Sake is a type of rice-based alcoholic drink that originates from Japan. While Sake is referred to as a rice wine it is technically not a wine. Wine is produced by fermenting the sugar that is naturally found in fruit while sake is created through a brewing process that mimics the brewing process of beer. To make Sake the sugar needed to produce alcohol is converted from the starches of rice. The brewing process of Sake is different from beer in that when brewing beer the conversion of starch to sugar happens in two different steps. The conversion of starch to sugar while making Sake occurs simultaneously. The alcohol content of Sake, wine and beer also differ. Wine usually contains between 9-16% alcohol, beer contains 3-9% alcohol while undiluted Sake is 18-20% alcohol. The high alcohol content of Sake is usually lowered to around 15% when water is added prior to bottling.

Before brewing Sake the rice must be polished to remove the protein and oils from the exterior of the grains. This leaves behind just the starch of the rice. Freshly polished rice then must rest until it absorbs enough moisture from the air so it will not crack when submerged in water. After the resting period the rice is washed and soaked. The amount of time the rice is soaked depends on how the rice was polished. The time the rice spends soaking can range anywhere from several hours to overnight. After the rice is finished soaking the rice is boiled in a large pot or steamed on a conveyor belt. The degree of cooking is vital as overcooked rice will ferment too fast. This prohibits the flavors from developing well. Under cooking the rice will cause it to ferment on the outside only. Once the rice is properly cooked it is then cooled and divided. Some of the rice is taken to a culture room and inoculated with mold. It cultivates for about two days or until the growth of fungus reaches the desired level. It is then called kōji. Once the kōji is ready a starter mash is created. Kōji rice, water, lactic and yeast are all mixed together. Then the freshly steamed rice is added and is cultivated for 10-15 days. After this steamed rice, water, and more kōji are added once a day for 3 more days. This doubles the volume of the mash each day. The mash is then allowed to ferment for 2-6 weeks. Unlike beer Sake does not have the necessary amylase to convert starches to sugar. Sake must go through multiple fermentation, in which the starch from the rice is converted to sugar by the kōji, and the sugar is then converted to alcohol by the yeast. These processes both happen at the same time. Once fermentation is complete the sake is pressed which separates the liquids from the solids. Some Sake has a small amount of distilled alcohol that is added before pressing in order to extract flavors and aromas that would normally stay with the solids. The sake is filtered, pasteurized, and allowed to rest and mature before bottling. It is usually diluted with water just before being bottled.

Sake has a wide variety of flavor notes. These include apples, bananas, melons, flowers, herbs, spices, rice, chestnuts, chocolate, dry grapes, sherry, caramel sauce and more. The flavor of apples comes from ethyl caproate, and the banana flavor comes from isoamyl acetate. Sake can be served chilled, at room temperature, or heated depending on the preference of the drinker. Sake is served straight, but can also be used as a mixer for cocktails such as tamagozake, saketinis, nogasake, or the ever popular sake bomb.

A dessert wine is a sweet wine that is typically served with dessert. They can also be enjoyed alone or accompanied by fruit or bakery sweets. There is not a simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK a dessert wine is any sweet wine that is drunk with a meal, as opposed to white fortified wines that are drunk before a meal, and red fortified wines that are drunk after a meal. Most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines. In the United States a dessert wine is defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines.

Dessert winemakers want to produce a wine that contains both high levels of sugar and alcohol, yet the alcohol is made from sugar. There are a few different methods to increase sugar level to produce dessert wines. The first method is to grow grapes so that they naturally have a high level of sugar. The grapes winemakers use that have the highest level of sugar are usually Muscat, Ortega, and Huxerebe. This ensures that there is enough sugar for sweetness and alcohol. Another method is to add sugar either before or after fermentation. Thirdly the winemaker can add alcohol, brandy is typically used, when not all of the natural sugar of the grape juice has fermented (this is called fortification). The last method is to remove water from the grape to concentrate the sugar. In warmer climates this is easy to do by air drying the grapes to create raisin wine. In cold, frosty climates winemakers can freeze out some of the grape’s water to make an ice wine. Lastly in damp temperatures, winemakers can use something called noble rot to desiccate the grapes.

When serving dessert wines the general rule of thumb is that the wine being served should be sweeter than the food it is served with. Many people find that a perfectly ripe peach can be an ideal partner for a lot of dessert wines. Red dessert wines and fortified wines are great matches for chocolate and toffee-based desserts. Often the dessert wine itself can be considered a dessert, but when paired with bakery sweets they can be greatly enhanced. Dessert wines can be served cold. White Dessert wines are generally served chilled while Red dessert wines can be served at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Wheat Beer is a beer that is brewed using wheat as one of its primary fermentation ingredients in the mash. Usually a wheat beer will contain any where from 30% to 70% wheat malt. Malted barley will then be used to fill the remaining percentage like most other styles of beer. Due to a high amount of proteins present in the beer from the wheat most will have a cloudy appearance, as opposed to the clear look of a Pilsner for example. Wheat beers also tend to be more carbonated and very effervescent as a byproduct of fermenting the wheat. There is also a distinct absence of hops in a Wheat Beer because traditional recipes call for very little to none what so ever.

