Latest / bit of a Rambler / 089 Homebrew
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,420 Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler. 2 00:00:04,420 --> 00:00:08,940 I like to travel, learn and tell stories, and I want to tell a story about one of my favorite 3 00:00:08,940 --> 00:00:14,320 hobbies, home brewing, because I had a lot of time to develop this skill while I was an 4 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:20,520 English teacher in China, because I had a ton of time, a ton of space in my room, and 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:25,840 the extra money to experiment with different flavors, you know, I bought honey or blackberries 6 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:29,960 or whatever fruit I wanted and made wine out of them. 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:32,820 And it all started back in Portland, Oregon. 8 00:00:32,820 --> 00:00:38,800 The second time I lived there, and Portland is a very interesting place because there's 9 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,160 a very strong community feel. 10 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:48,520 There are people doing any hobby they want to, and whatever hobby it is, there's always 11 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,480 some supportive community in Portland for that hobby. 12 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:56,280 I just liked living in Portland for that reason. 13 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,200 It felt more down to earth in general. 14 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,280 And while distillation was still illegal, I think it still is, even though there's like 15 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:09,080 a bit of a revolution going on now with that, craft distillation at home. 16 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:15,560 You could brew craft beer at home and you could home brew wines at home. 17 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:25,240 And I figured beer was more common place and a simpler process to do, but I didn't know 18 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:27,360 anything about either of them. 19 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:32,480 So I went down to this store and there were a few home brew stores, but there was one 20 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,360 a couple of miles from where I lived. 21 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:41,320 I think on the same street, actually, just in another town, just down the highway. 22 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:46,200 And as soon as I walked in, I was like, oh, this is the place I should learn about home brewing 23 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,760 from because it was a mom and pop kind of shop. 24 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:56,240 It was very clear that the owners were the proprietors and that was confirmed by the guy 25 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,640 that worked there. 26 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:03,200 And there was home brewing stuff on shelves. 27 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:08,400 And there was a beehive in a clear plastic housing. 28 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:16,520 So you could just see the beehive right there and it slowly dripped honey out and out through 29 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:25,480 a spigot and that spigot went into a vat and then you could turn another vat and take out 30 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:29,520 as much honey as you want and buy it for your home brewing purposes. 31 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:36,680 So at that time working in the States, I was working at a sandwich shop still and I had 32 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:47,280 maybe at the maximum $200 leftover every month after rent, utilities and food basically, 33 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:54,720 but never more than 200 leftover and frequently closer to 100 to do any hobbies or anything 34 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:55,840 like that. 35 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,120 And I liked drinking beer and I drank beer at the time with my friends. 36 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:04,560 We went to bars or we hung out and brought six packs over to each other's house, but a 37 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:13,200 six pack of a nice beer on sale might be $10 and that was easily 5 to 10% of my operating 38 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,680 fun budget for the whole month. 39 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:22,240 So I would only be able to buy a couple packs of beer once a week maybe. 40 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:27,280 And I was thinking maybe I can brew my own beer maybe it's cheaper once I know the process 41 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:29,400 and really get it down. 42 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:30,720 And I looked it up online. 43 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:35,560 It seemed kind of complicated, but I figured I could go to a home brew store and they'd 44 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:37,960 be able to talk me through everything. 45 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:48,520 And like I said, Portland hobbyists are so welcoming and helpful and just so genuinely communal 46 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:54,880 that I figured it was a great city to start learning about this craft in. 47 00:03:54,880 --> 00:04:01,560 So I got to this cool home brew shop that had big bottles which you call car boys to make 48 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,360 your fermented beverage inside. 49 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:10,480 They had all the air locks which are little S shaped tubes basically usually plastic with 50 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:15,840 a cork and you put it inside put in a little water that way no air or particulates can 51 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:21,920 get in, but the gas that the fermentation causes can get out through the water. 52 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:23,680 And I was like okay, this is all the stuff. 53 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,920 They have packets of sulfites for preserving your beverage. 54 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,480 They have all the different types of yeast. 55 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:35,560 There's the honey right there like I mentioned and seeing that honey and those bees just living 56 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:42,040 in their little enclosure was very cool and an awakening moment and I was like yeah, 57 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:48,480 okay, I'm definitely trying this like if this is the kind of stuff you need. 58 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:53,480 If this is the environment how how home brewing is put together then I'm interested in 59 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,120 all of this stuff. 60 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:58,400 I can tinker together a home brew set up this way. 61 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:05,120 And there was a wire rack with little self DIY printed booklets how to make beer how to 62 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:12,400 make wine and I flipped through them and I read the numbers and looked at the equipment 63 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:19,320 and it was the first time I had seen like a personal bare bones fundamental explanation 64 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,200 of the processes. 65 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:25,640 And everything I looked up online was like okay you start at this and you need these tubes 66 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:27,480 and blah blah blah. 67 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:32,800 So it looked interesting to me but I still didn't understand it intuitively yet. 68 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,280 And there was a guy behind the counter and he was just hanging out without a care in the 69 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:37,760 world. 70 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:38,760 It smelled kind of nice. 71 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:44,360 There was a faint hop smell in the air and I asked the guy okay well I'm interested. 72 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,920 So how do I start brewing beer? 73 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:49,720 And he told me. 74 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:54,560 And he walked me through the process who's like you can get a kit or you can choose your 75 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:04,360 grain get the grain you boil it up you put the mash inside the car boy you measure the 76 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:11,400 gravity and he just talked to me through the whole fundamental first process of making beer. 77 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:14,880 And then he was like got a clean everything they sure everything is really clean. 