BlueStem Winery

Just Waiting for Traffic

2009-04-11T11:38:00.003-05:00

Day prior to Easter Sunday and lots I would rather be doing than setting in our winemaking and beer brewing supplies store waiting for traffic. Last year the day prior to Easter Sunday was busy, busy, busy so hopefully we will see the same kind of traffic as the day wears on. My son is on his way to the auto body shop with his tornado damaged 1990 Mustang LX drag car. The racer was almost destroyed in the Memorial Day weekend tornado that hit here last year. I would much rather be out on the road with him on this beautiful, sunny spring day here in Iowa.

This morning I moved a bunch of pallets in the back of our store getting ready for a shipment from my wholesaler that should be in next week full of winemaking equipment, beer making supplies and WinExpert wine kits. About that same time our clients who enjoy making wine should see our inventory of Cellar Craft wine choices expand as we will be getting a pallet in from Cellar Craft. We are moving toward almost an exclusive line of 16 liter and 18 liter Cellar Craft wine kits. We are stocking only a few of the 15 liter and 16 liter wine kits from WinExpert and a wide array of the 10 liter WinExpert kits. Why? WinExpert offers a lower end kit with 10 liters of juice while Cellar Craft has resisted moving away from their 7.5 liter wine kits - - - plus the fact that the wholesale cost of the 16 liter and 18 liter WinExpert wine kits has seemingly gone through the roof.

As always BlueStem Winery will continue to offer a wide range of wine making equipment and all supplies for home brew beer enthusiasts. We will be doubling the size of our warehouse capacity in the upcoming few months. This will make us much more efficient in our wine making and in our delivery of internet sales of home brewing and wine making supply orders.

I was told last night that my cousin is now reading my blog so . . . Hi, Kathy! Just seeing if you are reading all the way to the end or not. You really should get into making your own homebrew beer!

Laurens Wine Festival

2009-04-08T19:45:00.002-05:00

BlueStem Winery will venture to Laurens, Iowa on Saturday, July 25, 2009 for the 3rd annual Wine Festival and Market.

BlueStem will be offering tastes of all of their own label wines and also the opportunity to purchase these great wines. BlueStem will share the street with other Iowa wineries and the Laurens event will feature parades, bands, picnics, fireworks and more.

BlueStem will also have at the event a supply of its BlueStems Best beer ingredients kits, a limited supply of other beer making supplies and brewing equipment kits plus several wine kits from its inventory of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert kits.

BlueStem Winery is a fervent supporter of both the home wine making and home brewing hobby and will offer information on the use of both winemaking and homebrew equipment and on techniques used in the fermentation of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits. Making wine (or beer) is a great hobby. Use the Laurens event as a place to learn about this great hobby (or stop into BlueStem Winery in Parkersburg any time).

Immersion Wort Chillers

2009-04-05T11:58:00.003-05:00

When home brewing the results are much more satisfactory if the beer wort is cooled down rapidly after the boil is completed. One of the options available for this cool down is a piece of homebrewing equipment called an immersion wort chiller.

BlueStem Winery sells an immersion wort chiller (pictured at left) and has them available both in our store and on our web site. For the home brewer who wants to spend the time, this piece of homebrew equipment can be fairly easily fabricated at home with a coil of copper rubbing, a couple pieces of plastic tubing, hose clamps and hose ends.

Rapid cool down of wort helps prevent the formation of compounds which alter the flavor or your beer and it also brings the wort into the yeast pitching temperature range quicker. The earlier yeast can be added to the wort the less chance there is of bacteria being able to get a foothold.

Immersion wort chillers consist of a coil of metal (usually copper) tubing with a short piece of flexible tubing attached to each end with hose connectors on the ends of this flexible tubing. The ends of the copper coil are bent upward so they both end at the upper end of the wort chiller. This allows the wort chiller to be lowered into the beer wort with the two hose ends out of the brewpot. One end of the wort chiller is connected to a cold water source and the other end is taken to a drain. Cold water is run through the copper coil and this process of heat transfer warms the water in the coil (and cools the beer) and this warm water is run to the drain. The constant replacement of the water in the coil with cold water rapidly chills the wort.

Choosing the correct metal coil for your wort chiller is important. Both copper and stainless steel tubing work well but copper is typically less expensive. Using 3/8th inch tubing seems to work the best. This tubing is available in different thicknesses and the lighter the tubing used the greater the efficiency (more surface are in relationship to the volume of wort displaced).

You will need approximately 25 feet of copper tubing plus two hose clamps and either a short piece of garden hose (20 feet or so) or flexible tubing that will slide over the copper tubing and garden hose ends with compression fittings.

The first step in the manufacturing process is the bend the metal tubing into a coil of a small enough diameter so that it will easily fit into your brew pot and still allow at least a couple inches of clearance between the coil and the side of your brew pot. Two points to remember here: First, remember that if your copper coil gets a kink in it it will not pass water through fast enough to chill your wort, and second, plan on leaving enough metal tubing at each end to create a bend that will allow your chiller to hang on the edge of your brew pot. This way the hose clamps will be outside your brew pot and in the event of leaks it will leak outside of your brew pot and avoid contamination of your wort.

Metal tubing is typically in a coil when purchased. You can bend this tubing into tighter coils by hand (be careful not to kink it!). It will probably be easier if you find a cylindrical object long enough hold the coil being made and simply wrap the tubing around the object in a tight coil with each coil next to the previous one. Leave approximately two feet of uncoiled metal tubing at one end.

Next, bend the short end of the metal tubing out from the coil at a right angle to the coil. Then bend the longer end (the two foot section mentioned in the prior paragraph) so that it goes up the side of the coil toward the top of the coil and at the same position where the short end of the the metal tubing was bent outward, do the same with the long end so that two end resemble hooks that can hang over the edge of the brew pot.

Cut your garden hose (or flexible tubing) in half or in the lengths that will best suit your purpose. Slide a hose clamp over both ends of the metal tubing. Slip the hose endings over the metal tubing and tighten the hose clamps.

