coconut wine!

COCONUT WINE

• 1 lb dried coconut
• 1 lb rice
• 1 lb pitted dates
• 2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
• 1-1/4 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 gallon water
• Sauterne wine yeast

Bring 1 quart water to boil and add rice; boil for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the dates and mix then with the coconut in a boiler. Strain the rice, adding the water from it to the boiler containing the coconut and chopped dates. Bring to a boil and hold for 15 minutes. Strain the water over the sugar, yeast nutrients and acid blend and stir until dissolved completely. Allow to cool to room temperature, transfer to primary and add activated yeast. Cover and ferment until initially vigorous fermentation subsides, then transfer to secondary and attach an airlock. After 3 months, rack into clean secondary with crushed and dissolved Campden tablet, top up and refit airlock. Wait 3 additional months and rack, top up and refit airlock again. After additional month, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles. [Adapted from recipe by C.J.J. Berry]

Snake Wine! I want this!

Snake wine (rượu rắn in Vietnamese) is an alcoholic beverage that includes a whole venomous snake in the bottle. It originated in Vietnam and can be found around Southeast Asia. The snakes, preferably venomous ones, are not usually preserved for their meat but to have the snake poison dissolved in the liquor. However, the snake venom is denatured by the ethanol; its proteins are unfolded and therefore inactivated.

There are two varieties of snake wine:

* Steeped: A large venomous snake can be placed into a glass jar of rice wine, often with many smaller snakes, turtles, insects, or birds, and left to steep for many months. The wine is drunk as a restorative in small shots or cups.
* Mixed: Body fluids of snake are mixed into wine and consumed immediately in the form of a shot. Snake blood wine is prepared by slicing a snake along its belly and draining its blood into a mixing vat with rice wine or grain alcohol. Snake bile wine is done through a similar method by using the contents of the gall bladder.

Here's a list of terms associated with wine bottles

Balthazar An oversized wine bottle which holds the equivalent of 12 to 16 standard bottles.

Bottle 750 milliliters of wine - this standard bottle size. It is sometimes referred to as a "fifth". Bottle shapes vary depending on the winery's preference or the type of wine.

Bottle Sickness A temporary condition characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavors. It often occurs immediately after bottling or when wines (usually fragile wines) are shaken in travel. Also called bottle shock. A few days of rest is the cure.

Bottled By Means the wine could have been purchased ready-made and simply bottled by the brand owner, or made under contract by another winery. When the label reads "produced and bottled by" or "made and bottled by" it means the winery produced the wine from start to finish.

Estate-bottled A term once used by producers for those wines made from vineyards that they owned and that were contiguous to the winery "estate." Today it indicates the winery either owns the vineyard or has a long-term lease to purchase the grapes.

Half-bottle Holds 375 milliliters or 3/8 liter.

Imperial An over-sized bottle holding 4 to 6 liters; the equivalent of eight standard bottles.

Jeroboam An over-sided bottle with two sizes. It is the equivalent of six bottles of wine. Or with Champagne, a jeroboam holds four bottles.

Made and
Bottled By Indicates only that the winery crushed, fermented and bottled a minimum of 10 percent of the wine in the bottle. Very misleading.

Magnum The equivalent of two bottles, or an oversized bottle. Holds 1.5 liters. The best selling bottle size for Champagne.

Double Magnum The equivalent of four bottles – twice the size of a magnum holding 3.0 liters.

Methuselah An extra-large bottle holding 6 liters; the equivalent of eight standard bottles. It is usually used for sparkling wines.

Nebuchadnezzar A giant wine bottle holding 15 liters; the equivalent of 20 standard bottles (almost four gallons).

Produced and
Bottled By Indicates that the winery crushed, fermented and bottled at least 75 percent of the wine in the bottle.

Rehoboam Oversized bottle equivalent to 4.5 liters or six regular bottles.

Salmanazar An oversized bottle holding 9 liters, the equivalent of 12 regular bottles.

Sovereign Huge! Equals 67 standard bottles - 50 liters.

Split 187.5 ml (or 200 ml of wine), a tiny bottle, a mere quarter of the usual. Made only for sparkling wine.

Beauty of Wine!!

There are better things in life than alcohol, but alcohol makes up for not having them.

The Oldest Wine

The wreck of the TITANIC holds the oldest wine cellar in the world and despite the depth and wreckage, the bottles are still intact.
Wine Toast

The word "toast," meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.
No Cork

As late as the mid-17th century, the French wine makers did not use corks. Instead, they used oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of bottles.
The Age of Oak

170 years is the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels.