What’s Cosmic Brewing?

[BROBS]

Man, this is really cool ...not only brewing but with your own homegrown fruit? Homegrown tobacco too?! I want to be like @cosmicfolklore when I grow up

He’s so dreamy ?

 

[lightxmyfire]

Awesome! Sounds like you’ve got some really cool stuff brewing.

I’ve been a home brewer for quite some time. I’ve messed with cider, and malted cider but never wine! I did once make mead in a closet, in a jug from a kit I got at the local fair.... when I was 18, tasted like shit but man did we get drunk. I’m sure everything you’re making is of better quality haha

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I’m sure everything you’re making is of better quality haha

Ha ha, that will remain to be seen. Apple wine is just higher abv and aged. This one I step fed from sweeter apples from the orchard. I really should have strained it better before pitching yeast. But, it’s coming about with some oak added.

I’m still learning. But, it has been a lot of fun.

 

[chilipalmer]

For my whole life, I have been a teetotaler because of church, family that have had problems with drinking, kids in the house, and just really not liking the taste or feeling of alcohol.
But, being empty nesters now and a surplus of fruit each year, for a few years now, I’ve been experimenting with brewing and winemaking. So, I’ve been buying really nice wines and going to tastings at the local sommeliers, I’ve been building a palate and have also found that I just can’t have more than two glasses of wine in a day. My wife enjoys a little more than me, but... that’s another bow chicka wow wow...

So far, my peach wine has been the most successful, with people actually begging me to sell it. Mmmm... maybe. The start up fees for registration of a winery is actually dirt cheap. So plans are underway...

Cosmic,

If it wouldn't violate any regulations governing recipe secrets in the brotherhood of winemakers, would you mind sharing the recipe for your peach wine? I get about five bushels of peaches every year and am always looking at new ways to use them.

Cheers,

Chili

 

[tschiraldi]

That’s awesome!
Yeh... I was playing around with bees, but even that is expensive. You’d have to do it for decades to get a return.

My Dad is Italian. Grandparents came over as kids.I also make a killer Creme did Limoncello! Mom is Slovak, so I also make Slivovats, a Slovakian plum Brandy. It is called by several other names as well. I'd be interested in trying your wares if you do go commercial!

 

[gervais]

For my whole life, I have been a teetotaler because of church, family that have had problems with drinking, kids in the house, and just really not liking the taste or feeling of alcohol.
But, being empty nesters now and a surplus of fruit each year, for a few years now, I’ve been experimenting with brewing and winemaking. So, I’ve been buying really nice wines and going to tastings at the local sommeliers, I’ve been building a palate and have also found that I just can’t have more than two glasses of wine in a day. My wife enjoys a little more than me, but... that’s another bow chicka wow wow...

So far, my peach wine has been the most successful, with people actually begging me to sell it. Mmmm... maybe. The start up fees for registration of a winery is actually dirt cheap. So plans are underway...

But, I’ve made muscadine, deep reds from traditional wine grapes that I’ve started, meads (honey wine), blueberry, blackberry, apple, apricot, and a whole host of ginger beers.
View attachment 61664
I run small one gallon batches for perfecting my recipes, and experimenting with honey varieties for meads. And 6 gallon batches of meads and wines when I get my recipes perfected. Here, I have a 6.5 gallon batch of apple wine, blueberry blossom mead, and orange blossom mead. One gallon batches of cherry melomel (Viking’s Blood), pineapple chardonnay, tupelo honey mead, and a few varieties of other honeys.
View attachment 61668
I’ve built a 96 bottle rack, but it’s still not enough, as I have 12 boxes of wine that I don’t have room for, so I have plans to fill this wall with racks.
View attachment 61669
And, when I started brewing ginger beer from the ginger I was growing, a pipe club buddy brought me a truck load of Grolsch bottles. I haven’t even begun to clean some of them. The rest are in the barn.

I took some classes at a wine and brew store near here, and I’ve been working (volunteering) at a local winery to learn how to make larger batches... but I was a little disappointed at how most commercial wines are made. I have developed strong opinions... “no, not you, Cosmic?” Yes, but I hope to one say bring real country wine to market, the real deal. So... that’s what I have been up to. Planning, plotting, and fermenting. Maybe in a couple of years I can start hitting farmers markets and mail outs.

But, till then, it’s a labor of love. If you are in the area, hit me up. Maybe we can share a beverage and some of my homegrown tobaccos.

This is my dream someday when I retire. To just brew beer and wine, and smoke well aged, delicious leaf. Very nice Cosmic.

 

[anotherbob]

I have zero faith in the tastiness or quality of this until proven otherwise with adequate samplings. That is all.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

so I also make Slivovats, a Slovakian plum Brandy.

That sounds amazing. absolutely.

This is my dream someday when I retire.

