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Old 11-19-2013, 07:17 AM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,379,084 times
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The guy making mead in Beverly seems to be using locally sourced honey for the mead and and locally sourced fruits for his other products. He has received some nice recognition at competitions. I am going to try to get down to Beverly and pick up some of things he is making. The sound like they'd make nice gifts and I like support local businesses especially when they sound like they are actually going to benefit far more than some giant producer.



The largest source of non-midwestern grapes for Illinois wineries is NY, followed by CA. Oregon accounts for a little more than 5% while WA a little less.

http://www.illinoiswine.com/pdf/grap...ublication.pdf

The info about all the various info you learned picking grapes in Oregon is awesome, I am sure you must miss working in that industry and I am sure you must impress a lot people with your awesome experience. I am so very happy that you have shared that with all of us.

Here is nice article in a typical "snobophile" magazine that actually praises midwest wines from a guy who started out very skeptical -- Michigan: In Defense of B-List Wine Country | Food & Wine
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Old 11-19-2013, 10:10 AM
 
Location: Chicago
319 posts, read 604,536 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett View Post

The info about all the various info you learned picking grapes in Oregon is awesome, I am sure you must miss working in that industry and I am sure you must impress a lot people with your awesome experience. I am so very happy that you have shared that with all of us.

Here is nice article in a typical "snobophile" magazine that actually praises midwest wines from a guy who started out very skeptical -- Michigan: In Defense of B-List Wine Country | Food & Wine
I didn't pick any grapes. I managed a fairly high-tech internal winery laboratory where we used HPLC to analyze acid profiles of wines, and used Qiagen bio-robots and kits to analyze fruit and wines for potential spoilage bacteria and yeasts. Due to the fact that sourcing that science out was prohibitively expensive we were able to justify cutting edge equipment in an industry that is used to some rather backwards methodology for getting an idea for the risk of potential spoilage in a large number of individual separate lots of wine.

I don't miss working in that industry terribly, when I returned here and did both cancer research and cardiac disease research I found that more enjoyable, although it pays very little, the hours aren't pre-dawn. Fortunately with all of the wise governmental budget decisions, obviously to fund wars and defense rather than research, we get to take a little work break for a while.

I'm glad you are so very happy that I shared information, I've been looking for that kind of approval all week. Apparently you aren't the only one as I'm getting a number of private messages related to this thread.

Here's some of the current available wines and the below URL, for those that don't know what shiners are, they are bottles of wine without labels. These will end up sold to places that do things like wedding wines or other sorts of novelty labels. A few pages in there is one south american finished bulk wine available, though the majority are CA wines. Bulk wine often is being sold because it is somehow inherently flawed and so the wine-maker or estate wants to hide the fact that they made something so bad.

Grapes and Bulk Wine Market - Buy and Sell
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Old 11-19-2013, 11:22 AM
 
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As a former high school science teacher I am happy to hear when anyone can be involved in a career that allows them to further the applications of scientific tools / methods.

Here is a link to something that sounds related to the work you did -- HPLC-DAD methodology for the quantification of org... [J Sep Sci. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

The properitier of Wild Blossom Mead in Beverly sound like a pretty neat guy -- Wild Blossom Expands in Chicago's South Side - Midwest Wine Press I look forward to getting down to his tasting room (past the line of French safety... ) and tipping back a glass.



From NYT Magazine -- "Fischer's meads are .... exceptions because they are complex and enjoyable in much the same way that grape based wines are."

Wild Blossom Meads| New York Times Magazine Food
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Old 11-19-2013, 11:59 AM
 
Location: Chicago
319 posts, read 604,536 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett View Post
As a former high school science teacher I am happy to hear when anyone can be involved in a career that allows them to further the applications of scientific tools / methods.

Here is a link to something that sounds related to the work you did -- HPLC-DAD methodology for the quantification of org... [J Sep Sci. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

The properitier of Wild Blossom Mead in Beverly sound like a pretty neat guy -- Wild Blossom Expands in Chicago's South Side - Midwest Wine Press I look forward to getting down to his tasting room (past the line of French safety... ) and tipping back a glass.