Your chiller is complete! Run one end of the chiller hose to your water source and the other to a drain and you are ready to being chilling wort. Sanitation of your chiller? Not a problem! Simply lower the chiller into your brew pot about 15 minutes prior to the end of the boil and the heat present in the boil will sanitize your chiller.

In need of homebrewing supplies or winemaking ingredients? BlueStem Winery stocks a complete line of beer ingredients and supplies for wine making at home. We also have our own line of home brewing kits known as BlueStems Best (available in many, many beer brewing styles) and we also stock a large inventory of winemaking kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft. Wine making was never so much fun! Cellar Craft wine kits and WinExpert kits are both very, very easy to use and always, if you have a question, the people at BlueStem Winery can help you solve your problem.

Adjusting Acid Levels in Wine

2009-03-27T09:54:00.002-05:00

Our recent winemaking blogs (the past 4) have dealt with various aspects of the acidity levels in wine. Now that we know the desired levels of acidity for various types of wine and the tools we need when making wine to determine the present level we also need to know how to raise and lower the acid levels if they are too high or too low.

Compare your acid test results with the desired acidity range for the type of wine that you are making. It is very easy to raise acid levels. You can use the acid blend that is available on the BlueStem Winery web site to increase acidity. The addition of 3.9 grams of acid blend will raise the acid level present in one gallon of wine by 0.1%. The type acids present in the acid blend you use is also important. BlueStem Winery custom blends its own acid blend and it consists of 50% tartaric, 40% malic and 10% citric acids. A large percentage of the acid blends sold by wine shops contain 50% citric acid (because it is cheap!) rather than the more desireable tartaric acid which is much more expensive. If you do not have a scale you can guesstimate by using a set of measuring spoons from the kitchen. A level full quarter teaspoon will weigh approximately 1.2 grams. A full teaspoon will weigh approximately 5 grams.

Increasing acid levels is easy. Having to decrease acid levels is a less desirable situation. Large decreases in acidity are very undesirable. BlueStem Winery has three products available for the decrease of acid levels. First there is either calcium carbonate or potassium carbonate (these can be used interchangeably) and then there is a product called Acidex.

Use the carbonates to reduce acid levels only if you are going to reduce acids by 0.4% or less. Two and one-half grams of carbonate will lower one gallon of wine by 0.1% TA. Use the instructions on the Acidex package for directions on its use. For those without a scale, a quarter teaspoon of carbonate weighs about a half gram and a full teaspoon weighs approximately 2.5 grams.

Enough on the home wine making for a few days. Our next blog articles will deal with some aspects of beer brewing including some home brew supplies and brewing equipment. My son is a big Guinness fan and I have to get my home brewing stuff out and get a batch of BlueStems Best Irish Stout in the works. A large number of our customers have said that this Irish Stout tastes better than Guinness and we'll put that theory to a major test with my son! Check out our complete line of beer making supplies and wine making kits on the BlueStem Winery web site. We carry both the WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits and either will make you a fine batch of homemade wine!

Measuring Wine Acidity Using a pH Meter

2009-03-26T12:07:00.003-05:00

This is the fourth (in a series of 5) blog articles relating to wine acidity issues when making wine. After our next home wine making article on wine acidity we will turn our focus onto an issue of interest to our home brewing clientele.

If you have access to a pH meter you can use this device to measure wine acidity in a method very similar to that accomplished using the acid testing kit described in our just previous blog article. Accuracy of your results would be the reason for purchasing a pH meter versus the testing kit. One of the problems with the test kit is that darker colored wines are very difficult to see at what point the color change occurs. This problem is eliminated with the pH meter.

What you do is start off the same way described in my previous post (add the color indicator to your wine sample). Start adding the reagent (the sodium hydroxide) to the wine/indicator solution a drop at a time. Swirl the mixture thoroughly after adding each droplet and take a reading with the pH meter. When the pH meter reads 8.2 (this would correspond to the timing with the acid test kit when the color indicator changes color). The number of droplets added will again indicate your acidity level.

Be careful with your pH meter! Be sure and clean the device thoroughly after each use, protect the probe from damage from mishandling and be sure and calibrate the pH meter each time you use it using fresh buffering solution.

BlueStem Winery is not only a licensed winery but also has a fully stocked store and warehouse of beer brewing supplies, winemaking ingredients and a large inventory of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine making kits. Although our name indicates that we are heavily into winemaking we do carry a significant amount of beer making supplies and have our own line of beer brewing kits known as BlueStems Best. We are a full service brewing supply store and welcome your visit (either in person or on-line) the next time you need brewing supplies or wine making supplies.

Using an Acid Test Kit to Measure Wine Acidity

2009-03-23T15:10:00.003-05:00

A simple and inexpensive way to measure the acidity level (TA) is to purchase a home wine making acid test kit from the BlueStem Winery web site. This acid testing kit uses a titration method to determine the acid level present. Without teaching a lesson in high school chemistry, titration testing involves the addition of a reagent (in this case it is sodium hydroxide) to a mix of your wine and a color indicator (phenolphtalein).

A wine sample (15ml) is drawn and placed in a test tube. Three drops of the color indicator are drawn and added to the wine sample. Swirl the test tube until the wine and indicator are thoroughly mixed.

Next a syringe is used to draw 10ml of the reagent. The reagent is added to the test tube containing the wine/color indicator at the rate of 0.5ml. After each addition the test tube is swirled to mix the reagent with the wine/color indicator. As the drops are added the color of the mix in the test tube will change. White wines will turn pink, red wines will turn gray/black. As the test tube is swirled the color change disappears. Keep adding the 0.5ml droplets until, when swirled, the wine/indicator mix does not go back to its original color. Each milliliter of reagent used indicates an acidity level of 0.1% TA. Correct acidity levels for various types of wines was presented in my just prior blog entry.

BlueStem Winery is a wine making and homebrew supply retailer located in Parkersburg, Iowa and on the web. BlueStem features a comple line of beer brewing and wine making equipment plus an excellent assortment of our own BlueStems Best home brewing ingredient kits and an extensive inventory of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits. You can expect that you will not be treated like a purchaser at a big box home brew equipment retailer. We offer beer ingredients, brewing equipment and beer brewing kits at reasonable prices but our time and advice provided in any quantity free of charge. We take the time to see you through any winemaking or homebrew problem.

