and trust funds to do so.  Fuckers are making it near-impossible to buy let alone TASTE those 100 pt on the scale vintages.  (And yes, there's a difference, to ME, of an 85 vs. a 98 pt wine.)

Candian wines are pretty damned good, don't get me wrong.  But wine-making is just as much about culture as it is about farming and science.  There's a reason why some of the more international markets that have been around for DECADES are JUST NOW breaking in to the mainstream.

Actually, it's simple numbers.  Let's say there are 100 spaces for a bottle of wine in a store.  The Distributors, for this argument's sake, has 3 standards of wine quality: A (Gallo), B (Meridian) C (Justin)

If the vinyards offer an equal amount of A, B, and C wines to the distributor, then the store will generally follow suit.  But if the distibutor suddenly encounters a massive amount of B-level wineries who want to do business, they will obviously supply the wine store with more B.  It has nothing to do with wine snobs pricing out, and everything to do with the Wine Market pushing big for mid-level wines.

I would strongly suggest finding a smaller wine store and befriending the owner, or the main buyer.  They will gladly order top-shelf wines, if they know for sure there's an immediate demand for them.

[Triple Zero]

Fuckers are making it near-impossible to buy let alone TASTE those 100 pt on the scale vintages.  (And yes, there's a difference, to ME, of an 85 vs. a 98 pt wine.)

what's this point system?

you can rate quality of wine on a linear scale? how's that work?