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Sheesh! People have been making beer for thousands of years in company with fruit flies. It's all part of the natural process. The flies just gave you their highest compliment. It means you're making good beer. RDWHAHB

OK, I'll play. 1. Started brewing: 1970 2. Amount brewed: Thousands of bladders full (and emptied) 3. Competitions entered: None 4. Highest score: N/A 5. Best of show awards: N/A 6. Gold medals: N/A 7. Total medals: N/A 8. Favorite/best beer brewed: Just a basic...

I live in a small town in rural Alaska and the nearest LHBS with any variety in specialty grains is a two day drive away. Although I can get almost anything I need via mail order, I have found that it is almost always easier, and more convenient, to do it myself. Chapter 20 in "How to Brew" by...

I'm 70. I consume one pint of my home brewed beer per day. Then, a glass of wine while cooking dinner, and usually a glass with dinner. I also like to make spirits but almost never drink it. I almost never drink later at night or after dinner. I thought my consumption was high but it...

Hi Zukizuki, Boiling does not caramelize the sugar but it does "invert" it. Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose. Boiling the sugar water mixture helps to split the disaccharide and make it easier for the yeast to ferment it. I prefer non-sweet...

Citrus zest sounds good. I'll have to try it (if I can remember to do so next spring). I forgot to mention that I add lemon juice to the sugar boil mix, but not enough to give it any flavor.

Zukizuki, I have been making a wine (really a flavored kilkju) from spring spruce tips for many years. My procedure is similar to yours. I collect young spruce tips each spring. I do not have my notes for specific weights with me as I type this, but I use maybe four or five double handfuls...

Hi Yooper, and others in the CC area, I have a winter home on Padre Island. I am setting up a second complete brewhaus on the island and I will be delighted to host a brewing session, or several, for all on the forum. My new set up should handle 10 gallons per brew. I'd be especially...

I harvested Centennial, Chinook, and Willamette after two nights of frost and one mild freeze. I am at 60 degrees north - a bit far north for reliable production. I brewed one ale with Chinook and Willamette but haven't sampled it yet. I had good growth with my first year plants but don't...

Never dumped a batch. Been brewing since 1970 and have choked down some nasty stuff but it was all somewhat drinkable.:mug:

If you were eating an arepa you must be in Venezuela. Apparently, sugar is still available there (they used to have a thriving sugar cane industry). Have you tried the cerveza Zulia or Oso Polar (are they still available)?

I don't live there but I want to welcome you back to Ft. Mac, if you are back. I hope everything gets back to "normal" soon after that terrible fire.

In 1970 I was a graduate student with a drinking problem (I couldn't afford to drink). My girlfriend had one of those cute little books that listed all the tricks college students could use to get by cheaply. The book included an instructional on making beer. The recipe was canned malt...

Malbec is one of my favorite grape wines from the Mendoza valley of Argentina and I think the main thing that makes them special is the indigenous yeast and natural fermentation. Your Chilean grapes might have had a similar yeast strain with the skins and it would have been interesting to see...

Well, I make a lot of cooking wine. But, for me, cooking wine is wine I drink whilst cooking. My spruce tip wine is great for poaching/steaming wild Alaska Sockeye salmon. I have 15 gal fermenting as I type.

I had a comment to make but thought I should speed read through the discussions to be sure I wasn't being redundant. Now, I'm having a serious 'senior moment' and have forgotten the 'important' contribution I wanted to make. I average 15 gallons of rhubarb wine per year. It is very popular...

This is a timely, and perennial, thread. I have been making dandelion wine for many years and this will be the first year I won't be making any - I have to leave town for a couple of weeks and the flowers are ready to be picked NOW. I prefer to pick the petals early in the morning while the...

Of all the responses and suggestions, your best options were suggested in posts 9, 11, and 17. Sometimes the majority opinion is the best :)

Interesting discussion. If you were in my household I would scold you for buying take out food you could have cooked for yourself. I would then encourage your wife to continue to resist throwing anything out that could still be used. You see, my parents lived through the depression and two...

I've been making wine since the mid-70's. I started making my own for economic reasons (poor, starving grad student) but kept at it as my results improved. I have made some truly bad undrinkable swill - but keep in mind that everybody's taste is different; what is swill for me may be nectar...