Recommended Levels of Acidity in Wine

2009-03-21T10:53:00.002-05:00

When you drink a glass of wine, the acids which are present are what provide the crisp, tart taste. If a wine tastes flat it is because the wine has too little acid present. If your wine has too much acid present it has a sour taste (like a grapefruit). Wine which have what is referred to as proper balance are wines which have the correct level of acidity, alcohol, sugar, etc.).

Dry wines require a lower acidity level then sweet wines because the presence of sugar helps mask the tartness of the acids. Dry white wines should have an acidity level between 0.65% and 0.75% while dry red wines require a slightly lower acid level of 0.60% to 0.70%.

Sweeter white wines generally have an acid level between 0.70% and 0.80% or even slightly higher. Sweet red wines should have acid levels between 0.65 and 0.75% or slightly higher.

Wines made from lighter colored fruits (apples, pears, peaches, etc.) have a recommended acid levels between 0.55% and 0.65% while darker colored fruit wines (plums, raspberries, blackberries, etc.) need to have acid levels between 0.50% and 0.60%.

The percentages expressed are referred to as titratable acidity (or TA) by those making wine and are a percentage of volume.

For those who are wine making at home from wine kits such as the Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits that BlueStem Winery sells on our web site there is no need to test for acidity levels as the winemaking kits have been acid balanced when produced.

Our next blog article will provide information on how to measure the acidity present when you are making wine. The BlueStem Winery on-line wine making supply store has the acid testing kit you need.

In addition to keeping an inventory of everything you need for wine making at home our on-line store also has the supplies you need for making homebrew beer. Beer brewing is a great alternative to wine making with your finished product being ready for consumption in about 5 weeks (as oppposed to the much longer period required for aging wine).

Punching the Cap (Part 2)

2009-03-18T20:29:00.002-05:00

My blog article of March 16 provided information about punching down the cap (especially when making wine from one of our wine kits that has crushed grape skins or from fresh fruit of any kind). This blog article is a follow-up on that winemaking article and offers some hints for punching down the cap.

First, when starting a new batch of wine be sure and use a primary fermenter which is large enough for your batch. Keep in mind that when you are punching down the cap that you will be inserting a spoon or other stirring device into the must and then agitating it. If you are making one of our Cellar Craft or WinExpert wine kits which contain crushed grape skins you need a fermenter large enough to contain the 6 gallons of juice, the stirring device you will use and a 2 liter bag of crushed grape skins and still provide enough head space for the fermentation of the wine.

You can use a variety of utensils to punch down the cap. Examples would be spoons (solid or slotted) made of stainless steel or PVC plastic. Break up the cap and stir the cap down into the must until the cap is totally broken up and everything is moist.

Punch down the cap the first time right after you pitch your yeast. This will aerate the must and incorporate the yeast into the must. Fermentation will begin shortly and the carbon dioxide bubbles will cause suspended matter to be pushed to the surface which will form the cap. Punch the cap down at least three times (more is better) per day to keep the broken up and moist.

When fermentation begins to slow because the supply of sugar is decreasing the solid matter present in your wine must will sink rather than float (there is no longer enough carbon dioxide gas to push the solids to the surface).

BlueStem Winery is a full-service wine making and brewing supply outlet located in northeast Iowa and on the web. Although BlueStem Winery is a licensed winery our store offers both beer brewing and wine making supplies, brewing equipment, our own line of brewing kits known as BlueStems Best and wine kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft. We offer beer brewing equipment, beer ingredients and everything else you need for home brewing. Our website features shipping for only $8.95 to anywhere in the lower 48 United States for any quantity of beer kits, brewing supplies and wine making supplies you may wish to order. We can help you make great home brew beer or assist you in wine making at home.

Losing my Cap

2009-03-16T15:39:00.003-05:00

My intentions were good. I promised myself that I would write a blog article as often as possible (trying for every day!). Only problem is that I left the winery early today (the store itself is closed on Monday and Tuesday) and took my computer and went home with plans to work at the kitchen table and diligently write something about home beer brewing, wine making or one of our Cellar Craft or WinExpert wine kits. I brought the computer home but I left my research materials lay at the winery. My intention had been to write a follow-up article with respect to Punching Down the Cap (yesterday's topic).

For our local clients I will take a few minutes to tell you about what we have planned for this summer at BlueStem Winery. The fact is that we have outgrown our facilities for making wine and for keeping a good inventory of beer brewing equipment and wine making kits. Our retail area remains adequate but our production area and warehouse for beer making supplies and wine kits is overflowing. We have paths through the warehouse to get to our beer brewing kits and our supply of WinExpert and Cellar Craft wines.

This is good news for both our local clientele and for our web customers. We are going to start a new building shortly. Our retail store will remain where it is as we will build a new 3,000 square foot wine production and warehouse facility directly behind our winery building. The only casualty will be a solitary tree which is right in the middle of where we plan to construct our addition.

Home brewing and home winemaking clients will be an increase in our inventory of beer brewing kits and other supplies for home brew beer. Homebrew equipment and wine making supply inventories will also increase as will the number of WinExpert kits and Cellar Craft wine kits that we stock (both the variety and the quantity). We hope this increase in inventories will lead to a larger beer brewing clientele which will match the large number of wine making customers we presently enjoy. A bonus for our web customers is that we are greatly increasing the size of our packaging area so that web purchases will be more efficiently processed (we pride ourselves on first day shipments but have missed that goal on a very few occasions!).

Tomorrow . . . we'll try to finish punching down the cap!

Punching the Cap

2009-03-15T10:34:00.002-05:00

I do enjoy driving my Ford truck but this has nothing to do with Ford trucks or caps in the context of a baseball cap. When making wine the cap we are discussing is the layer of stems, seeds and bits of grape skins that are pushed to the surface of your primary fermenter by the carbon dioxide gasses being produced as the yeast consumes sugars present in the must. This cap is a layer of foam and the bits described previously that rise to the surface during fermentation. The term usually ascribed to breaking up this layer of foam and disbursing it back into the wine must is punching down the cap.