78 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:19,640 And as he was talking I was like oh man this is a bit of a process like there's. 79 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:26,520 A lot more cleaning and preparation for each batch of beer than I would have thought not 80 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:31,800 an overwhelming amount but it was just a lot of work. 81 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:37,360 And then at the end of it but I was still going to try it because I was interested in working 82 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:38,800 it out. 83 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:45,040 And then at the end of his explanation he said but I make wine. 84 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:50,960 And for my money there's a lot more setup and breakdown more cleaning there's a lot 85 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:58,840 more technical measurements to take and technical difficulties to deal with when you brew beer. 86 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:05,400 And in my head wine was fancy and beer was the common people's drink. 87 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:11,080 So in my head beer was easier but here was a guy who made it and he was like wine is way 88 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:12,080 easier. 89 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:17,600 And I was like okay how much easier is wine? 90 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:28,560 Like can you explain that setup and he was like yeah you put in juice, water, sugar, yeast 91 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:34,760 you shake it and you put on an airlock and you wait for a week and then the wine is done. 92 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:36,960 And I was like that's it. 93 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:41,880 Yeah you have to boil the water first but that's it after the water cools down. 94 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:49,640 Water, juice, sugar, yeast, shake it, airlock on top one week later about 85/90% of the 95 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:51,760 fermentation is finished. 96 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:57,000 So if you want to you can wait longer and let the wine age make sure the fermentation is 97 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,560 100% complete but you don't need to. 98 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:05,440 You can check the specific gravity so that you know exactly what ABV you have, how much 99 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:09,040 alcohol is in your drink but you don't need to. 100 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,480 Once the alcohol content gets to 10 or 13% whatever the maximum tolerance of the yeast 101 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:18,120 is the yeast dies naturally so you don't have to check the ABV it's going to be between 102 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:20,280 10 and 12% generally. 103 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:26,160 You can add sulfites and preservatives and other chemical agents to the wine but you 104 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:27,440 don't need to. 105 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:31,800 As long as you sterilize everything first and everything is clean when you start all 106 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:37,320 you have to do juice, water, sugar, yeast, shake, airlock. 107 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:42,600 And it's the same process if you're making one gallon of wine which is 5 bottles of wine 108 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:50,120 or if you're making 5 gallons, 25 bottles of wine either way juice, water, sugar, yeast, 109 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,480 shake, airlock, wait a week. 110 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:58,760 And I was like okay I'm liking this like I can put that in my head. 111 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:04,440 So after you explain this I was already like okay wine sounds better and I re-looked at 112 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:09,480 those DIY books they had printed out on the wire rack near the desk and then I realized 113 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:14,440 like oh that's what all of these recipes are and it's not just red wine or white wine 114 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:16,000 made from grapes. 115 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:23,600 They had berry wines, they had an onion wine, they had a pear wine, citrus wines, all kinds 116 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:33,960 of wines but the process all the recipes were the fruit juice, water, sugar, yeast, shake 117 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:36,240 it, airlock. 118 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,040 One to two weeks later the wine was ready. 119 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:45,280 85 to 90% of the fermentation was done after a week, 90 to 100% was done after two weeks. 120 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:52,440 Boom you have 5 bottles of wine or 25 bottles of wine if you made a 5 gallon carboy and I 121 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:53,760 dug that. 122 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:59,160 I dug the simplicity yet also the incredible variety you can make anything when I saw the onion 123 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:03,920 wine recipe I was like whoa I never would have thought you could make it. 124 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:09,680 I would make wine out of onions and then the guy leaned in and he was like but my favorite 125 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:16,440 is meat and my brain was like ding ding ding ding and it's like oh go on he's like see 126 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:22,080 that those bees over there and they're honey so mead was like honey wine right. 127 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:30,960 Yeah he said mead is just honey wine so you just take honey water yeast because there's 128 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:36,680 so much sugar and honey already you don't need to add more sugar, shake it, airlock. 129 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:39,760 One to two weeks later mead is good to go. 130 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,040 One week later it's good to drink you can drink it. 131 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,920 There's no particulate matter from the fruits that you're using so you don't have to wait 132 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:52,920 for anything to settle down to the bottom in the must which is the fruit and water mixture 133 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:59,480 that for months it's called the must but with mead is just honey and water and yeast so 134 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:04,240 nothing really needs to settle to the bottom and the fermentation goes a lot quicker so 135 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:10,280 it's generally just a week of waiting and then you have great mead so you can make 25 bottles 136 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:19,680 of mead every week and I was like okay this is fitting the size of my hobby like I can 137 00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:25,880 make this to scale if I want to I'm not going to drink more than 25 bottles of wine a week 138 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:32,360 although some weeks I might try with my friends and this process was even simpler I didn't 139 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:37,680 have to add any extra sugar I didn't have to squeeze the juice out of any berries or 140 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:45,600 make sure I got the right organic berry juice as long as the honey was from bees like they 141 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:51,000 had in their shop and there were no preservatives within that honey which would kill the yeast 142 00:11:51,000 --> 00:12:00,640 all I needed to do was get honey clean water yeast put it in a bottle shake it up airlock 143 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,560 and I was like well that's what I'm starting with that sounds perfect that sounds exactly 144 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:10,080 where I want to start something that as long as I sterilize my equipment as long as I put 145 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:17,640 in the three ingredients