{"id":1754,"date":"2011-01-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2011-01-01T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T13:00:00","slug":"happy-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/01\/happy-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a hurry? Make a kit!<\/h2>\n

Kits are a great way to start making wine, but that’s not the way I started. In fact, my first kit isn’t in bottles yet. One thing I learned from making one is that kits are a great way to make wine fast. I get asked about that a lot and I didn’t have many concrete ideas because I usually take my time. Until now. It isn’t just that kits come with simple instructions and a clear schedule, it’s that you can adapt the technique and mindset to conventional winemaking. So if you’re in a hurry, make a kit or three. Learn from it (even if you’re not a beginner) and use as many of the techniques as you can in your next blueberry wine (or whatever strikes your fancy). I’ll have more to say about this after my own kit is bottles.<\/p>\n

Liqueur: More sugar, more alcohol, no yeast<\/h2>\n

Another fast way to taste the fruits of your labor is to make liqueur. As I mentioned at the end of my plum wine recipe<\/a>, I’ve recently made plum liqueur. I quickly followed up with a cherry liqueur, and\u00a0 friend sent me some of his limoncello. Winemakers will find much of the liqueur making process familiar, but there are differences. No fermentation, for one! Another thing that struck me is that I couldn’t find recommendations for acidity, alcohol, and sugar. I’m convinced that a good balance is just as important as it is for wine, but I may have to find out by trial and error – someone’s gotta do it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

These are new to me, and I expect to write about them in 2011. There’s still a lot to say about more familiar topics, so there won’t be any radical changes. I’m looking forward to the New Year – I think it’ll be a good one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of people ask me about making mead or wine quickly. Kits and liqueurs can be ready to drink in a hurry, and this year, I’ll be doing a lot more with them. Stay tuned – I think it’ll be a good year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}