Mine too. Get the kids interested in being involved, so that you have something to leave them more valuable than money.

If it wouldn't violate any regulations governing recipe secrets in the brotherhood of winemakers, would you mind sharing the recipe for your peach wine?

Ha ha, luckily, I have made no such pledges. The secret, IMO is in all of the variables that you can't put into a recipe. The amount of available nutrients that the tree gets in the Spring when it is forming fruit, the acidity so that it can absorb it, the point in which the fruit is picked...

For one gallon
15lbs of peaches
water to top
add raw sugar till you reach 1.100 specific gravity about 2 pounds

1 tsp. Acid Blend or lemon juice

1 tsp. Pectic Enzyme (add while you mash your peaches.

1 tsp. Yeast Nutrient

4 oz of charred oak chips

1 Campden Tablet, crushed

1 pack Lalvin ICV-D47 wine yeast, IMO this one brings out that peach blossom flavors.

But, really, I've found that the trick is juicing them. I half them and then pack them in about a pound of the sugar. The sugar does all of the work, but the enzyme helps change the starches to sugars also.

Just your regular primary, secondary, and then let it clear up routine. Let it run dry. I've noticed also that letting it age in the five gallon carboys as opposed to bottle for long, he wine loses that lee CO2 funkiness quicker. So, I just let it set for three or so months after fermentation has stopped. Then, when you feel the magic, bottle it up.

 

[lightxmyfire]

Ha ha, that will remain to be seen. Apple wine is just higher abv and aged. This one I step fed from sweeter apples from the orchard. I really should have strained it better before pitching yeast. But, it’s coming about with some oak added.

I’m still learning. But, it has been a lot of fun.

That’s truly fantastic that you’ve got access to your own fruit. The couple of times I’ve done cider I road tripped to a cider orchard a few hours away and bought apples from them. Rented a mash and press and went to town.


beer is slightly less work...


the oak is a great idea btw! One of the best ciders I ever did I aged on oak chips for about a month. I’m guessing you also don’t carbonate the apple wine right?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

That’s truly fantastic that you’ve got access to your own fruit. The couple of times I’ve done cider I road tripped to a cider orchard a few hours away and bought apples from them. Rented a mash and press and went to town.
View attachment 61744

beer is slightly less work...
View attachment 61748

the oak is a great idea btw! One of the best ciders I ever did I aged on oak chips for about a month. I’m guessing you also don’t carbonate the apple wine right?

I have carbonated a few runs of cider in my mini keg, and of course my ginger beers carbonated.
My very first muscadine wine was carbonated, but not 100% on purpose, ha ha.

But no, the apple wine is degassed. Sometimes high abv and carbonation don’t mix on the tongue well, IMO.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I’ve wanted to try to make bouchet, malt wine, or even a beer, if I could find a recipe I like. I’ve not yet developed a palate for it.

 

[lightxmyfire]

I’ve wanted to try to make bouchet, malt wine, or even a beer, if I could find a recipe I like. I’ve not yet developed a palate for it.

ever tried barley wine? What kind of commercial beers do you like?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

ever tried barley wine? What kind of commercial beers do you like?

Never tried it. There is a brewer in England that I want to try, but my state has draconian shipping laws for alcohol. If I start shipping, I’d get a PO in Georgia.

There in lies the crux. I’ve never had a beer that I like. Hops and me just don’t jive. The few I’ve tried that I would be interested in playing around with use low temp fermentation processed that would just be too complicated with my resources.
But, maybe a mead based bouchet, is a possibility. My meads are usually in the wine range, but I might be interested in a lower abv with carbonation.

 

[bullet08]

Dang. i used to brew, but never had that much in reserve! Cool sight!

 

[chilipalmer]

Ha ha, luckily, I have made no such pledges. The secret, IMO is in all of the variables that you can't put into a recipe. The amount of available nutrients that the tree gets in the Spring when it is forming fruit, the acidity so that it can absorb it, the point in which the fruit is picked...

Many thanks, Cosmic! Now, if you will excuse me, I have some plotting and planning to do.

Cheers,

Chili

 

[JOHN72]

Hey Cosmic send me to Spain,here would be sold fast..................

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

While not necessarily the same as brewing or fermenting, I infused alcohol for years. Cherry bourbon, apricot brandy, butterscotch whiskey, and blackberry bourbon were favorites. It was a fun hobby that I may have to pick up again.

 

[mortonbriar]

OH COME ON!!!! When does your pipe smokers retreat open again?

 

[Brendan]

You bastard @cosmicfolklore..

Why couldn't you be based in Australia..

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If anyone is in the area, last night I bottled 10 gallons of a country strawberry wine that I was very pleased with. And, racked severl one gallon test runs of fig and blackberry.
we start picking muscadines today.