correctly I shake the bottle bodily so that the yeast is distributed 146 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:23,640 throughout the must and then I leave it alone in a cool dark place and the fermentation 147 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:31,120 process occurs over the week that's it and I was very excited by this point so I tell 148 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:36,400 the guy okay I think you've sold me I'm going to start making wine and mead specifically 149 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:43,520 first and put beer to the side for now he's like yeah make beer later if you want but if 150 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:49,160 you just are trying to make some booze wine tastes great mead tastes amazing and you can 151 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:53,600 just start making it right away without any of the special equipment or measurements or 152 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:59,720 anything just make sure everything is clean at first sterilize all of your equipment before 153 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:06,320 you use it just put it in boiling water or whatever but after you do that water honey 154 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:16,000 yeast shake airlock and it's like okay let's do it what do I get and what I needed was a bottle 155 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:20,440 like a car boy they call it where you put the fermenting beverage inside so I needed a 156 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:27,600 large jar that holds any amount but one gallon is typically the minimum you want because 157 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:32,160 you want at least a few bottles of wine you don't want to make something for a week and 158 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:37,120 just have half a bottle of wine when you're finished although you could but I grabbed the 159 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:42,760 DIY wine making book from the wire rack next to me because I was interested in all the recipes 160 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:48,680 and the guy told me there's also a 10 page explanation super detailed of these like three 161 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:53,000 steps you have to do to make wine so you can always check it and just make sure you're 162 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:57,920 doing the very simple process correctly the first few times you do it until you're sure 163 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:03,240 you have a handle on it and it was a few books and they obviously printed them out themselves 164 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:09,880 and they were just making this hobby accessible to newcomers like me so I was excited I was 165 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:16,600 good with buying it I picked up a couple packets of yeast I found out each packet of yeast 166 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:25,480 makes like 25 gallons of booze of wine and that surprised me so I got some champagne 167 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:32,080 yeast I can't remember if I got the tubing there I may have like to siphon from one car 168 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:39,360 boy to the other you leave some of the must behind if you're making a fruit wine and like 169 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:43,320 all the particular matter settles to the ground of the must and then you transfer all the 170 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:49,320 liquid to the new bottle so that it clears faster so I might have got tubing there also 171 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:54,080 I got a cheese cloth so that I could strain the juice through if I was going to make any 172 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:59,240 fruit juice that I could like pairs cut up pairs mash and boil them whatever and then 173 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:04,920 squeeze them through the cheese cloth and only the juice would go inside and it works for 174 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:11,520 all fruits and everything so all I needed was one cheese cloth and I got a couple of air 175 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:17,960 locks that would fit standard bottle sizes so that was pretty much everything I needed 176 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:25,640 except for the bottle the car boy and the car boys were the only thing at that store they 177 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:33,600 were 40 bucks and they were nice large glass car boys but they were five gallons large and 178 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:39,320 I was like I don't know if I'm going to succeed or stay interested in this hobby and 40 179 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:45,800 dollars was nearly half of my free operating budget most months so it's like that's a lot 180 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:54,480 I bet I can find jars somewhere that are not that expensive for me and I remember I had seen 181 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:59,620 one of those like glass bottles of table wine sitting somewhere which is a gallon jug of 182 00:15:59,620 --> 00:16:06,160 Carlo Rossi wine and I was like I can probably find another one somewhere but I didn't for 183 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:11,200 several days and I was like okay I need to get a jar because I have the yeast and I have 184 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:15,760 this little booklet I really want to start doing this so I went online and looked for 185 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:23,120 where I could find jars and there was a Craigslist listing for Jim's jars in Portland Oregon 186 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:30,040 and it was not very far away from my house maybe a few miles and my girlfriend and I drove 187 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:36,440 down and we turned off the highway where the instruction said to get to Jim's jars and 188 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:42,320 it was this just dirt path leading down and eventually it stopped in front of a mobile 189 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:49,280 home that looked pretty Texas chainsaw massacre it was not in good repair and behind that mobile 190 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:55,320 home there was just a large shed basically but that was all close so you couldn't see inside 191 00:16:55,320 --> 00:17:02,440 it and the ad just said come up knock on the door I'm Jim I'll be there and I knocked 192 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:09,880 on the door in this large man with a scruffy pretty dirty beard and very dirty close trundled 193 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:16,480 out onto the porch and open the door and he was like yeah can I help you I was like hey I'm 194 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:24,080 looking for Jim's jars I need some jars and he's like I'm Jim hey and he was slurring 195 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:30,920 his words and I quickly found out why because he was like so what are you doing I was like 196 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:37,920 I'm wine making actually he's like oh why I'm making what kind of wine I was like I'm going 197 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:43,600 to start making me first because I hear that's the simplest and his eyes he suddenly became 198 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:50,760 like awake he's like me is the best me is my favorite wine to make I make me every week 199 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:56,280 come here let me show you and he took me around the back to these two food grade 40 gallon 200 00:17:56,280 --> 00:18:02,560 drums and he opened them and one was completely full and the other one was half empty he was 201 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:08,320 like that pointing to the half empty liquid in the 40 gallon drum and he's like this is the 202 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:13,640 one I drink and then he pointed the full one he's like this one's still fermenting I just 203 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:21,000 made it four days ago so I drink this one down and then when I finish it I start drinking 204 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:27,160 the full one and I brew this one again and I just go back and forth and it's like holy 205 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:32,440 crap that's a lot of me but it was very cool to see that setup because it was 206 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:37,960 so simple it looked exactly as simple as the clerk at the store hit told me and Jim explained 207 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:44,000 the exact same way he was like yeah I have honey that I get and then I mix in water to 208 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:51,720 the top put in the yeast mix that in done and I was like yes yes let me do it okay I need 209 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:57,240 a couple bottles and he was like well how large do you want your car boys to be and I had 210 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:03,000 thought maybe I want the five gallon but that's a large car boy so I was like well just 211 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,320 start with one gallon and then if I like it I can get more so let me get to one gallon 212 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:14,400 jars he's like heck yeah follow me and we went to that huge shed behind his mobile home 213 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:23,880 and he opened the doors and it was really cool he loves jars Jim's jars Jim really just 214 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:32,360 likes jars of all kinds and all I needed was like two Carl Rossi gallon jugs and he quickly 215 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:37,080 went down a couple rows and reached up and handed me two jugs and he was like five bucks each 216 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:43,600 some like that it was pretty cheap and they were already cleaned out and ready to go so 217 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:48,840 I didn't want to go to the store and pour out the wine and clean it myself as like here's 218 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:55,480 a guy who makes wine all the time he has two car boys ready to go why not and I just got the 219 00:19:55,480 --> 00:20:02,280 two of them even though five dollars for me at the time was a lot of money relative to my 220 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:09,000 extremely narrow paycheck profit margins my entertainment budget and then he just took 221 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,880 me around the rest of it and he showed me all these collectible glass bottles he had from 222 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:23,960 100 years ago like misprinted coke bottles and novelty animation Mason Mason jars from the 40s 223 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:29,800 all of these different jars and he knew every single one he could explain the origins and cultural 224 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:37,160 significance of every jar in that shed he had and it was a pretty fascinating walk through and 225 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:44,760 just listen to him talk but he quickly devolved back into a lot of slurring and getting confused 226 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:51,400 he was really excited that I was making me but he was in his cups as they politely say 227 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:58,200 and I was like following a little more than half of what he was saying and I'm not even sure 228 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:04,760 that he was following more than half of what he was saying but there it was I now had my bottles 229 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:11,400 my car boys and that was the last item I needed to start home brewing wine specifically mead 230 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:19,400 I had bought a thing of a half no I think three-fourths of a pound of honey from that 231 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:27,560 clear enclosure in the home brew shop so now I had everything Jim told me to come visit him again 232 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:32,360 and I said yes and then I never did and I've always felt bad about that because he just wanted 233 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:37,640 to drink mead with me and hang out with someone who is excited about making mead and I was very excited 234 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:43,880 about it but I still hadn't traveled at that point so I was still a typical American and I was afraid 235 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:54,200 of new people and I was younger also really early 20s so I took I think more risks than the average 236 00:21:54,200 --> 00:22:01,880 American but I was still inherently Americanly conservative and I would have had to drive out 237 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:07,880 to visit him and so I just never did I was felt bad about that sorry Jim I mean now if someone like 238 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:13,400 Jim from Jim's jars invites me to hang out I'll spend all of me I'll go there like the next day I'll 239 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:19,000 be like well what are you doing this afternoon let's hang out right now and that attitude has paid 240 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:25,640 off it has nearly never backfired that I can think of in I don't know since I've been traveling 241 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:35,400 taking advantage of opportunities is such an important skill life skill I'm pretty sure with this I 242 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:40,520 would have just listened to a bunch of interesting history and drank a bunch of mead by some old guy 243 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:45,960 who loves making mead but that would have been great anyway but accepting opportunities is such an 244 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:54,920 important part of living life because life is so brief and it can be so much smaller than it has to 245 00:22:54,920 --> 00:23:04,280 be if I don't reach out and try to seize the multitude of opportunities around me anyway I had 246 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:11,160 all my stuff I was very excited and when I got home I was super careful I think the only other 247 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:17,800 tool I bought was an auto siphon so that I'd be able to move the must from one car boy to another 248 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:24,840 I got two of those gallon jugs and remember the particulate matter whatever settles in one bottle 249 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:29,320 then you move all the liquid to the next clean bottle and it continues to ferment in there but 250 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:35,080 you leave all the particulate matter behind so there's no off-taste from the fruit peel or whatever 251 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:42,280 leftover or in the matter of honey maybe B legs or B hair just a little bit of particulates in honey 252 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:48,040 but far less and I stopped worrying about transferring after a while in siphoning but in the beginning 253 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:55,000 I had all my equipment and when I remembered it was that store clerk being like yes it is this easy 254 00:23:55,000 --> 00:24:01,400 to make gallons of line a week just sanitize your equipment that is the most important step 255 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:09,800 I was like okay and I mostly sanitize my equipment I boiled the cheese cloth I boiled the siphon 256 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:16,520 even though I don't think I used it I boiled the tube I was going to use to get the mixed 257 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:26,760 mead into the car boy I boiled everything that I was going to use mostly I was a little lazy about it 258 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:32,200 like maybe the tip of the siphon like I dipped it in and then pulled it out I didn't boil the other part 259 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:40,440 so I mostly sanitized everything but didn't completely sanitize it but I heated up my honey and 260 00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:50,120 boiled water mixture mixed it in let it cool down poured in the honey and water mixture that was 261 00:24:50,120 --> 00:24:55,000 already all mixed up together because a lot of people say that's how you do it you boil it mix 262 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:01,320 it up together let it cool down then pour that whole mixture inside and I siphoned it with a 263 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:06,760 clear plastic tubing from the pot I had boiled in and then cooled down into the car boy 264 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:14,920 once it was in there I put in the yeast using a funnel very careful about that and 265 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:20,680 and then I picked it up and I shook it and I remember the clerk telling me like it's hard but you should 266 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:25,640 shake as much as you can and it was hard it's a gallon of liquid and but I just shook it up as 267 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:29,960 good as I could and then I looked inside I saw all the different pieces of yeast floating at all 268 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:35,880 different heights and