Why is it important for someone engaged in home winemaking to punch down the cap? If making wine from one of the Cellar Craft or WinExpert kits that we sell it is not as important (you can do it once or twice a day rather than 3 or more times per day) unless you are using one of the wine kits that include a crushed grape skin pack. Cellar Craft wine kits from their Showcase series of red wines all include a two liter package of crushed grape skins. Punching down several times (at least 3) a day when using one of these wine making kits is very important. It is also important if you are making wine from fresh grapes or any other fresh fruit and of lesser importance if the winemaking is done using juice or from one of our wine making kits which does not include grape skins.

Here is a concise list of reasons why you should punch down the cap when wine making at home:

1. Tannins and flavors and colors which are in this cap will be added back into your wine must.
2. The potential for bacteria formation in this layer of foam is reduced. Heat which is a natural product of fermentation is not allowed to be trapped under this layer. Warmth provides fertile ground for bacterial growth.
3. Yeasts which may be imbedded in this layer are moved back into the wine must.
4. By the very act of stirring and pushing down the cap oxygen (which is beneficial to your yeast) is introduced into the wine must.

BlueStem Winery offers a complete line of beer brewing and wine making supplies at our retail outlet in Parkersburg, Iowa. We are also on the web with our complete inventory of brewing equipment and winemaking ingredients. We feature both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits for wine making and hour own line of home brewing beer kits known as BlueStems Best. Visit our website at bluestemwine.com and you will find friendly service, prompt delivery and knowledgeable answers to your home brewing and winemaking questions.

Yeast Nutrition

2009-03-11T19:25:00.002-05:00

For yeast to start the fermentation process and for it to continue the process through to a full fermentation it needs an environment rich in nutrients. If your must lacks proper nutrition you may have wine that does not begin fermentation or that becomes stuck (stops fermenting) or which develops a rotten egg smell (hydrogen sulfide develops which is caused by a shortage of nitrogen).

Nutrients which wine must requires include nitrogen (nitrogen produces protein which is required for the development of new yeast cells), oxygen (without getting too scientific, oxygen helps the initial yeast cells procreate rapidly) and trace vitamins and minerals (these include phosphorus, urea, citric acid, and amino acids among others).

BlueStem Winery markets it own line of beer brewing kits (known as BlueStems Best), home brew equipment, wine kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft for wine making at home, and home brew supplies from Muntons, Briess, Brewmart and others. Cellar Craft wines from their Showcase Collection produce world class wines as do wines from our selection of WinExpert wine kits. If you are looking at getting started in either the home winemaking or home brewing hobby, BlueStem Winery has the home brew supplies, homebrew equipment and winemaking ingredients you need for these great hobbies.

Choosing the Water to Use

2009-03-09T15:41:00.002-05:00

Whether your are home brewing or making wine from one of the WinExpert wine kits you are using water for the boil when beer brewing or you are adding water to the juice concentrate that is in your winemaking kit. How important is the choice of the water you use? The home winemaking and home beer brewing folks at BlueStem Winery believe your choice of which water to use can have a huge impact on the quality of your final product. You have made a significant investment in either your brewing ingredients or in one of our WinExpert or Cellar Craft wine kits and you do not want to put the quality of your home brew or wine at risk because you do not use quality water.

So what are your choices? If you live in a community of any size you most likely have access to municipal water. If you live in a rural area your water may very well come from a well. Distilled water can be purchased at most every grocery store and from many other sources. Bottled water (not distilled) is also available at grocery stores and many other places and in some areas you might also have access to spring water. Which should you use?

Municipal water (tap water) has typically been treated with chlorine tor chloramines to depress bacteria levels. If you can smell chlorine in a glass of warm city water you should not use the water without first boiling or filtering the water to remove the chlorine. Boiling water removes the free chlorine but not chloramines (call the city water folks and ask them whether they treat your city's water with chlorine or chloramines). Chloramines can be removed by filtering your water with an activated charcoal filter and then treating the water with 10 parts per million of sulfites. The fact that your brewing ingredients are boiled takes care of the chlorine (not chloramine) problem for any water used in the boil. Remember that water added after the boil could still have chlorine in it. An activated charcoal filter which has been impregnated with silver will remove bacteria and also flouride from your water. If using a water filtration system remember to change your filters often to prevent bacteria growth within the filters.

Well water has a whole host of problems associated with it including bacteria, iron, trace minerals, and in agricultural areas nitrates. Rural water is typically very hard and many people use a water softener and this infuses the water with sodium which creates another source for bad tasting wine or beer. Use an activated charcoal filter to remove particulates and a silver impregnated one will also remove bacteria. Our first recommendation if considering the use of well water is . . . don't.

The distillation process (or a reverse osmosis water filter) removes virtually everything from your water that can impact your wine or beer . . . both negatively and positively. Wine and beer needs some mineral content in the water to provide food for the yeast. If using distilled water use a small amount of yeast nutrient to provide food for your yeast.

Bottled water is typically water which has been purified but not distilled. Perfectly good for making wine or beer but not as good as using spring water (and usually more expensive!).

Spring water is an excellent water to use for either beer brewing or wine making. Spring water has the trace minerals necessary to provide food for your yeast but it does not have the flouride, chlorine or other contaminants. Purchased spring water has been tested for purity but not all water sold as spring water is really spring water. Some spring water is just tap water being passed off as spring water. Read the bottle label and look for the source of the water. Sometimes the bottler will use a code such as PWS as the source (Public Water Source). Actual spring waters will list where the water actually came from.

BlueStem Winery is a licensed and bonded winery located in Parkersburg, Iowa. In addition to marketing its own label wines, BlueStem carries a complete inventory of beer brewing equipment and supplies for wine making at home plus wine kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and our own line of home brewing kits known as BlueStems Best. We would love to hear from you!

Paper (ur . . . Glass) or Plastic?

2009-03-04T18:42:00.004-06:00

BlueStem Winery (in addition to being a licensed winery) operates a full-service beer brewing and home winemaking supply store in Parkersburg, Iowa and on the web. Every once in awhile I have a home brewing or winemaking customer ask about using plastic carboys (the glass jug used as a secondary fermenter for making home brew beer or for wine making at home). Some brewers also use a larger carboy as a primary fermenter.

Although I never say never, at the present time BlueStem Winery does not sell nor do we recommend the use of plastic carboys as a secondary fermentation vessel for either wine making or for homebrew beer.

Both types of carboys have inherent advantages and disadvantages but in our opinion the advantages of glass outweigh the advantages offered by the plastic carboy and the disadvantages of plastic outweigh the disadvantages of glass carboys.

Glass carboys have a few very obvious disadvantages. The number one concern regarding this piece of wine making and beer brewing equipment is its weight. The glass carboys simply weigh quite a bit more than the plastic ones. The obvious disadvantage of glass is that it will break (shatter would be a better word and this comes from experience!). Obviously, both of these disadvantages of the glass carboys are advantages for the plastic version.

Another advantage touted about the plastic carboys is that they are cheaper to purchase than plastic. I tend to agree (partially) with this statement. The carboys themselves are cheaper but they also require quite a bit of peripheral equipment that dollars up fairly fast.

Glass carboys offer the following advantages over plastic:

1. Glass is easier to clean and sanitize than plastic and will not scratch when cleaned (every scratch is a potential hiding place for bacteria);

2. It is easier with glass to get a good seal between the carboy and an airlock. Bad seals equal potentially bad wine (it is called oxidation but it tastes like vinegar);

3. Glass is not capable of transferring a chemical or solvent from within the glass itself. Plastic can possibly leach solvents (and bad flavors) from its own chemical composition into the wine;

4. Plastics are not immune to the passage of air through the very plastic itself. Although this is probably of very little consequence during a brief fermentation period it can have negative effects during long term storage. In this sense, plastic would be more viable as a secondary fermentation vessel used for beer (where secondary fermentation is a short period of time) as compared to the secondary fermentation of wine.

Looking for a reliable source for purchasing your beer ingredients or your wine kits? BlueStem Winery is a great place to purchase your home beer brewing equipment, supplies and ingredients. We also stock a great line of winemaking ingredients, supplies and equipment plus a super lineup of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits.

Samuel Adams LongShot

2009-03-03T16:09:00.002-06:00

BlueStem Winery has entry forms available at the store for the 2009 Samuel Adams American Homebrew Contest. The entry window for this year's contest is between April 15 and May 1, 2009.

Details about this contest for home brew beer enthusiasts are available at the store or on the Samuel Adams web site. Last year over 1,500 home brewing fans entered the contest.

BlueStem Winery features a complete line of beer brewing supplies. If you are not prepared for this year's contest you can get everything you need in the way of brewing equipment from the homebrew supply section of our e-Store on our web site.

BlueStem's web site also features a complete line of supplies for making wine from back yard fruit or from wine kits from either WinExpert or Cellar Craft. Make home wine making or home beer brewing your special hobby. We can help!

Beer Brewing 101

2009-03-01T15:13:00.002-06:00

Home brewing is a four step process (but most home brewers only do three of the four).

Malting is the first step and is also the one that most home brewers do not do themselves. They instead allow a malting company to do this for them. After the malting process is complete the grains are kilned (dried) which allows for longer storage times. They drying also enhances flavors and aromas which are then removed in the brewing process.

Mashing is the second step. The grains are soaked in hot water which dissolves the starches. Maltose (the most prevalent sugar produced in this process) and other malt sugars are what the yeast converts to alcohol during the fermentation process. This mashing process has been done for you, too, if you use malt extracts (liquid or dry) instead of grain when you brew.

Step 3 is the boil. Malt sugars, water and other ingredients are combined in a brewpot to make what is called wort (beer before it is beer). Boiling sanitizes the beer ingredients. Hops are added at various times with the first hops providing bittering (the boil removes oils from the hops to do this). Later hop additions provide both flavor and aroma. After the boil (usually about 60 minutes) the wort is cooled and yeast is added.

Usually within about 12 hours the yeast will be at home in the wort and it will begin to convert the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This fermentation process will take from four to seven days. Some beers (especially lagers) may take several months to fully ferment. When fermentation is complete the beer is ready to bottle or keg.

If you would like to brew your own beer, BlueStem Winery has the brewing equipment you need and will assist you in your beer brewing endeavors.

BlueStem also stocks everything you need if your preference leans toward making wine. BlueStem stocks wine making kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and is always ready to answer your winemaking questions.

Removing Labels from Recycled Bottles

2009-02-28T13:36:00.003-06:00

Soak . . . scrub . . . rinse . . . soak . . .

Yes, BlueStem Winery sells new wine and beer bottles as part of our inventory of wine making and beer brewing equipment inventory but we have also acquired many used (recycled as we call them) ones over the years and have spent spent a significant amount of time removing the labels so the bottles can be reused.

Some of them just darn near refuse to let you have your way!

Whether you are using new bottles or bottles with a little experience, the most important thing is that you get these bottles clean and sanitized. Inside! Outside! Period!!

The easy labels can be removed by simply filling a large sink or tub or basin with warm water and letting the bottles soak. Be sure to fill the bottles with water so that they will remain submerged.

Most labels will peal off fairly easily (or if necessary you can scrub them a little with a Scotch Brite pad).

The more difficult labels require a little persistence. If they are plastic you will need to get under them with a sharp knife and peal them off. If they are just stubborn you will need to soak them and then peal off the outer layer (sometimes this layer is metallic) and then soak them again. If a persistent glue residue remains use products such as Goo Gone (available in most hardware stores) to soften up the glue and then remove it. Read and follow the safety instructions for the product you are using as some will require the wearing of gloves or that you use the product in a well ventilated area.

Or . . . you can purchase new bottles from our inventory of beer making supplies and winemaking supplies. Our beer bottles are available in several sizes and styles, including the E-Z cap bottles (like a Grolsch bottle). Our wine bottles are available in several sizes, shapes and colors and with cork or screw top finishes.

