In Vino Veritas II.

So, maybe a little later than we should have, we racked the Pinot Gris yesterday, i.e. transferred it from one five-gallon glass carboy to another, leaving two inches of sediment behind. The juice right now is incredibly sugary and sweet without, Stewart thought, a whole lot of depth of flavor. Hopefully that will come as we tend to it and age it. We also added the yeast, which will kick in the fermentation and get the real show on the road. Now, we wait.

A side note to the home winemaking: I stopped in at Bridgeview Beer & Wine Supply, 624 Main Street, Oregon City, to get a few supplies for the evening's work. Packed with seemingly everything the homebrewer or winemaker could possibly need — malt, hops, presses, crushers, yeasts, buckets, bottles, caps, corks, huge pots and books and grain mills and hundreds of different kinds of bottled beer and wine from around the world and on and on and on — the store is a fantastic resource for supplies and knowledge. One of the owners shared valuable advice on our winemaking progress to date, and they had everything I needed for this next stage.

Perusing the aisles of Bridgeview, checking out the cans of malt, taking in the aromas that permeate the homebrewer's kitchen, I may well have caught the homebrew bug again. A few years ago I tried my hand at it, brewing up several batches of mediocre pale ale that never quite tasted like anything other than mediocre homebrewed pale ale. It was hard to justify the time and effort with such a cornucopia of stellar beers on just about any store shelf across the metro region.

But I was younger then, and maybe not so attentive to sanitation or sobriety during the brewing process. Perhaps another go at it is in order this winter. If nothing else, at least my kitchen will take on that heavenly aroma again, but after that trip to Bridgeview yesterday, I'm hoping for more . . .