There are a variety of different wheat beers styles. The most well known style is Hefeweizen, also known more geographically descriptive as Southern German Weissbier. Unfiltered Hefeweizen is bottled and served so the yeast used during fermentation is still present, which provides much of the beers flavor and aroma. Berliner Weisse, comes from brewers in northern Germany which use a different technique than their southern counterparts. Berliner Weisse is fermented with ale yeast and a bacteria (Lactobacillus delbruckii) which, can create a very distinct and unique sourness to the beer. Otherwise this Berliner Weisse is light in character and very effervescent as a typical Hefeweizen is. Belgian Witbier also known as White Ale is similar in many ways to unfiltered wheat beers but the addition of unmalted grains like oats, wheat and barley as well as a variety of different spices, make they very unique from the other styles of wheat beer. American Wheat Beer is the American craft brewers’ interpretation on wheat beer. This style takes the classic Hefeweizen recipes and replaces the distinctive yeast with much cleaner fermenting ale yeasts. American wheat beers also may be filtered giving them a clear appearance and a mellow flavor.

Zinfandel is the most popular type of red grape. It is planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. While California is the most popular place to grow the Zinfandel grape it is grown all over the United States as well. It can be found growing in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. Zinfandel vines are quite hearty and grow the best in climates that are warm but not too hot. If the grapes are exposed to temperatures that are too hot the grapes may shrivel. The thin-skinned grapes grow in large, tight bunches and can be prone to bunch rot(a fruit rotting disease).

Zinfandel grapes ripen fairly early and produce juice with high sugar levels. Because of the Zinfandel’s high sugar content it can be fermented into higher levels of alcohol, some exceeding 15 percent! The Zinfandel grape produces a robust, semi-sweet, red wine. The taste of the red wine depends on how ripe the grape is when it is made. Once the grapes are harvested, the length of fermentation, length of maceration period with skin contact and the level of oak all affect the wine’s flavor.

The degrees Brix(which represents the amount of sugar content) of the grapes when they are harvested have an affect on the wine’s flavor as well. White Zinfandel is normally harvested at 20*Bx. This contributes hints of tobacco and apple to the wine. At 23*Bx the wine will take on strawberry flavors. Cherry flavors arrive at 24*Bx with blackberry notes showing at 25*Bx. Wines from cooler areas have more of a red berry fruit taste while wines made in warmer climates have flavors of blackberry, anise and pepper. White Zinfandel is referred to as a “blush-style” wine because of it’s rose like color. Zinfandel wines have six times the sales of other red wines in the United States. This is mostly because of the range of flavors and styles that are found within the Zinfandel wines.

SundayBrew recommends EXP Dunnigan Hills Viognier by R.H. Phillips Wine Company ! This exotic and fruity wine will certainly catch your attention. The grapes used for Dunnigan Hills Viognier come from the Dunnigan Hills of Yolo County in California. The grapes are grown from 15 year old vines that thrive on thin clay loamy soil which mimics Mediterranean-like climate. This produces grapes with a heavily concentrated flavor.

When ripe the grapes are hand-picked at night and then whole cluster pressed. This optimizes the freshness of the viognier grape and reduces the skin contact time with the juice(to reduce bitterness). The juice is then fermented in half stainless steel and half in French oak barrels for five months. The wine is hand-stirred every two weeks to enhance the mouth-feel and to add complexity.

When drinking Dunnigan Hills Viognier you will notice hints of mango and lychee fruit, the aroma of orange blossom, candied ginger and honey. It’s pale yellow color and sweet taste of apricot preserves and lychee fruit come first and is followed up by a hint of vanilla and orange zest. Drink Dunnigan Hills Viognier with grilled Caribbean fish and Thai food. Dishes with lemongrass will also bring out the best of Dunnigan Hills Viognier.

Chardonnay is a green-skinned variety of grape that is used to make white wine. This variety of grape can be grown wherever wine is produced from California to New Zealand. The Chardonnay grape is quite a neutral grape. The time of harvesting is crucial because as the grape ripens it rapidly loses it’s acidity. For creating sparkling wine the grapes need to be harvested early and while slightly unripe so they maintain the acid levels. Because low acid levels can be a concern winemakers can add tartaric acid in a process known as acidification. Sparkling Chardonnay wines tend to have a more floral and steely flavor while still young. As the wine ages the wine will develop more “toasty” notes. Since Chardonnay grapes usually have little trouble developing sugar content it limits the time needed for chaptalization. Chaptalization is when the winemaker adds sugar to un-fermented grapes in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation.