breaths of the liquid solution the must and I was like okay it's everywhere 269 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:46,360 so I put on an airlock put it in my cabinet and forgot about it and then I let it go I set it and 270 00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:53,560 forget it and I had just bottled my well not bottled but I had just begun fermenting my first batch 271 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:59,480 of meat my first five bottles of meat my first gallon actually you know what I didn't forget about 272 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:05,640 that first one that first batch I made I checked it hourly and I checked it constantly and by that first 273 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:12,840 evening I saw bubbles coming up every I don't know minute or 30 seconds I didn't even time it 274 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:17,480 I had a little notebook I was going to write down my recipes in and I was taking notes on the first 275 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:23,480 batch I think I said how long I boiled it and how I transferred it and sterilized it I just wrote 276 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,840 everything down but even with meticulously recording everything there just wasn't that much 277 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:33,000 right down because I have to do is boil the water and then when it cools down poured in with the 278 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:38,360 honey throwing the yeast shake it airlock and I was like did I fill the water up too high because 279 00:26:38,360 --> 00:26:46,440 you're supposed to leave some space for the fermentation and just give it a little space to breathe 280 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:52,200 and I wasn't sure but I was like who knows and the bubbles were coming out of the airlock so I was 281 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:57,400 like well it's definitely fermenting it's working and I noticed like a frothiness on the top 282 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:05,080 section on the top the surface of the must and that was expected also according to the book so I was 283 00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:13,560 like yeah that's okay I did it and I did do it like it was fermenting and then that first night I was 284 00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:22,040 awoken by a pow and I was like whoa what the frick and I shot out of bed and looked around the house 285 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:27,320 and I didn't see anything and I just kept looking around and then I opened up the large cabinet I 286 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:34,920 had the wine in and the airlock had shot off it had bubbled so much and so much gas had built up 287 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:40,760 and I didn't leave enough room for it to breathe so that frothiness kind of created a seal under 288 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:49,160 the airlock and the air built up the carbon dioxide gases built up until they shot the airlock off 289 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:56,680 the carboy so that it exploded off and meat was all through the cabinet and the airlock was off 290 00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:02,440 on the side this is not a huge problem and pretty much everybody who starts making wine dust this they 291 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,880 don't leave enough room the first time they don't realize there's gonna be a frothy layer that traps 292 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:11,400 the gas inside it explodes like you can go online and read these stories it happens everyone it 293 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:17,160 happened to me as well on my first batch but I figured I was already up the wine was definitely 294 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:25,880 fermenting it had already been 12 hours let's try it up and I tried a little bit and it tasted 295 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:31,080 really good it still tasted mostly like honey water but there was definitely 296 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:38,920 another flavor in there from the yeast and fermenting must like this was a fermenting beverage it 297 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:44,840 tasted different and that was fascinating to me so I cleared out some of the froth at the top 298 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:53,560 that had gone trapped and I cleaned off with just with a rag or something the spigot the top 299 00:28:54,600 --> 00:29:03,000 bottle opening the carboy spout I put the airlock back in and let it go again but now I knew it was 300 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:08,280 working because it tasted different there was it was clearly fermenting because so much gas had come 301 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:14,520 out that it exploded and so I just had to wait six more days I was like okay and I was just like 302 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:23,640 rubbing my hands together and so excited about when the week would be over I took test sips every day 303 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:29,000 and it was tasting different every day it was fermenting more every single day and by the end of 304 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:35,400 the first week it was like wow it tastes this is wine this tastes like a wine basically it could ferment 305 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:43,560 more but I'm gonna drink this and I already drank like half of it making test sips but I had a couple 306 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:50,760 glasses and it didn't taste perfect it tasted a little weird and I couldn't remember I can't 307 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:58,840 remember now if that was because there was like a burgeoning bacterial infection or if I hadn't 308 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:03,800 changed the must I can't really remember if I transferred it even to the second carboy but it didn't 309 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:09,160 taste quite right and the whole time at the whole week I had been thinking like maybe I should have 310 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:15,800 actually sterilized it completely correctly like everybody says that you should as it's the most 311 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:24,040 important step but you know what it was working it had worked and so I made the next batch I drink the 312 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:29,720 remainder that tasted okay I left a lot of the must at the bottom because it was a little cloudy 313 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:37,320 it tasted a little more bitter and I it cost almost nothing to make so it's like whatever the packet 314 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:43,240 of yeast was a few dollars and I could use that packet at least five times the water was basically 315 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:47,800 free I just had to boil some water the airlock was reusable it was a rubber 316 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:55,480 piece with plastic tubing on the top the carboy was over usable I just had to clean it so the only 317 00:30:55,480 --> 00:31:01,400 expense was the juice or in this case honey and that I think that was five to seven dollars for three 318 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:06,920 quarters of a pound which is enough for one gallon or five bottles so my total cost basis was a 319 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:13,880 little over one dollar per bottle of wine that I was making that was within my budget that was 320 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:21,640 acceptable that meant just hypothetically if I had a bottle of wine every day to drink it would cost 321 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:28,600 me thirty dollars a month for that hobby and I only had to clean one thing the carboy as opposed to 322 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,560 the beer making process which would have been a little more labor intensive and it would have had 323 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:38,920 to clean more stuff and there'd be a bit more prep so I was liking this setup and I liked that the wine 324 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:44,920 tasted good the first time I tried it it didn't taste perfect but then I didn't sterilize things perfectly 325 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:50,920 so the second time I did it I did sterilize things per I made sure everything was submerged in boiling 326 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:57,000 water that I was going to use which I think even the second time I was like I don't need to use this 327 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:04,600 tube to move the liquid from the pot to the