Urban Vintner Beer and Wine Making

UrbanVintner — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:39:44 +0000

What does a red-head drink on a hot day?

UrbanVintner — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:32:47 +0000

This past week I finally stopped making excuses and tried a new brewing recipe that I have had for ages now; and because of my colourful facial hair, I have decided to call it Ginger Beer[d].

As a first attempt, this whole process didn’t go quite according to plan, but the final results were great. Plus, I learned a few messy lessons along the way (see below)

Ingredients

1 cup sliced ginger (peeled)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 limes (juice)
water
brewing / wine making yeast

Directions

Add sugar and ginger to 1L of water in a pot and bring to a boil
Once boiling, cover and remove from heat – let steep for an hour
Strain off the ginger and pour the liquid into a 2L bottle (a leftover pop bottle will do just fine)
Top-up the bottle with cold water, within an inch of the top
Add 1/4 pack of yeast (about 1-2 grams) to the top of the liquid and let sit
Attach cap once fermentation begins – leave at room temperature for a couple of days until desired carbonation is achieved
Refrigerate and enjoy!

Lessons Learned

Be sure to loosen the cap to vent the bottle a couple times a day if fermentation is very vigorous

I ended up having a “blower” and lost half by small batch in an Old Faithful-esque eruption all over my kitchen. If you have ever seen the classic video of Mentos being added to a bottle of Diet Coke, you will have an idea of what happened.

Using brewer’s yeast makes a light brew that can be enjoyed by (almost) all-ages. However, using wine yeast and a bit of extra sugar, you create a deliciously potent ginger brew that will refresh and ruin you at the same time.
A 2L batch doesn’t last very long…

My next batch will definitely scaled up in volume, and looking around online it seems like people have had some real success by making a few substitutions for the lime. I think I will try orange, lemon, honey and jalapenos too. I can see this is going to go great with my next meal of sushi!

Class in a Glass: The Role of a Cicerone

UrbanVintner — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:03:21 +0000

Cicerone is to beer as sommelier is to wine

I have a bone to pick with civilized society and especially with our fine restaurants. Wine is afforded a tremendous degree of respect and widely viewed as the proper beverage to pair with great food; beer is most commonly perceived as bland product good for chugging at football games or playing golf. Beer tends to be an afterthought for fine restaurants: “Now that we have this extensive wine list filled with $60 and $70 bottles of wine, let’s stock Bud Light and Heineken for the savages.” Go to many fine-dining establishments in large cities and you’ll see a sommelier in action. You may have consulted with one on what wine to pair with your expensive meal, or perhaps overheard one speaking to a nearby table. Although nothing prevents a knowledgeable waiter from calling himself a sommelier, there are respected associations in North America and Europe that train and certify these wine gurus, and any high-end restaurant that wants to be taken seriously will employ a certified one. No such expectation exists in the minds of beer lovers.

There have been efforts to develop certifications for “beer sommeliers” but that phrase relies on wine terminology. Several years ago, author and beer industry veteran Ray Daniels decided that the world of beer needed certified experts on par with sommeliers, and these experts needed their own distinct term to set them apart. So he created the Cicerone Certification Program. The entry-level Certified Beer Server exam first became available in 2008. On February 12 of this year the 10,000th person passed the Certified Beer Server exam and nearly 400 have passed the much more rigorous Certified Cicerone exam. There is also a Master Cicerone exam, which has only been passed by four people to date.

The word Cicerone refers to “one who conducts visitors and sightseers to museums and explains matters of archaeological, antiquarian, historic or artistic interest.” Daniels chose the term to connote the fact that beer has a long and rich history and experts who guide consumers on the subject should have a full understanding of that history.

In a relatively short time, the Cicerone Certification Program has become the most widely respected program in the United States for certifying beer experts of the same caliber as sommeliers. Widespread recognition of the expertise of Cicerones and increased numbers of people in the service industry earning the certification are precisely what is needed to advance beer’s reputation in our society and hopefully expand the beer menus of those fine-dining restaurants.Beer is far more diverse and complex than most people realize, and it does pair remarkably well with food. I hope we see the day when a large number of fine restaurants consider their beer list as important as their wine list and many employ a Cicerone. But I am also confident we won’t see the day when ordering “ordinary” beers is looked down upon.

