Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure (Update)

I got a text from my brother yesterday that went like this:

I know it sounds crazy, but I do wish I was there with him. It's a lot of work, but it is so rewarding. This is one of the reasons I absolutely love brewing beer. It's something I created from scratch. Although wine is a little different. I've noticed (in the short amount of time) that wine people really don't like breaking the mold. Whereas in beer, that is my goal every single time I brew. I know it's really hard because everyone has done everything already, but I still try to create a unique brew every time.

So throughout the day he continued texting me with pictures and stories of what is going on. This made me wish I was there even more! Early on in the conversation there were texts saying "Pump is amazing but dangerous. I just shot a stream of sanitizer 10 feet across the yard" and "5 gallons/minute" and "Was more expensive than I expected, like $400 or something". Then, 3 hours later "Pump broke!!!!". Oh no. One thing about these type operations is nothing EVER goes 100% smoothly. You have to be able to think fast and think on your feet. I instantly told him to go to the brew store and he was already on his way. Brothers think alike huh?

At least I am not there to help with the cleaning up! Sorry Joe! Now we play the waiting game. Everything is now going to sit in the barrels for up to almost a year I believe. This is where I would go insane. At least with beer I can drink it in a couple weeks and it is delicious. Oh well! I cannot wait until next year when we do this again!

Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure

I received a text from my brother a little while ago that went something along the lines as, "Dude... I just bought a ton of grapes. The logistics of me doing this myself isn't going to work". I offered my services. We got the flight figured out and before I knew it, I was in Seattle. 

Next challenge, how do we get these grapes? We didn't have a truck. How do we get, A TON, of grapes? Finally, Joe squared away a vehicle. This...

A 24 foot diesel box truck.

Good thing touring and moving has prepared me for that. So next up, the 3 hour drive to Yakima Valley to get the grapes! It was an amazing drive with great views most of the time so I didn't mind. We got to Red Mountain AVA and picked up our NOW 1.5 tons of Syrah and Petite Syrah grapes. 

We get back to Seattle and get stuff ready for the next day of wine making. In between all of this we went to some amazing restaurants, I got to drive a Porsche, and we drank copious amounts of beer. Fast-forward to the next day and we start! We started extremely early with the sanitizing with some good ol' Star San and PBW. If you don't have these things, get them. I think we cracked our first beer before 9AM. 

It was a blast and if we didn't have the equipment we had, I think it would've been the most miserable experience of my life. We definitely need to figure out some of the logistics next year to simplify carrying 1.5 tons of grapes. I also didn't have to worry to much about the science behind it because my brother and his wife had that covered. 

I was never a huge wine fan until this weekend. It opened my eyes (taste buds I guess) up to a whole new world. I wish I could help out with all of the other steps along the way, but my brother has that covered. He will be racking to French Oak barrels for about 9 months before bottling. The Syrah has fermented much faster than the Petite Syrah. I think he is shooting for a 16.5% ABV on the Syrah and about 14.5% on the Petite Syrah. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine. We'll see! I'm very excited to taste this once it is done. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine.