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In response to nossi- Yes I have tried Ri which is produced by Jim Beam. I was not impressed. IMO the High West, Sazerac and Bulleit are better products.

Thank you for your suggestions. This wknd will be the test ! Will postback w results

Hahn produces a very drinkable Cab Franc which I have been buying for the past few years about $15 btl. Meeker which has a tasting room in Geyserville produces a very nice Cab Franc much bigger than the Hahn. $28 btl and might be harder to locate.

Thank you all for your thoughts. I can now experiment and see what works best for me. And jedd63 I also like the 6-in-1.

Thanks Jimmyg. We Know what the Penzeys container lists as ingredients. We are looking for amounts/ proportions. Any thoughts out there ?

Sitting around the other evening discussing a recent trip to Sonoma, the subject of South Park wine came up. I am trying to determine which one I would go with ? This stuff looks pretty nasty. In my younger days Richard's Wild Irish Rose was useful in starting a buzz.

Glad those days are gone !!

I feel for you. It's tough losing a friend/pet Keep the memories !!

http://hickoryworks.homestead.com/

This is where we bought it

+1 for dmcavanagh & Mizbee. There are very nice less expensive bottles and terrible more expensive ones. People should drink what they enjoy. Two keys to my search for enjoyable wines are to find a retailer who consistently gives you good advice and to experiment as much as possible. I tried a cheap Portuguese red blend at an in store winetasting in Chicago last wknd that I thought was pretty nice. Bought 2 bottles at &8 ea. Wish I had bought a case. The next person might have said ugh. Taste varies from one person to the next.

I can remember when this swill first came out. Yuck. I was a Richard's Wild Irish Rose fan myself. I cringe thinking about it.
Glad I grew up

While I have not brewed in about 10 years I did brew 25-30 5 gal batches of different ales all of which turned out well I believe I will probably start brewing again as I now have more time to do it. My methods came mostly from Charlie Papazian's the Complete Joy Of Homebrewing which is still available and highly recommended, as well as from Zymugy magazine another good resource. My methods varied from Joe's in that the sanitizer was 1-2 oz of bleach in 5 gals of cold water with the items being sanitized left to sit about 1/2 hr and then rinsed w hot water. Bottle caps were boiled for about 5 mins. Priming sugar was 1.25 cups of DME-Dry Malt Extract boiled in 1 pint of water for 5 mins. Some people feel that this method gives a better mouthfeel to the finished product and that the use of corn sugar which does work, causes some folks to get headaches. Spring loaded bottle fillers which attach to the spigot on your bottling bucket w a short pc of tubing make the bottling process simple.

Its not that hard to do, and you can make some pretty nice ale or lager depending upon which you choose. Ale is easier as it does not need the cold fermentation process that lager does and is more difficult to control.

Thanks Max. Will look at this and see if I can reduce to a more reasonable 1st time qty. Love to give it a try.

Although I have not done it in several years all-grain is not that difficult. It does take more time. The equipment need not be that expensive to get a start. You need a lauter tun-I made mine w two 5 gal buckets. You drill holes in the bottom of one to in effect make it a strainer. This sits inside the other which you attach a spigot to the bottom of. Then you need a sparge arm. I have a Phil's unit which some people do not like but it worked for me-less than $20. it rinses the sweet sugars from your mash through the grains and collects in the bottom. You have another bucket w spigot filled w hot H2O which gravity feeds the sparge arm whch in effect acts as a sprinkler. Sure there are more complicated/expensive set ups but this works.