The Zima Challenge

A co-worker and I decided to initiate what we call "The Zima Challenge" - an effort, using standard homebrewing techniques, to replicate the (in)famous alcopop Zima.

The rules I am holding myself to are as follows:

1. Don't buy any new equipment
2. Use ingredients available to an homebrewer
3. For the love of Pete, don't make more than a gallon

Today, I brewed.

I assembled my ingredients:

1 Gallon of water

3 1/4 cups of sugar

Then came the most difficult step - I brought the water to a boil and added the sugar:

This took a great deal of concentration, and one beer.

 After letting the sugar boil for about half an hour, I cooled the solution to 80F:

This required another beer.  Being patient is hard.

 Then added the zest of one small lime:

Mmm, limey goodness.  Not Kate Winslet, unfortunately.

 Next came some dry ale yeast and a vigorous shaking to mix the yeast in and oxygenate the syrup (honesty prevents me from calling it wort):

 
It was already fermenting nicely a few hours later:

Further updates will be posted as we go along - I anticipate about a week in the first jug, then a second week to clarify, another 2-3 weeks for bottle conditioning and carbonation.

Something that didn't occur to me until the Mrs. asked me today is this:  Who is going to drink it?

That's a good question.  A very good question.  Anyone here in Austin that remembers what Zima tasted like want to be a guinea pig?

Oh, Hey, I Have A Blog, Don't I?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my Best!Job!Evar! has made for a lot of big adjustments in life at Casa AC - especially with the decrease in time for elaborate meals and extensive food prep.  We've been eating a lot  more crock pot meals, and more quick-cooking dinners as well.  We're still avoiding the extensively processed food, which is good.

Last night was the annual Crawfish Boil in our neighborhood, which includes (natch!) lots of mudbugs, barbecued pork, brisket, homebrewed beer (not mine, but maybe next year) and a rich assortment of homemade sides.

This was my first helping.  First of many.

It's a good feel, to come together as a neighborhood like that.  A sense of community, the pleasure of sharing with my neighbors, the delicious food - they're all good for me.  This year, I bought some bread (I'd planned to bake it, but a stomach bug on my day off meant no food prep), as well as 3 bottles of my Riesling and some orange and mango-habanero mead (still not completely aged, but darn tasty nonetheless - and 15% ABV, so with a nice kick).  My Bock just got bottled, so it's still 3 weeks out from being ready to drink.  Next year, I'm going to be ready earlier, and I'll have more wine and beer ready to haul out, and probably some cheese as well.

Today is mostly recovery - I helped clean up and put away tables and chairs, and I've got some housecleaning to do, and then it's making Mozzarella, and starting a batch of Shiraz so I've got it ready for our trip to the beach in August to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

I'll be trying to get back in the swing of things here, aiming for a post a week.

So, how YOU doin'?

Everybody's Workin' For The Weekend

Got a busy weekend planned - I'm racking my second batch of wine (Reisling) and making some cheese (Caerphilly). In progress is a gallon of mead, made using this recipe. I got my hands on several 1-gallon glass jugs from some good local friends, and since 1 gallon is cheaper to make in terms of ingredients than 5 gallons, I'm starting small. Next up is mango-habanero mead, I think. It'll be several months before I know if it's drinkable, so look for a Vikings! Quaffing! Mead! post sometime in late spring or early summer.

According to my calendar, the wine I started around Thanksgiving is ready to drink now, though it will taste better the more it ages. If I gave you a bottle in a fit of misplaced generosity, you can drink it today.

Last weekend, I made a batch of mozzarella, which I then put on a pizza, and there was much nommage. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the process. Someone out there, remind me to get pics of cheesemaking this weekend.

That's what I got going on right now.  Lots of busy-work, lots of little projects to keep my mind busy.  You guys got any big projects coming up?