carboy where it's going to ferment and I don't need to use 328 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:13,240 this auto-siphon tool so really I just need to boil the cheese cloth honey the honey is so high in sugar 329 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:17,560 that it's not going to have any bacterial infections it's not going to be dirty by itself and it's 330 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,760 in a sealed container coming directly from the hive so all I did was boil the water the second time 331 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:32,040 let it cool down I poured in the water poured in the honey through a funnel that I also sterilized by 332 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:39,480 completely dunking it in boiling water and when that was in there I shook it up until it looked 333 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:45,080 completely uniform the must I poured in the yeast I shook it again until a completely uniform 334 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:51,240 uniform is in the yeast was evenly distributed throughout the liquid and then I put on the air lock 335 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:58,120 I think I wore some gloves that time just to make sure that everything was clean I had sterilized the 336 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:04,280 neck of the carboy itself before I put the funnel on there like I said the funnel was sterilized 337 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:09,880 so everything was clean all the parts that were going into the jar were definitely sterilized 338 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:15,800 before I used them this time and I used less things just the cheese cloth just the funnel 339 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:21,720 and the air lock which I made sure to sterilize the rubber part and the second time 340 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:31,000 it tasted so crisp and clear and clearly just this is fermented honey wine it worked like it should 341 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:37,800 and I was like okay I'm convinced I will do with every single recipe is told me to do and make sure 342 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:44,680 to sterilize the few pieces I'm preparing in the beginning properly because I got four and a half 343 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:51,640 good bottles of wine out of that carboy and after that I was making mead weekly and I made 344 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:59,400 blackberry wine and cherry wine I made pear wine and apple wine and I just started going crazy because 345 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:06,360 it was so easy I lived across the street from an old orchard and there were apple and pear trees 346 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:12,600 literally across the street for me so I would go there and I would take a couple hundred apples 347 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:19,480 go back to my house chop them all up mash them through the cheese cloth I had that same single 348 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:28,600 cheese cloth drip all the juice until I had enough which what I think was like a fifth of the gallon 349 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:33,720 throwing a pound and a half a sugar and then I would fill it up the rest with water and then I 350 00:34:33,720 --> 00:34:38,840 would put in the east shake it up put on an air lock done now I was going to have apple wine or 351 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:47,480 cider apple cider did the same with pears there was a huge blackberry bush like as large as a 352 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,720 larger than the one story house it was next to there was an abandoned one story house that I found 353 00:34:51,720 --> 00:34:57,240 out later wasn't quite abandoned but mostly abandoned and there was a blackberry bush larger than 354 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:03,880 that house behind it and I thought it was abandoned so I just went back and picked berries and other 355 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:09,000 guys I saw other people going back and they picked berries to when I was there and I remember 356 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,960 very distinct that I was listening to a Harry Potter audiobook and I had been going all around my 357 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:21,240 neighborhood looking for free fruit because if I had free fruit then even that one dollar per bottle 358 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:29,240 cost basis went down to 25 cents per wine bottle cost basis for my ingredients because I was reusing the 359 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:34,280 jars and the air locks and everything and I noticed blackberries on the side of the highway but I 360 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:38,040 didn't really want to use highway berries and then I found this suburban abandoned house with the 361 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:44,840 giant blackberry bush so I was listening to Harry Potter audio books at the time and I would just go 362 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:53,640 to this giant blackberry bush listen to the audio books and calmly pick a bunch of berries and one day 363 00:35:53,640 --> 00:36:00,200 this lady came up and started picking berries as well and she said hello and we talked a little bit 364 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:07,960 and then she said yes I do love this one it's so nice such a nice part of my garden or something 365 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:15,400 like that and I was like oh is this your property she's like yep I live in that house right there at 366 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:21,400 the top of the hill and I was like oh I'm sorry can I pick these berries she's like oh it's fine 367 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:29,160 everybody picks the berries here it's you know a huge cuz it was a huge bunch of berries and I was 368 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:34,920 like okay thank you very much and she was like yeah it's fine and so we just picked berries together 369 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:41,400 she went back I had a big bucket and you could pick buckets and then more would grow the next day 370 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:47,560 and it was such a huge bush you just couldn't pick them all and I started making blackberry waffles 371 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:52,520 and putting them in food also but I was primarily using them for making wine so I'd crush the berries 372 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:58,520 through the cheese cloth get all the juice that I needed fill up the rest with water pour in the east 373 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:05,480 shake it up pour in the sugar shake it up and boom a week or two later I had bottles of blackberry wine 374 00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:10,840 so with any fruit you have to add sugar because there's not enough sugar inherent in the fruit 375 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:17,480 that's why grapes are traditionally the fruit you use to make wine because there's 376 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:23,320 just the right balance in grapes that you don't have to add additional sugar usually 377 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:30,120 although a lot of processed wine factories will add a little but you don't have to add for grapes they 378 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:37,160 also have yeast inside them grapes do so they're like the perfect wine making fruit but you don't need 379 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:43,080 you don't need to use grapes if you don't want to you can use any fruit or vegetable or you can 380 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:48,760 use pretty much anything to ferment and you just add in some sugar add in like a half pound of sugar 381 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:54,840 with each gallon that you're making after you get the juice from the fruit or whatever substrate you 382 00:37:54,840 --> 00:38:01,240 want to use but I was doing mostly honey and blackberry at that point and after that first batch 383 00:38:01,240 --> 00:38:08,600 I never had a batch go bad until I tried watermelon which I've never been able to make without it 384 00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:13,640 going bad but you know I don't think I've ever boiled it which if you don't want it to go bad you 385 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:19,160 just boil it first but I really didn't want to boil it because you I boiled a couple things before 386 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:26,440 and you lose a lot of the flavor from my perspective but if you don't boil the if I don't boil the 387 