From NYT Magazine -- "Fischer's meads are .... exceptions because they are complex and enjoyable in much the same way that grape based wines are."

Wild Blossom Meads| New York Times Magazine Food
An excellent paper, when I still had university gateway access that was printed for our inspiration. We didn't bother with the phenol component, the 60 minute run-time was a bit excessive for us. We were running sometimes up to 60-70 samples/day so time was also important and our elution time was right around 10-12 minutes for the small organic acids.

I'd be willing to bet that there are significant concentrations of a variety of anti-oxidant compounds in mead since they already exist in honey. The following paper finds quercetin in honey (it also exists in wine) and a variety of of other anti-oxidant compounds that have in-vitro protective effects on erythrocytes.

Phenolics from monofloral honeys protect human erythrocyte membranes against oxidative damage

It would be pretty neat to get someone to do that type of profile on the wild blossom mead. I've read in the past that different honeys, evidently based on what type of flowers the bees have access to, affects the prevalence of the specific chemical profile of potential anti-oxidant compounds. Many of those compounds are stable in wine, I can only imagine they'd be stable in mead.

Anyone got a spare HPLC-DAD lying around?
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Old 11-26-2013, 11:57 AM
 
Location: Chicago (Garfield Ridge)
152 posts, read 495,115 times
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This was such a great thread because it really got me curious about meads. On a whim, I popped into UnCork It at 393 E. Illinois St. in the Streeterville neighborhood and found a selection of meads from the Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery. I picked up a bottle of Blueberry Nectar and can't wait to try it. BTW, I've been to a friend's place across the street from the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave, and you can see the bee hives on the roof - one of the sources for Wild Blossom's honey.
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Old 11-26-2013, 01:21 PM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,379,084 times
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Default Totally cool!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicagodan View Post
This was such a great thread because it really got me curious about meads. On a whim, I popped into UnCork It at 393 E. Illinois St. in the Streeterville neighborhood and found a selection of meads from the Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery. I picked up a bottle of Blueberry Nectar and can't wait to try it. BTW, I've been to a friend's place across the street from the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave, and you can see the bee hives on the roof - one of the sources for Wild Blossom's honey.
Great to hear! I got bogged down with stuff around the house and did not make it down, but there are still PLENTY of shopping weeks before Christmas. I am making a list and I trying to decide who deserves a special treat.

Bees apparently can overwinter in our climate, there is a guy in Fairmount with an awesome site all about honeybees -- Basic Beekeeping: LESSON 62: PREPARE FOR WINTER IN AUGUST & SEPTEMBER
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Old 11-28-2013, 03:51 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
3,793 posts, read 4,600,716 times
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Once again, Chet pretends to know something about a topic and get schooled by someone who actually does. I wonder if this ever gets old for him?
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Old 11-28-2013, 09:33 PM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,379,084 times
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Happy Thanksgiving!

Check the thread and then tell me again who added info.

(BTW, For a nice chuckle about posting on things that one likely knows nothing about I'd recommend assessing taking a look at which subforums a certain poster upthread seems to frequent... )
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Old 11-30-2013, 10:07 AM
 
527 posts, read 600,440 times
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What is Beverely?
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Old 11-30-2013, 02:30 PM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,379,084 times
Reputation: 18729
Default Worth looking at...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bucktownbabe View Post
What is Beverely?
Beverley is one of the more affluent of Chicago's neighborhoods, hme to a fair number of cops and city workers. Racial mix is similar to many northside neighborhoods. Beverly, Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wild Blossom Meadery has a tasting room and other facilities at 10033 Western Ave.
The facility also houses a well regarded shop that sells supplies for brewing beer and other potables -- Bev Art Brewer & Wine Maker Supply - Beverly - Chicago, IL

Last edited by chet everett; 11-30-2013 at 02:40 PM..
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