Try out one of our BlueStems Best beer making kits which are available in many beer styles or if you are into wine making at home you can purchase ingredients for numerous fruit wines or try your favorite grape wine with one of our wine making kits from either WinExpert or Cellar Craft. The WinExpert wine kits produce world class wine if you have patience to wait through the aging process. The Cellar Craft wine kits are first rate with all of the Showcase Series reds featuring a 2-liter bag of crushed grape skins for on the skin wine making!

Sanitation is Essential for Making Good Wine (or Beer!)

2009-02-26T14:51:00.003-06:00

Wine (and beer) is created when yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The environment created when you mix sugar and water and put it in a warm place is perfect for beer brewing or winemaking but it is also a perfect place for the growth of bacteria.

The way to make sure that it is your brewer's or wine yeast that gets a good start and not a bacteria culture that can overwhelm your beer, make sure that you take extreme care to sanitize everything that comes in contact with your wort (beer before it is beer) or must (wine before it is wine).

Wash (with dish soap and water), then rinse with clear hot water and then soak your equipment in sanitizing solution for 10 minutes (or longer). Fill your fermenter with sanitizing solution and then place all of your equipment into the fermenter to soak.

When ready to use a piece of equipment remove it from the fermenter and rinse it with very hot water (unless you are using a no rinse sanitizer such as Easy Clean).

BlueStem Winery is a full service home brewing supply retailer located in Parkersburg, Iowa. In addition to stocking a complete line of beer brewing kits, supplies and equipment, BlueStem also stocks a large inventory of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits for the person who enjoys making wine at home.

Stop in the store in Northeast Iowa or visit the BlueStem Winery website for all your homebrew beer and winemaking equipment.

What You Should Know About Acid Blend

2009-02-24T13:17:00.002-06:00

BlueStem Winery opened for business in mid-2004 selling a complete line of beer brewing ingredients and supplies for making wine. One of the items we purchased from our wholesaler was their acid blend product.

Without the appropriate level of acid wines can taste stale (flat) so it is important during the winemaking process to check acid levels and adjust to the recommended level. There are typically three types of acid used to prepare the typical acid blend. Our wholesaler was using 50% Citric Acid, 40% Malic Acid and 10% Tartaric Acid.

I used this mix myself when doing some home wine making from fruit and thought that my wines tasted a little too much like a grapefruit or a lemon. I did some on-line investigation and discovered rather easily that acid blend has changed a little over the years. Years ago acid blend was typically made with a 50/50 mix of Tartaric and Malic Acids or a 40/40/20 blend of Tartaric, Malic and Citric Acids. Why the change?

In an effort to control costs the Acid Blend was made using a much larger amount of Citric Acid and less of the Tartaric Acid which is the more expensive of the three acids.

BlueStem Winery started blending its own mix of Acid Blend for wine making shortly after that. Our Acid Blend is a 50/40/10 blend of Tartaric, Malic and Citric acids. A little costlier to prepare but with the makings for a much better wine.

BlueStem Winery is a licensed and bonded winery with (at present) a total of six BlueStem label wines for sale: Once in a Blue Moon is our Riesling dessert wine, Red Crescent is our Cabernet Franc dessert wine, Dark Side is a dry Montepulciano, Prairie Fire is our off-dry Riesling, Feelin' Groovy is an off-dry Gruner Veltliner, and Crystal Moon is our Gewurztraminer dessert wine. We will have an off-dry Gewurztraminer, a Late Harvest Riesling and a Blush Zinfandel on the wine racks before summer's end.

BlueStem presently carries wine making kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert and a very nice line of beer making kits, brewing equipment and everything else you need for home beer brewing. We are looking to expand our line-up of wine kits by slightly expanding our line Cellar Craft wine kits, greatly expanding the number of Winexpert kits that we inventory plus possibly carrying the Mosti Mondiale line of 23 liter pure juice wine kits. We will also be expanding our line of brewing supplies later in 2009 as we finish our new warehouse.

It has been awhile!

2009-02-22T12:30:00.005-06:00

It has definitely been awhile since I posted to my blog! 2008 was not a particularly good year here in Parkersburg, Iowa. It started off great with sales in our winery and an our website exceeding the previous year by about 40%. Then the EF-5 tornado which hit town on Memorial Day pretty much doused the flame for the rest of the year. Between BlueStem Winery being closed for several weeks while we salvaged what we could of our son's home plus the downtick in the economy (I am a former commercial banker who specialized in real estate and my opinion is that there are a whole bunch of Wall Street types who should go to jail over this whole mess the world's economy is in!) 2008 is a year best left unremembered.

Enough! This is 2009 and it is time for new beginnings! BlueStem Winery is is in the business of selling beer brewing and wine making supplies. We are still selling wine kits from both Cellar Craft and WinExpert. Cellar Craft wine kits continue to be our best seller but we invite your opinion on another wine making kit company that we are considering purchasing from. It is Mosti Mondiale out of Quebec. Any good words about this source of wine making kits? We also continue to forge ahead with the business of making wine. BlueStem Winery just put our sixth wine on the shelf for sale and numbers seven, eight and nine will be out before mid-2009. It has been too hectic this winter to do any home brewing but we have added some exciting new homebrew supplies and homebrew equipment. If you are a home brewer or are into making wine at home or if you would like to learn, check out our website and send us an e-Mail if you have any questions!

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EntreCard Be Damned

2008-12-31T12:13:00.003-06:00

This post is for all EntreCard users. Still doing it? Still wasting your time?

I was a fairly faithful EntreCard user until my blog was deleted by EntreCard recently. The reason? I had not been writing blog articles recently. Well, actually I had been. I wrote numerous blog articles as the national election was approaching and after the election was over I deleted these posts. In EntreCard's opinion that means I hadn't been posting.

I explained to them that I had not had a lot of time to write blog articles because of the EF5 tornado that ripped through our hometown this summer and the time that this has taken as we rebuild our home and the home of our son. EntreCard did not even respond. Nary a whisper.