This gives it a wide berth to be used in many styles of wine making. Chardonnay can be used to make dry still wines, sparkling wines, sweet late harvest wines and more! There are two wine making decisions that most widely affect the end result of a Chardonnay wine. Whether or not to use malolactic fermentation(MLF) and the degree of oak influence used for the wine. With MLF the harder malic acid gets converted into softer lactic acid. This creates the “butteryness” that is associated with some styles of Chardonnay wines. When MLF is not used the Chardonnay wine will have a more green apple like flavor. Oak can be used during fermentation if desired to give it toastiness and flavors that are associated with using oak such as caramel, smoke, spice, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. The other wine making decisions that have a significant effect on the outcome of Chardonnay wines include the temperature of fermentation and how long it is left to ferment.

Chardonnay wine can have a wide varitey of flavors. Some can be semi-sweet while others can be sour, some can be heady while others are quite light. The typical flavors of a Chardonnay wine are apple, tangerine, lemon, lime, melon, and oak. Due to it’s wide range of styles and flavors, Chardonnay can be paired with a diverse spectrum of foods. Most commonly Chardonnay wines are paired with roasted chicken or other white meats. Chardonnays that have a heavy oak influence are better suited to smoked fish, Asian cuisine or garlic based dips. Older Chardonnays which are more mellow are quite delicious when enjoyed with food such as mushroom soups and aged cheese. Chardonnays from Washington, which usually have a higher acidity level and tend to go well with tomato or sweet onion based dishes.

Polarware Stainless Steel Kettle 30qt size is perfect for full wort boil of 5 gallon batches!

All fittings are SS weld-less with 1/2″ threads and high temp silicone gaskets.

• 30 Quart Capacity
• 20 gauge Stainless Steel
• 1/2″ NPT Weld-less Compact valve with 3/8″ flow port
• Weld-less thermometer

These economy Polarware stainless steel kettles give you plenty of capacity for a 5 gallon full wort boil. Each kettle includes a compact 304 stainless steel ball valve and 3″ weld-less thermometer. Rolled stainless steel handles stay cool even with a kettle full of boiling wort. Domed lid is also included. This is a great kettle for the novice home brewer because of its ease of use and thermometer built right onto it for maximum boiling accuracy.

During a small scale homebrew, it is recommended to use a primary carboy for fermentation. Once primary fermentation is complete, the beer can be either transferred to a secondary carboy for conditioning or it can be transferred directly to bottles for conditioning. This process of transferring is usually called racking.

Carboys can come in various sizes and volumes ranging from 3.8 to 24.7 liters. The term carboy itself usually refers to a 19 liter carboy, unless otherwise noted. A 4.5 liter carboy is commonly called a jug and a 57 liter carboy is usually called a demijohn.

Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvignon is a delicious rich reddish-purple maroon wine. This wine has many flavors ranging from tobacco to chocolate, raspberry, plum and other bright red fruits. Toasted Head Cabernet Saubignon is aged for 18 months but can continue to age for up to 5 years in the bottle. It’s complexity comes from Touches of Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Merlot. Which makes Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvignon a Bordeaux Claret American Style. Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvignon is best enjoyed with a fine steak, a burger or a decadent chocolate dessert.

SundayBrew spotlights Cape Cod Beer, which came from humble beginnings in the spring of 2004. The original location was the old facilities of the Hyport Brewing Company at the west end of Main Street in Hyannis. Cape Cod Beer was brewed there for a little less than 2 years. Their original system was a 7 bbl direct fired DME copper clad brewhouse with 3 x 15 bbl fermenters. At the beginning of 2006 the brewery moved to 1336 Phinney’s Lane, Hyannis. Today they offer guided tours of the brewery as well as fresh growler refills if you happen to be lucky enough to make it out there.

Cape Cod Beer offers 9 distinct and delicious ales. Their year round brews consist of their own Cape Cod versions of a North American Amber Ale (Cape Cod Red), an India Pale Ale (Cape Cod IPA), and an American Golden Ale (Cape Cod Beach Blonde Ale). Cape Cod also have a number of seasonal selections which include their Hefe-Weizen (Cape Cod Summer), German Ale (Cape Cod Harvest), Brown Porter (Cape Cod Porter), Dunkel-Weizen (Cape Cod Dunkel), Amber Ale with Cranberry, Clove and Orange (Berry Merry Holiday Ale), Old Ale aka Strong Ale (Old Man Winter).

If you find yourself vacationing in the Cape Cod area be sure to check out some of these wonderful ales which are served in many restaurants and bars on the cape as well as in growlers and bottles in local shops.