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Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, takes us through the process of creating new hop varieties and putting them through the paces.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal explores our favorite dark beers and gives us recipe tips. Also, Gary Glass of the AHA shares a homebrew legislation update.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, shares his strategies to take home more hardware from homebrew competitions.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of The Home Brew Recipe Bible and The Methods of Modern Homebrewing, introduces us to a new dry, sparkling version of our favorite style.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of Methods of Modern Homebrewing, gives us advice on when and where to use interesting ingredients to bring some unique flavor to our beer.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, tells us about the wine, honey, bread and beer beverage he brews based on the Hymn to Ninkasi.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal gets into the details about step mashing and how we can use it to control the character of our beers.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of the Homebrew Recipe Bible, talks about hop substitution and ways to change up the hopping of your beers.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of the Homebrew Recipe Bible, gives us tips on carving time out during the holidays for the important thing - brewing.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of the Homebrew Recipe Bible, shares tips on how to make your cream ale stand out in a competition setting.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal and author of The Homebrew Recipe Bible, walks us through tannins: when they're good or bad and how to control them in our beer.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about the latest thing in IPAs - fruit!
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, dives deeply into science as he describes how enzymes work on a microscopic level and how that applies to your mash tun.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about how time affects the levels of alpha acids in hops and how to slow their fading.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, shares tips on hitting original gravity if things go awry during the brew day.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about four favorite holiday spices for brewing and gives us some tips.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, shares tips on brewing a delicious Trappist-inspired beer with a simple ingredient list.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about the myths surrounding black malt and how versitile it really is. Also, do IPAs really give you "man boobs"?
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about increasing alcohol content of beers by feeding the yeast added sugar in the fermenter.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, joins James to reveal the winners of our Homebrew Heroics contest.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about how to assess suspicious beers, and Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, helps us introduce a contest to give away two free registrations to this year's National Homebrewers Conference.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, talks about why mashes for higher gravity beers can be more inefficient and what to do about it.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, brings us up to date on a favorite technique - a hybrid of extract and all grain brewing.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, give us some tips on brewing Maibock to enjoy in warmer times. Also, Chris answers a couple of carbonation-related mailbag questions.
We go back to basics with Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal as we talk about proper carbonation in beers.
Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, shares his successful weight loss plan that allows him to keep his favorite beverage, while losing pounds.
We go back to the basics with Chris Colby, editor of Beer and Wine Journal, who talks about adjunct grains.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal shares his multi-year strategy of brewing tasty sour beers at home.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal shares tips on scaling up and scaling down homebrew batches and recipes.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal shares tips on brewing high gravity barleywines.
Chris Colby of Beer and Wine Journal gives us details on brewing tasty German wheat beers and kicks off an experiment on brewing hoppy beers.
Chris Colby from Beer and Wine Journal talks about his extensive series on brewing our favorites - hoppy American pale ales, IPAs, and double IPAs.
This month Wine Blogging Wednesday returns to it's normal first Wednesday of the month and host Vivi's Wine Journal has picked a very appropriate theme for July: Barbecue Wines (or is it BBQ, or Bar-B-Que?). The history of BBQ appears to be an American invention, but there seems to be some debate on this if you look closer. Whatever the derivation, today the term means either the slow cooked meats prepared across the southern U.S. from pork, beef or chicken or grilled meats in general. I took the latter definition for the purposes of this post and podcast and chose three wines I think would pair well with summer grilling. Different than in the other months I have participated in this event, my three wines will be a white, a rose and a red. All quite dry and loaded with fruit flavors to stand up to the heartiest summer fare. Since yesterday was Independence Day here in the U.S., my grilling choice was classic Wisconsin brats and traditional side-dishes, potato and macaroni salad. Whatever wines I select, they would need enough acidity to cut through the mayonnaise in the salads and brown mustard on the brats. I selected two different kinds of brats, the common “beer brats” and a new-age chicken with bacon and swiss cheese. Both presented an interesting flavor profile to deal with in matching wines, where in past years I’ve just reached for an IPA or dark beer. Of course, the best wine for Bar-B-Que or grilled meats depends upon the type of meat roasted. If I made steaks, for instance, I would have probably selected three red wines to match here. But since I had foods that were not overpowering in their flavors, I had a pretty open spectrum of wines to choose from. My strategy was to find wines with enough flavor to stand up to the food, but also enough acidity to enhance the flavors and not overpower the food. The rule of thumb at this time of year is to choose a dry rose, so my first match was a Wolffer Rosé 2005 the winery sent me recently as a sample. You probably remember Wolffer from my interview with winemaker Roman Roth in Winecast 56. Their rosé is made from 48% Merlot, 39% Chardonnay, 8% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon with the red grapes given a short time on the skins to minimize the color. The wine was totally made in stainless steel to accentuate the freshness of the fruit and retails for a reasonable $14 a bottle. This rosé is salmon in color with aromas of peach and fresh flowers. Rich and crisp in the mouth, showing cherry and citrus with a bit of white pepper on the dry finish. A very nice rosé for a hot summer’s day and nice accompaniment to my grilling yesterday. In fact, this might be the most versatile wine for grilled meats in the round-up. 11.5% ABV. Finished with natural cork. Score: 8.5/10 I usually don’t think of white wine and grilling, but I do think about white wines on hot summer days so I thought I would pick one from my cellar to see how it might work here. I’ve always liked the aggressiveness of Sauvignon Blanc, particularly from New Zealand, but I didn’t have any bottles handy from that country. What I did have was the 2005 vintage of Veramonte’s Sauvignon Blanc from the Casablanca Valley of Chile. I first tried this brand in my round-up on Winecast 12 last year and it has made it into my cellar ever since as a great value for hot summer days selling for $8-9 a bottle. The wine is light straw with a slight green hue. Fresh hay, lime and pineapple aromas with some gooseberry reminiscent of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. On the palate, there is tart grapefruit flavors with nice acidity to match with food. The match was especially good with the chicken brats adding an nice counter-point to the bacon and swiss cheese flavors. I’d recommend this one for grilled pork too, as long as there is not spicy BBQ sauce involved in the preperation. 13.5% ABV. Stelvin closure. Score: 8/10 Finally, I wanted to try a fruit forward red wine. After considering Syrah/Shiraz, I fell back on my old favorite Zinfandel, selecting a 2003 Chiarello Family Vineyards, Zinfandel, "Giana," which sells for $28 a bottle. I first tasted Chiarello Zin at ZAP this past January and was very impressed with all their wines. You might recognize the family name from owner Michael Chiarello’s Napa Style TV show, book and website. If anyone knows how to make food-friendly wines, it’s Mr. Chiarello, but I have to say that you need a steak or, better yet, Mexican food to match with this Zin. The wine is garnet-purple in color with powerful aromas of blackberry, plum and licorice. In the mouth it is substantial with blackberry jam, black pepper, spices and silky tannins. A hedonists Zin that somehow balances the substantial alcohol with fruit. Delicious, but overpowering to my 4th of July brats. 16.1% ABV. Finished with natural cork. Score: 9/10 So what did I learn this month? That a range of wines go well with grilled meats. If I had some true Bar-B-Que to match here, I think only the Chiarello Zin and Wolffer Rosé would have made the cut. For best wine, it easily goes to Chiarello Family Vineyards, Zinfandel, "Giana" 2003 and best value to the versatile Wolffer Rosé 2005. Thank to Joel over at Vivi’s Wine Journal for hosting this month and a great theme. I’m looking forward to seeing what founder Lenn has in store for the two-year anniversary of WBW next month. Show Notes: 00:21 - Welcome and show theme 01:10 - Matching wine with Bar-B-Que or grilled meats 03:56 - Veramonte, Sauvignon Blanc, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2005 ($9) 04:58 - Wolffer Estate Vineyards, Rosé, Long Island, New York 2005 ($14/sample) + 06:20 - Chiarello Family Vineyards, Zinfandel, "Giana" 2003 ($28) * 07:50 - Best of tasting 07:58 - Best value 08:15 - Wrap-up and contact details 08:50 - Next show theme Feedback: winecast@gmail.com Copyright 2006 Acan Media, Inc. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/