This means (to me) that the folks at EntreCard are nothing better than a pile of . . . well, you get the picture. The traffic that it generated really doesn't do a website much good anyway as it is all drop and run traffic. You spend hours each day dropping cards and for what? And the new high speed methods of dropping cards just means that people no longer work their way down a chain of EntreCards--they just drop and run.

Where does EntreCard sit with me. Out of the picture. An absolute waste of my time. Thanks for helping me decide!

Long Lost Summer

2008-09-11T11:09:00.003-05:00

The summer of 2008 is the summer that never happened. All the things that had been planned for this summer failed to get done and the summer of 2008 is just memories of tragedy, sad times, clearing debris, political ads that are nothing more than backstabbing rhetoric and trying to move on to something positive in our lives.

Our wine making and brewing supply store was closed for almost two weeks in late May and early June as our community started its recovery from what they are now calling the biggest tornado in the history of the United States. At first the weather service called it an EF3, then revised this to an EF4 and finally designated the tornado as an EF5 (winds in excess of 205 miles per hour). This was the first EF5 tornado in Iowa in almost 40 years. The weather service finally estimated that the winds in Parkersburg were approximately 300 miles per hour and that the storm was about three-fourths of a mile wide as it swept through town. The storm eventually grew to almost 1.25 miles wide and stayed on the ground for approximately 40 miles leaving a path of destruction through northeast Iowa. The tornado was on May 25, 2008. My wife teaches here in Parkersburg (at Aplington-Parkersburg High School) and her summer vacation started that day. The high school building was destroyed in the tornado as was our son's home.

The last days of May and early June were spent searching through the rubble for fragments of my son and his wife's lives and recovering what we could as we cleared away the debris that was once their home. BlueStem Winery, the business where we usually are busy making wine, selling beer brewing ingredients and home winemaking kits was closed until June 10th. About 95% of our business is from out of town or from internet sales and since the National Guard was not allowing anyone into town who wasn't helping with the recovery there was no point in being open.

We went on our annual fishing vacation to Wisconsin in mid-June but no one really felt in a vacation mood. The tornado that passed through Parkersburg seemed to spawn several weeks of rainy weather that led to the great floods of 2008 in eastern Iowa. Those same storms caused it to rain at the lake every day we were there except one. It was miserable!

The sales of Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits along with the sale of home wine making and homebrewing supplies was slow through both June and July as many customers stayed away not knowing whether our business had survived the storm. August saw the sale of home brew supplies, wine making ingredients, WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits start to improve as our customers figured out that we were still here.

School has started back up here but without the high school building. Plans are done and the construction of the new school is just beginning. The high school football field has been repaired and the Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons are back on track with an away win in their first game against Dike-New Hartford and a solid 53-20 win against West Marshall in the first home game since the tornado.

Things are looking up as school gets going and the community rebuilds. Many, many homes have been started and Parkersburg looks like a construction boom with new rooves popping up all over town. My son and his wife have started their new home with the basement being dug yesterday and footings scheduled to be poured when we have a day or two of dry weather.

Oh, yes . . . the other thing that I mentioned that has made this a miserable summer . . . national politics. In elections prior to 2008 I had a certain amount of respect for John McCain and his maverick attitude. I have spent a good deal of my life playing devil's advocate and his style seemed to mesh with my own attitude towards things. He fought in Viet Nam and I fought in Viet Nam. He was a pilot and I was an air crew member. He was a PoW and my father had spent 3-1/2 years as a PoW in the Philippines and in Japan during World War II. Never mind that I had been a school teacher in my early working days and that my wife has been a school teacher her whole adult life and we generally lean toward a Democratic viewpoint. I still felt like I could live with John McCain as my president.

No more. McCain's television advertisements (and we get an earful in Iowa) are nothing more than mudslinging. I cannot remember an ad which addresses the issues. All I get is the Republicans telling me how sorry I will be if I vote for Barack Obama. Sarah Palin is just the same song, second verse. All we hear right now is that McCain got such a big bounce out of the GOP convention because of Sarah Palin swinging the female votes from Obama to McCain. If this is really true, then all it tells me is that there are a lot of female voters who are letting the wrong things decide who they vote for. McCain-Palin is just Bush-Cheney with a Navy hat and lipstick. Unless you own an oil well and are part of that top 1% of American wealth, then you have absolutely no reason to support this ticket.

McCain has derided Obama about his lack of foreign policy experience. Oops! McCain himself has more foreign policy experience then Obama but would you rather have Joe Biden be a heartbeat away from the presidency or a soccer mom from Alaska with just a boat load of experience at fishing, hunting and being the mayor of a small town. Thanks . . . but no thanks! I am tired of seeing the wealthy get wealthier and the poor get poorer and I am willing to put my trust in an Obama-Biden ticket. If being a PoW qualifies you to be president then my father should have been president for life because of what he endured during his time as a prisoner of the Japanese. How about Cabanatuan, Palawan and Nagoya Camp No. 3 at Funatsu? They were all tougher than the Hilton at Hanoi.

BlueStem Wine Featured in Navy News

2008-09-01T10:14:00.002-05:00

BlueStem Winery has truly gone international this month as an article appeared in Navy News which featured both BlueStem Winery and its relationship with the British Navy destroyer HMS Wizard.

If you have been a long time reader of my blog you will remember articles that I have written about my father and the fact that he was a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II. He was stationed on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay at the start of the war and from May of 1942 until September of 1945 he was a prisoner of the Japanese. His final prison camp address was at Nagoya Camp No. 3 located near Funatsu, Japan.

When the war ended my father was transported to Nagoya, Japan by rail and then was transported by the British destroyer HMS Wizard from Nagoya to Tokyo. Several years ago I wrote an article and provided photographs for a website done by a Roger Mansell which provides information about Japanese prisoner of war camps. Through this article contact was made with a lady named Adeline Medford of Wales in Great Britain whose husband John had been a crewman on the HMS Wizard when my father was rescued.

I recently named one of my beer brewing kits in honor of the crew of the Wizard (the kit is called HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale) and shipped ingredients for 100 bottles of beer to Wales. The ingredients were brewed in England, bottled and enjoyed at the last reunion held by former shipmates of the HMS Wizard. The article in Navy News retold this story.

In addition to HMS Wizard Magic Circle Mild Ale, our brewing supply store features approximately 30 other beer brewing ingredients kits, plus a complete line of home winemaking kits from both WinExpert and Cellar Craft.

Our blog provides beginning and advanced information about both the home brewing and home wine making process and brewing and home winemaking problems and their solutions. Making wine is our specialty and we can help with your selection of either a WinExpert of Cellar Craft wine kit but we also provide information about home brewing.

Welcome aboard!

BlueStem Winery in Make Mine Wine

2008-08-10T13:47:00.004-05:00

BlueStem Winery is featured in two articles in the Summer 2008 edition of Make Mine Wine magazine, a publication which explores the midwestern wine scene. The first article (starting on page 26) titled Homemade Wine: Make Some Magic!! explores home winemaking using backyard fruits and vegetables and provides step-by-step instructions for making wine. The article also features using WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits as an alternative to wine making using fruits and vegetables. The second article features the national and international aspects of BlueStem Winery's business with its sales of wine making ingredients, home brewing supplies and brewing equipment plus the sales of Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine ingredient kits via their website.

BlueStem Winery was also recently featured in the pages of The Insider which is published on Wednesdays as a supplement to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. This article also provided information about BlueStem's business selling homebrewing equipment, homebrew supplies, and everything needed for home wine making including both Cellar Craft kits and WinExpert wine kits. In addition to beer brewing supplies and wine making supplies and its large inventory of Cellar Craft and WinExpert kits, BlueStem also manufactures its own line of beer brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best.

If you are interested in either wine making or beer brewing as a hobby, contact Vern via the BlueStem Winery website.

Feelin' Groovy

2008-08-07T06:58:00.003-05:00

Besides marketing wine making supplies, homebrew equipment, home brewing ingredients plus both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits, BlueStem Winery is also a licensed and bonded winery. Our store, which features everything you need for making wine and also home brew supplies, opened in 2004, but our wine making activities did not start until 2006 and our first wine was not available for sale until May of 2007.

Our fourth wine is now ready to be bottled. The labels (pictured at left) have been approved by the government and have been ordered so within just a few weeks this wine will be available. The wine is an Austrian Gruner Veltliner (pronounced Feltleener) and is an off-dry wine. If you cannot remember Gruner Veltliner just think Gru-V and thus the name Feelin' Groovy.

Three more wines (all whites) should be available shortly as they are all ready to be bottled. We are working on the label for number five and need name ideas for six and seven. Number five is an off-dry Riesling and will be called Prairie Fire. These two will join Once in a Blue Moon (a Riesling dessert wine), Red Crescent (a Cabernet Franc dessert wine), and Dark Side (a Chilean Montepulciano dry red).

If you are interested in making great wine at home, contact us a bluestemwine@mchsi.com. BlueStem Winery offers a large selection of both WinExpert and Cellar Craft ingredient kits and we would be more than pleased to help you get started with your new wine making hobby. For several years we carried only the WinExpert kits and were very pleased with the selection and quality of these kits. In 2007 we expanded our inventory to include Cellar Craft kits and have been very pleased with the response our customers have given our selection of Cellar Craft wine kits. Home wine making is a great hobby which has the benefit of providing great wine at a very minimal cost per bottle.

VRBO

2008-08-06T13:52:00.005-05:00

Instead of blogging about homebrew ingredients, winemaking equipment, beer brewing supplies and WinExpert and Cellar Craft wine kits I thought I would share a website with you that we have used successfully for the last three years as we planned our annual fishing vacation to Wisconsin.

The site is Vacation Rentals by Owner (or vrbo.com) and it is easy to use and helps put vacationers in touch with people who own property which they are willing to rent out. For years we went to the same Minnesota resort (outside Pine River, Minnesota) and every year the cabin we rented got a little bit worse and the price we paid for it got substantially higher. This resort charged an arm and a leg and yet couldn't afford to put in a decent place to launch a boat. The boat ramp consisted of a piece or two of corrugated steel that was half in and half out of the water. A good place to slice a tire or your foot! After years of this we finally decided to look for alternatives.

We found VRBO by chance while surfing the internet. Instead of going to a resort with lots of people and their idiosyncracies to deal with, we now rent lakeside homes with private docks and we do so for a lot less then we were paying for a dingy cabin on Whitefish Lake in Minnesota. In fact, this past summer we rented a four bedroom home with a large dining area, a large living room, a kitchen with breakfast bar, its own laundry, a private dock and a full wet bar in the lower level for $500 less then we paid to rent the dingy cabin at Pine River three years ago.

I am not saying that every place is perfect! Our first VRBO property was on Chief Lake which in the southwest corner of the Chippewa Flowage (about 20 miles east of Hayward, Wisconsin). It was an older 2-story home which had probably been a farm house years ago. It was decent enough but the home was slightly misrepresented and the dock was so poor that I had to wade out in the water just to launch our boat every day.

Our second lake home was also on the Chippewa and was about a 40 year old ranch home which fronted the lake. It was huge. In fact it had been the lodge for a now defunct resort. We thought we had found a permanent home but after the first year the owner's had an opportunity for a long-term lease and we had to look again.

Never fear! The third year cabin (already leased again for 2009) was much, much nicer. It is a nearly new three level home with four bedrooms as described above. The only possible drawback was a lack of shopping (my daughter-in-law loves to shop!) and we were not really near any large towns. No shopping but a great lake to fish on!

VRBO offers property (I believe) in every state so if you are looking for a more restive vacation than a resort, try searching their property listings (organized by state and by community).

If you are looking for a hobby that can provide a beverage for that vacation, then shop the BlueStem Winery website for a great selection of homebrewing supplies, home brew equipment, or anything you might need for your home winemaking hobby. BlueStem stocks a great selection of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine kits. We've carried the WinExpert kits since we started our store and added the Cellar Craft kits in 2007 and they were a great addition to our inventory. BlueStem Winery offers a great selection of home brew supplies plus everything you need for wine making.