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:33,640 watermelon must I could never get it to ferment all the way even for a week or two without some 388 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:38,440 infection setting in but that's fine because I'm sure it would have tasted okay anyway and the 389 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:46,040 cherry wine the blackberry wine the honey wine are so amazing just have amazing flavor profiles anyway 390 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:52,600 that I wasn't starving for good wine by any measure so by the end of it in Portland or again I had 391 00:38:52,600 --> 00:39:00,360 maybe six bottles going six car boys six one gallon car boys going at all times of different flavors 392 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:05,240 at different times and I just put a tape on them the day I started fermenting so I would know when 393 00:39:05,240 --> 00:39:11,560 the week was up and I could start drinking them basically and for heavier things like pear or apples 394 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:16,600 with a lot of particulates floating inside I did transfer from one car boy to another empty car 395 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:22,440 boy and leave behind a lot of the fruit matter and the particulates so that it would clear faster 396 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:29,480 week to week but it worked great I was the wine maker like I had tasting parties with my friends 397 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:36,440 one was bad you know what I just remembered I had one wine tasting party and I was very excited to 398 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:42,280 invite someone over who invited me to their house party but they didn't come over because they were 399 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:46,120 dealing with a family issue and it turned out it was a good thing that I come over because that was 400 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:53,960 the one bottle I think I've ever made after my initial mostly working that was a failure it was 401 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:58,840 corked maybe that just the cork itself was bad and that just means there's some kind of infection in 402 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:05,400 the cork like in the cork itself and that introduces an infection to the wine after you bottle it 403 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:11,320 and messes it up and I got all of my corks from the mother of my girlfriend at the time who 404 00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:18,920 drank a bunch of wine and I bottled all of my wines in wine bottles with those used corks then maybe 405 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,840 I didn't sterilize which would be crazy but none of them got corked because of that one 406 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:29,320 that I tried to have a tasting party for was totally corked but that was mostly just a fun year of 407 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:38,040 wine making working at the sandwich shop but when the owner was replaced or rather when the manager 408 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:44,680 quit and we had a new manager there that's when as I described in the other episode about how I 409 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:49,720 started teaching English that's when I saw the advertisement in the wrong section of Craigslist 410 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:57,320 for an English teacher in Beijing and I was happy enough with my life I was happy enough for an 411 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:06,040 American for my life I had been promoted very quickly at the shop and I was making wine so I had 412 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:12,680 plenty of recreation I had some friends and we like to hang out we had board game nights sometimes 413 00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:20,120 when we spent holidays together but something was missing something was flat there was no 414 00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:28,040 fermentation in my life outside of these car boys I could feel that there was a inherent excitement 415 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:35,880 and variability to the world that by living in the United States I was somehow missing out on 416 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:47,480 they had very clear tracks for what I was supposed to be doing but I wasn't living life the way that 417 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:54,200 the people who climbed mountains in biographies were living life or adventurers who trekked around 418 00:41:54,200 --> 00:42:01,320 the world when they talked about living life there was some inherent ingredient that I was missing 419 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:09,560 from my stable life in Portland Oregon so when I saw that incorrectly placed ad on Craigslist 420 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:15,240 I was like yep that's that's an opportunity it was weird because I didn't recognize it as an 421 00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:22,520 opportunity straight away but I thought about it and looked at it and it's like it came into focus 422 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:31,720 and I was like well if that is a job opportunity then that is the unknown variable that will 423 00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:39,960 allow your life to fully realize it's allow your life to ferment to go with this homebrew metaphor 424 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:48,840 it was going to change my life simply by being an active ingredient something new that would 425 00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:55,560 change everything else I did in my life and as it turns out change my perspective on the world at 426 00:42:55,560 --> 00:43:04,120 large so I went to Beijing I became an English teacher and then my operating budget for entertainment 427 00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:10,360 overnight really from one week to the next because I think I got a bonus half paycheck the first 428 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:19,320 month I was there went from one hundred to maybe two hundred dollars at maximum per month to two thousand 429 00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:28,360 dollars per month free money so after I had settled myself and I was teaching and I knew how to get 430 00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:37,240 food reliably I wanted to get back into hobbies and I was drinking a bunch of Chinese beer but I loved 431 00:43:37,240 --> 00:43:42,760 homebrewing like I loved making my different wines and there are so many fruits in China and they all 432 00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:49,240 cost nothing for a whole bag of them so my cost basis would be nothing so I went out to all the department 433 00:43:49,240 --> 00:43:56,120 stores I could find and I finally found car boys they didn't have anything like what was in the states 434 00:43:56,120 --> 00:44:04,680 but they did have large glass bottles that they mix vigio which is a distilled white liquor and then 435 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:11,160 they mixed fruit inside and then the slurry settles and they'll pour you out one cup at a time of 436 00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:17,000 whatever plum wine or whatever fruit wine it was maybe gogy wine and I liked those little drinks but 437 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:23,880 they were very rough by geos disgusting it's very rough clear liquor that I don't like and it's a 438 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:29,640 liquor not a wine even though they call it wine so it's usually 40 to 60 percent but it tastes like 439 00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:34,520 rubbing alcohol unless they mix in fruit and then it tastes like fruit in rubbing alcohol 440 00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:41,640 so I was very motivated to continue with my wine making but I needed air locks and I need you 441 00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:48,520 need some kind of air lock because the gas has to go out it has to exit or you have to burp it every 442 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:54,600 like you have to undo the cap so that the air can go outside the CO2 that's building up it's called 443 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:59,160 burping your fermentation but you have to do that every few hours or something I was like I'm not 444 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:04,680 doing that I'll figure something out and so all I did was drill a hole in the top of the cap 445 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:13,960 glue stick glue gun a piece of tubing to the top that went to a bottle filled with water and 446 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:20,680 improvised air lock worked great air could go out nothing could go in but because I had to