Tejas for the Holidays

Well, our holiday trip this year took us to the beautiful Texas for lots of family fun and a wedding!  Our week was absolutely packed... here is the rundown.

Took our beloved Grand Bet to Dallas to run some errands... have lunch...and visit our new nephew, William Samuel Chekanovskiy.

We spent a few days in Daingerfield with Mom and Papa.  We got to sample Papa's latest wine...do pedicures...tinker around on the 4-wheeler... and take a scenic tour of our favorite farm to visit all the moo-moos...we saw lots of wildlife, including deer and a coyote.

Back in Longview, Dad and Neana kept us busy with bike rides, dog walks, and delicious Tex-mex.  We also got to visit St. John's where Reverend Jennene welcomed us; she still carries a picture of us from our wedding day! 

One of the biggest reasons (as if we ever need a reason!) for our Texas trip was cousin Mackenzie's wedding to Brandon Hunter. Connor served as an usher. It was a beautiful wedding...unfortunately, all we have is a pic from the rehearsal.  After the wedding, the whole family went out to celebrate.  We had a great time!

As usual...it was a whirlwind trip.  Not nearly enough time to do all the things we wanted to do or see all the people we wanted to see.  There is never enough time... Can't wait for our next trip. Stay tuned jack asses!

Bier Making and Bottling

Its been some time now since our last post.  We have done so many things since then....Thanksgiving......our wonderful trip to Tejas....and some brewing and bottling.  I would like to fill you in on the beer experiences.  The bottle above is from Anchor Brewing Co.  It's their annual holiday ale.  It is sold from November to January every year.  This is their 37th year and the recipe changes every year.  I plan to quaff this on Christmas Day.  Stay tuned for the critique.

With the season getting cooler here in WA our garage is perfect for lagering.  I brewed my first lager (Vienna Lager) (on the right) of the season in late October, I fermented in the garage for 2 weeks and then lagered in the brew fridge for 4 weeks.  I bottled it this past Thursday.  While the Vienna was fermenting and conditioning I brewed another lager (Munich Helles).  A Munich lager is lighter and more of a "lawnmowing brew".    

Munich Helles recipe:
10# Pilsner Malt
2# Munich
1# Carapils
.5# Vienna
.5oz Hallertau  60 min
.5oz Tetnanger 60 min
.5oz Hallertau  15 min
.5oz Tetnanger 15 min
1oz Saaz  0 min
Yeast:  White Labs German Lager (used in the Vienna)
First Runnings: 1.075
Last Runnings: 1.024
OG: 1.069
SRM 7
IBU 23

After the Vienna was bottled, the Munich Helles got racked from primary to secondary and off it went to the brew fridge to lager for the next 6-8 weeks.  I purchased some grain today to get ready for the last brew of the year.  THB is going to brew a Pilsner in the style of the Czech.  Next Saturday (Christmas Eve) will be the day.  I will keep you posted.

My favorite tree at Papa's farm.  We will post a Tejas blog soon.  Happy Holidays!!!

Pressed for WINE!

Making Wine... part two... just as easy as part one, but from the comfort of our own home!  Our wine has been bubbling (fermenting) away for the last two weeks; we have pushed down the cap every evening since we pitched the yeast.  We rented a wine press from a local winery shop, Heymann Winery, in Centralia and the following pictures show what happened next!
Pot by pot, we added our wine/grape mixture (must) to the press...

As we collected the juices, we (oh so gracefully, no marie didn't almost spill half the wine, what makes you think that???) poured the wine into a 6-gallon carboy.

We cranked down the press to extract as much liquid as possible.  However, we were told that we shouldn't press too hard... We weren't exactly sure where that limit was, but hopefully we did ok for first-timers.

The wine is a gorgeous deep purple color, with pink/maroon highlights.

We were sure  we wouldn't come anywhere close to filling the carboy, but we just barely fit all the wine!  We  both took a little taste test.

Our current gravity reading puts the wine at 12%ABV. Now... we wait for the sediment to settle out... we will rack the wine 3 times over the next year and add oak chips on the last rack.  We will keep you posted of course! 
Patience is a virtue when it comes to wine-making... but we have a few bottles of local wines to help pass the time... We just need some visitors to help. Hint. Hint. HINT!

Sister Time in WA

We were so glad that Margaret had to come to Portland for a work conference... what a perfect excuse for some time with the WA Tuckers!
She arrived Tuesday evening... so after work, we drove down to take her out to dinner at a local brewery, Hop Works Urban Brewery.  It was so good to squeeze our seester.  We were all exhausted by the end of the evening, but it was so worth it to spend a little time together catching up.
Then, Margaret was able to come spend some time with us after she finished things at the conference.  Here is a pic of the boys anxiously awaiting her arrival...

It was a short visit, but we crammed in a lot of love, good food, and fun!
Connor and Mags started things off with a shot of eggnog (non-alcoholic)...

 Then they pushed down the cap on the wine...

 We had planned the menu to try and serve Maggie's favorite foods... chicken with risotto...

 Tiramisu... (Connor prepped this pre-arrival... no recipe to share because he is just a chef genious and whips things like this up off the top of his gorgeous head!)

 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls...sorry...we forgot to snap a picture.  They are one of Connor's favorites and they really aren't too difficult to make.
Homemade pasta...Margaret helped!

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

The cats warmed up pretty quickly... which is definitely odd for Eno, normally he is scaredy-cat!  He looks pretty comfy here!

And here...

Lefty never has trouble helping keep a lap warm...

Margaret and I commented more than once that we felt pretty stinkin spoiled by Connor-Crush... He took such good care of us so that we could just relax and enjoy each other's company.
Can you tell that we like to eat around here??? I think I gained 10 lbs!  And our lovely weather turned cold and rainy just about the time Margs arrived...so we didn't even get to go for a walk.  Oh well. 
It was a great visit... and then we sent our little sister home to get ENGAGED!  We are so happy for her and Matt...and we CAN'T WAIT to be with family for the wedding.

Making wine... a tough job!

Hey Y'all! :) Do you know how difficult it is to make wine?  Ummm. Seriously. It is not. I kid you not. It has been pretty simple so far.
Thaaat's right. Simple!  (Hear that Miss Ash?  You should talk your sweet boyfriend into doing the real deal! Come visit us next year and we will do it together!)
Several weeks ago, we placed an order for 75 lbs of syrah grapes from eastern Washington.  We heard it wasn't a great growing season, but we are hopeful that our grapes will make a delicious wine.  Sunday morning we drove up to our favorite homebrew store, Rocky Top Homebrew, in Olympia.
Here is your step by step breakdown of the experience so far:
Step one - Pick up the grapes at the truck.

Step two - Throw grapes in the crusher (the crusher sorts out the stems and gently mashes the grapes.)

Step three - Add sulfites to the grapes (sulfites are present in small amounts on the skins, but the added sulfites ensure a better fermentation and prevent oxidation and bacterial spoilage)

Step four - Take the crushed mess home. We purchased a 24 gallon bucket... for 9 gallons of crush. We could have done a 12 gallon bucket, but it would have been tight as the grapes fermented and expanded. Plus, we didn't want our grapes to spill all over the truck.

Step five - Take a gravity reading (1.090)

Step five - Add the yeast (after at least 24 hours have passed)

We think the garage smells like goats... Hmmmm. 

Too bad it will be about a year before we can bottle this stuff...  Hopefully we will end up with good wine.  We will keep you posted on the progress... so far it is very labor UN-intensive!