Blog : Means Cork and Cap

Homebrewing Basics Part 2: What’s in Beer?

Homebrewing Basics Part 2: What’s in Beer?

What's in Beer? Beer is made with four base ingredients, water, malt/grains, hops and yeast. Other ingredients can also be added, such as fruit, juice, honey, and spices. Water Use clean water, whatever you feel comfortable drinking. Some people do a whole water chemistry, and change the pH and hardness of their water to better suit the style of beer they are brewing, but to get started tap or spring water is fine. Do not use distilled water because beer and yeast benefit from the minerals present in water. I do add gypsum to my brewing water, it lowers [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2022-01-05T12:41:44-05:00December 17th, 2021|Latest Articles|

Homebrewing Basics Part 1: Where to Begin?

Homebrewing Basics Part 1: Where to Begin?

Where to Begin? Are you interested in starting to brew your own beer, but don’t know where to begin? In this multi-part guide, I will discuss the basics of homebrewing and share my tips and tricks for brewing beer at home. Equipment One of the most important parts of brewing, or fermenting anything, is equipment. You need a fermenter, siphoning equipment, boiling pot, bottles, cappers, and caps. There are equipment kits available, but you can always buy your equipment separately, and just get the essential pieces for brewing. Fermenters Most beginner ingredient kits make one gallon or five gallons [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-12-10T17:57:58-05:00November 1st, 2021|Latest Articles|

Fruit Wine Without the Mess!

Fruit Wine Without the Mess!

Vintner's Best Fruit Wine Bases Have you wanted to try making wine out of fruit or grapes that aren't readily available to you, or you don’t want the mess or expense of buying and preparing fruit for a wine? Vintner’s Best Wine Bases may be what you are looking for! Easy to Make These wine bases make five gallons of wine, though you can split it up and make smaller batches; using the 1:4 ratio, it’s one gallon of the base to four gallons of water. These bases are pH balanced and pre-sweetened to ferment to 10% alcohol, [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-08-28T11:16:10-04:00August 28th, 2021|Latest Articles, Wine Kits|

New Chat Option!

New Chat Option!

Get Answers Right Away! If you have visited our website recently, you may have noticed a chat (Facebook Messenger) icon or message pop-up in the bottom right corner of the page; we recently added the option to chat to us directly via Facebook Messenger! This makes it so you don't have to wait for business hours to call, or for us to answer your emails. Of course, you can still message us via our Facebook page, but this is a nice shortcut if you are on our website and have a question and don't want to navigate to Facebook, [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-06-23T15:16:51-04:00May 8th, 2021|Latest Articles|

Filter Wine Using the Buon Vino MiniJet Filter

Filter Wine Using the Buon Vino MiniJet Filter

Filtering Your Wine In my fruit winemaking guides, I mentioned that in addition to using fining agents to clear your wine, you could also use a filtering system to filter out any of the smaller particulates that may be keeping your wine less than pristine. I am finally getting around to talking more in-depth about the system we sell and/or rent at Means Cork and Cap, and that I’m familiar with, the Buon Vino MiniJet. What is it? The Buon Vino MiniJet is an electric pump filter that pulls your wine from one carboy/bucket through three filter pads of [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-06-23T15:17:52-04:00April 23rd, 2021|Latest Articles|