use all 447 00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:26,360 these glue guns and tubes I had like four of these big glass bottles with tubes coming out of them 448 00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:34,200 it looked very mad scientist but it worked perfectly and I made all kinds of fruit wines I failed in 449 00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:38,600 making watermelon wine still that's the only one I could never get but I made orange wines and 450 00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:46,680 mulberry wine cherry wine pear wine all kinds of fruit wines and my main stay was still meat I just 451 00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:54,120 made meat constantly because we were drinking constantly in China with every meal and I was like well 452 00:45:54,120 --> 00:46:00,200 I can also make a bunch of wine that we can just drink and there's not going to be extra preservatives 453 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:06,680 in it so this kind of a debated issue whether the added preservatives or sulfites give you the 454 00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:13,320 headache alcohol dehydrate you you know alcohol itself is a poison so it's not good anyway but 455 00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:18,360 I didn't like the idea of adding preservatives so when I made my wines I didn't add any preservatives 456 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:25,080 there were no added sulfites it was just whatever the juice or honey was the water the yeast two 457 00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:32,920 weeks later it was good or one week later with the meat usually and I made wine most of the time I was 458 00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:38,920 in China at least for that first couple years I was making wine just all the time wine all the time 459 00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:44,280 and it turned out great and everybody loved it and sometimes we would just drink a whole gallon of it 460 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:51,480 just me and Bill or me and a couple people and we just get tanky tanked and then drift off into 461 00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:56,600 this peaceful sleep and at least with my home brew wine nobody ever woke up with a hangover 462 00:46:56,600 --> 00:47:03,400 it he it felt very different drinking home brewed meat or wine compared to drinking a bunch of beers 463 00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:09,640 or drinking a store bottle of wine if I drink one bottle of store-bought wine I always feel very 464 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:15,720 dry and hollowed out after I drink it but if I drink one of my home brew wines it's just a happy 465 00:47:15,720 --> 00:47:24,120 full contented feeling I drift off I wake up I don't feel dehydrated I don't feel like my head is 466 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:30,440 pounding or anything afterwards and that's if we drink all the whole gallon like all four and a 467 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:36,440 half bottles of wine me and just a friend or two maybe so there is something to home brewing my wine 468 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:44,360 that my body reacts to better than a store-bought wine and it's a very clear difference in the effects 469 00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:50,840 of drinking wine it's in no way a placebo because everybody else feels it too I mean maybe part of 470 00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:58,120 it's a placebo but it's very interesting how much healthier home brewed wine feels drinking to me 471 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:03,880 I haven't made any in a while because I've been traveling a long time but I still think about it 472 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:09,400 all the time and whenever I do slow down or live in a place for a while I'm like maybe it's time to get 473 00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:15,880 a car boy and make some meat again it's been a while so if home brewing is caught your interest through 474 00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:21,640 this podcast obviously or at all in your life and you're like maybe I could do that if you want to 475 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:27,640 start with wine making and especially if you want to start with meat you can definitely do it need 476 00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:37,560 a one gallon glass bottle and air lock and then get three quarters of a pound of honey use clean water 477 00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:43,240 and fill the bottle up leave about five inches of space at the top for the gas and the musk that's 478 00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:49,960 going to build up the froth at the top throwing a fifth of a packet of champagne yeast red star champagne 479 00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:56,440 yeast standard shake it up with your body is just grab the top put your hand over shake it up as 480 00:48:56,440 --> 00:49:00,840 much as possible leave it alone throw on the air lock leave it alone for a week and you have 481 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:07,160 five bottles of wine it's a great hobby it's infinitely variable because you can make wine out of 482 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:12,600 anything it's very rewarding because you get a whole bunch of bottles of wine at the end it's very 483 00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:20,040 communal and social people love seeing you make this thing and you're making a new one all the time 484 00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:25,320 so it's not like he's just doing meat again or whatever if it becomes boring that you're just 485 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:31,160 making me then go make an apple wine go make a blackberry wine or whatever people yeah it's really fun 486 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:36,200 it's a very communal hobby you can make it a communal hobby you can just do it yourself if you want to 487 00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:41,080 but it can be a social hobby as well which is how I used it we would have get together and 488 00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:48,120 wine tastings and it's a very low cost barrier to entry it's a like I said a dollar per wine and 489 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:54,280 ingredients a dollar per bottle of wine for your ingredients generally as long as the berries don't 490 00:49:54,280 --> 00:50:00,360 have preservatives on them because that will kill the yeast you can just buy a frozen bag of berries 491 00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:08,600 from whatever store you like get that juice boom you have your wine base pour in a half pound of 492 00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:14,280 sugar fill up the rest with water put in the east shake it up air lock a week later have fun 493 00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:22,120 in biben share it's a very like I said a rewarding hobby and it's a very fun hobby and as long as you 494 00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:29,160 keep things clean it's a very easy hobby to reap rewards from just make sure everything's clean before 495 00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:35,160 you put it in the car boy and you're good to go except with watermelon wine if you figure out how 496 00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:40,200 to properly brew watermelon wine which I'm guessing everybody must sanitize it because there's just 497 00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:46,920 got to be a whole bunch of stuff living in watermelon I don't know let me know and talk to me a bit of a 498 00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:53,480 rambler edgmail.com or all of the socials had a lot of fun talking about home brewing it was one of the 499 00:50:53,480 --> 00:51:00,680 hobbies I did in China for just a lot of the time I was there it was a huge part I just always had 500 00:51:00,680 --> 00:51:06,520 bottles going in one of my cabinets oh and it smells great every time you check on it when you open 501 00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:12,040 up the cabinet door of whatever you're doing the escaping gas the CO2 smells of whatever you're 502 00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:18,680 making so it smells of cherry like so the cabinet your wine making cabinet has a great smell all the 503 00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:24,280 time when you open it up it smells like you just opened a bottle of wine it's great it's great to have 504 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:32,200 a little cabinet of brewing fermenting wine if you have any questions yeah get at me thank you very 505 00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:36,440 much for listening and I will talk to you soon 506 00:51:36,440 --> 00:52:00,440 [no audio]