Check out Cicerone.org for more information

If you are interested in pursuing a more informed look at beer, I suggest you check out the information provided by the Beer Judge Certification Program. This Style Guide has a great overview of the most popular varieties of beer. There is no need to go through the training program yourself, but I always enjoy looking up what my beer is supposed to taste like and comparing it to other, similar brews.

If you have a look through the guidelines and find something that interests you, let me know and we can try to brew it here as a unique Urban Vintner brew!

A Sunny Cinco de Mayo!

UrbanVintner — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:48:06 +0000

I don’t always celebrate Mexican holidays, but when I do, I prefer Cinqo de Mayo…

Hope you all had a great Cinco de Mayo and got a chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine! I was able to get away to a quick camping trip with friends and definitely enjoyed a refreshing, home-brewed beer (with lime to mark the occasion of course). Sitting around the camp fire, I asked if anyone knew what Cinco de Mayo actually was. After a couple guesses we came to a consensus that it was a celebration of Mexican beer!

Alright, so this might not actually be the reason for the holiday, but that is essentially what it has become. Just like St Patricks Day – do you know why March 17th is marked by drinking green beer…?

For those interested, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration marking the unlikely victory of the Mexican army over the much stronger French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Mexican Cerveza is always a popular beer at Urban Vintner in the summer!

Google Does Beer

UrbanVintner — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:27:19 +0000

This past weekend I started writing a blog post about kegerators (bar fridges with a tap system to serve draft beer in your home) and was just finishing up when an article started circulating around the web that puts my personal kegerator to shame…

Developers at Google have built KegDroid – an automated beer dispensing system, perfect for any beer lover. Simply scan-in with your ID card, select the beer you want and choose your serving size. The KegDroid takes care of the pour!

If you check out the video link at the bottom of this post, you will see that it isn’t quite a perfect pint and has far too much head, but with a little tinkering this is an easy fix. This unit puts the system I have in my kitchen to shame, but it is something to aspire towards.

For anyone interested in kegerators, stay tuned for my upcoming post on something a bit more realistic for the everyday beer drinker at home.

YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/2pj8FHxzFvI

Leftover Wine? Make Wine Syrup!

UrbanVintner — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:14:16 +0000

Yet another use for a bit of spare wine around your kitchen, courtesy of The Kitchn Blog.

Got a bottle of leftover wine – or perhaps a few, after a party? You could make jelly, or you could turn it into an exquisite sauce for fruit, ice cream, salad dressings, and more.

To make wine syrup, you can use a single bottle or mix up the remainders of an assortment of wines. We have only tried it with red wine but white would work, too. In a wide saucepan or skillet, combine the wine with sugar (a good ratio is 3 cups wine to 1 cup sugar), bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until syrupy and reduced to about a third of the volume. Let cool, bottle, and refrigerate.

You can also simmer the wine with flavorings, such as fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, black peppercorns, or vanilla bean. Just strain them out after cooling the syrup.

The rich syrup is sweet and a bit tangy, similar to saba or Balsamic vinegar, so there are countless uses for it. A few ideas:

• Drizzle over fresh berries or grilled stone fruits
• Swirl into ice cream or Greek yogurt
• Pour on pancakes or waffles
• Toss with roasted vegetables or chickpeas
• Add to marinades for meat or tofu
• Whisk into salad dressing

Have you ever made wine syrup? How did you use it?

Do beer and wine fit in a gluten-free diet?

UrbanVintner — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:40:59 +0000

Recently I have had a few requests for gluten-free beer, but didn’t have all that much experience on the topic, so I decided to do a bit of looking around to see what I could come up with. It turns out there aren’t all that many celiac-friendly brews out there, and the ones are available are quite pricey (double the cost of a standard beer) and not typically all that great.

It is possible to home-brew gluten-free beer from sorgum syrup, honey and hops, but the whole process is currently beyond what we are able to do at Urban Vintner. However, if there is enough interest it might be a great area of expansion – let me know!

Looking for gluten-free alternatives I started to wonder, is wine gluten free?

The short answer is: YES!

Wine is made from grapes, not grains.

In a couple of rare instances, commercially made wine could come in contact with gluten at two points during wine making. Barrels once had a flour-based paste to smooth the joints on barrel heads; the practice today is far from uniform. If you have a doubt, opt for a wine that doesn’t see any time in small, oak barrels, such as a Riesling. Further, gluten could be used to fine the wine, but other forms of protein, such as egg whites, are used more often. Even if a winemaker used a gluten-based substance for fining, the point of fining is to clarify the wine: the fining substance drifts through the wines, collects any unwanted particles and falls out to the bottom of the tank where it is left behind.

Current labeling laws do not mandate that wines that come in contact with gluten are labeled as such. Fortunately, this is something you don’t have to worry when you craft-brew your wine at Urban Vintner!

The Perfect Picnic Table

UrbanVintner — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:27:37 +0000

The hot summer weather is just about here and full-on BBQ season is just around the corner – I swear it’s true; I had my first BBQ smokie yesterday.

If you happen to be hosting a backyard party at some point this year, this simple modification to a picnic table could be the perfect solution to the problem of the dreaded warm beer.

Simply remove the centre board from your table and replace it with a gutter and a bit of ice – voila, you have an out-in-the-open beer/wine cooler!

No need to worry about your drink getting warm while you play your turn of bocce ball or throw a couple horseshoes, just pop it in the middle of the table and enjoy!

Study: Men Smarter After Drinking Beer

UrbanVintner — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:06:31 +0000

“Well you see, Norm, it’s like this…

“A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

“In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

“And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

Finally there is a bit of evidence to back up what Cliff Clavin [Cheers] has been saying all along…

Beer makes men smarter. Alright, so this might not be a hard and fast rule across the board, but in a recent study from the University of Illinois in Chicago found that men with a couple of beers under their belts were actually better at solving brain-teasers than their sober counterparts.

To reach that surprising conclusion, the researchers devised a bar game in which 40 men were given three words and told to come up with a fourth that fits the pattern. For example, the word “cheese” could fit with words like “blue” or “cottage” or “Swiss.” Half the players were given two pints. The other half got nothing.

The result?
Those who imbibed solved 40% more of the problems that their sober counterparts. Also, the drinkers finished their problems in 12 seconds while it took the non-drinkers 15.5 seconds.

Jennifer Wiley, a psycologist reporting on the Federation of Associations in Behavioural and Brain Sciences site, stated that, “At 0.07 blood alcohol, people were worse at working memory tasks, but they were better at creative problem-solving tasks.”

Wiley conceded that her findings run counter to popular belief that alcohol hinders analytical thinking and muddies the mind. ”We have this assumption, that being able to focus on one part of a problem or having a lot of expertise is better for problem solving,” says Wiley. “But that’s not necessarily true. Innovation may happen when people are not so focused. Sometimes it’s good to be distracted.”

It may also help explain why raving drunks like Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever or Charles Bukowski were able to write their books. “Sometimes the really creative stuff comes out when you’re having a glass of wine over dinner, or when you’re taking a shower,” Wiley said.

DRINKING IN MODERATION TIP

Researchers also found that men are more likely to solve a problem when working in groups of three rather than two.

“In groups of two, we tend to be more polite, not to confront or ask questions,” Wiley said. “But when you respond to a question in a group of three, you’re not confronting, you’re speaking up for the whole group.”

Why Didn't I Think Of That?

UrbanVintner — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:14:56 +0000

Have you ever come across an invention that you thought of first?

Watching Shark Tank the other week (America’s version on Dragons Den) a “new” product was introduced by The Brewer’s Cow: beer-infused ice cream!

Now although I didn’t have this exact product in mind, I definitely tested a few versions of the Guinness Ice Cream Float when I was in Ireland, which is now featured on their Recipes page.

The Brewer”s Cow uses premium Stouts, Bocks and Dark Ales to give their premium ice cream a rich unique flavor. Each mouthful starts with a sweet and malty sensation and finishes with the essence of your favorite brew. Only the best beer such as Guinness, Sam Adams, and Ten Penny Ale are used. As marketed on their website, “You won’t find a better beer ice cream anywhere in the world”.

Although the Sharks were quite taken with the product, the Brewer’s couldn’t seem to get their numbers straight and the Sharks ripped them. The Brewer’s Cow guys brought samples and Daymond John announced he was out because he is lactose intolerant. Kevin O’Leary went out because he is “lack of sales intolerant,” and then proceeded to call them “ice cream Bozo’s.” On the positive side, they did get their product on the shelves at Whole Foods, although I don’t know if it has made its way into Canada yet. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it and will post an update if I manage to get my hands on some. At the very least I will be enjoying a home-made beer float with my latest batch of Munich Dark Lager brewing at Urban Vintner!