Waldo

I'm bottling a dunkel weissbier tomorrow. It's from a brewer's best kit, as I have yet to graduate to all grain brewing. That's the next frontier for me, and I hope to do that in the next month. On a related note, I've been bottling (and refermenting) my own shandies lately. It's an idea I took from a trip to LA (Son of a Gun restaurant). They used orgeat and lemon juice to strike their sweet-sour balance. I'm playing with a combination of lactose and sucrose to both increase mouthfeel and reduce potential CO2. I don't want to create bottle-bombs by mistake. So far, the method is to hold them for 24 hours at room temp and then move the bottles to a 37 degree chiller to shut down the yeast. The bottles have not been very consistent, and so I'm always looking for better ideas on how to limit CO2 while still maintaining some residual sugar to balance the citric acid. Lactose is just not sweet enough on it's own, and xylitol (tried that) has a reputation for causing, um... stomach discomfort.

The information can be difficult to come by for any particular wine, but many wines are unfined, and yet others are fined using bentonite. I'd advocate forming a relationship with your wine store operator and letting them help you make selections based upon your criteria. As for pairing, most dishes are best paired to the sauce (if their is one) rather than general practice of pairing to the protein. More importantly, drink what you like. Off-dry wines pair broadly because of their acidity and residual sugar. Many rosés are also easy to pair with a variety of dishes. While some pairings create a certain synergy, more often that not you are just looking to prevent pairings that clash. In my opinion, the whole practice of wine and food pairing is overly mystified. And quite often pairings that should work (or not work) in theory can still be surprising in practice.