Greg's Egg Nog sometimes called GregNog

Greg's Egg Nog (GregNog)

3 cups of milk
1/2 cup pasteurized liquid eggs or 2 large eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Dash cinnamon
1 1/2 spoon nutmeg

Mix in blender for 90 seconds


Uncooked eggs are traditional, but they can cause salmonella. I prefer the pasteurized liquid eggs.


If you want to add rum or whiskey hold out 1/2 c of milk and add 1/2 c of rum.

2015 Merlot

At our local wine grape vendor, California Wine Grapes, I walked through the coolers tasting the merchandise. I like the Merlot pretty well. When I got home, I made a little glass of grape juice that was less impressive. 

I decided to make the Cab Sav into a blush, and after pressing the blush, I took the left-over skins and put them into the Merlot to strengthen the flavor. 

2015 Merlot

108 lb Merlot grapes
Pressed grape skins from 72 lb of Cabernet Sauvignon
1200 g sugar
11 g Yeast Energizer
2 packets of Red Star Montrachet

The Merlot grapes were a little juicy and measured at 23.8 Brix (26.1% sugar) for 12.4% alcohol. To get to the desired 14.1% alcohol I would need 29.8% sugar so I added 1.2 kg of sugar on the estimated 31 kg (7.5 gal) yield. 

With the Cab Sav skins in the primary fermenter, there may be too many skins for the volume of liquid. I am a little worried about fungus growth on the surface. I hope the liquid weeps out of the solid material to make this work a little better. 

2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Blush

So I got Cabernet Sauvignon when I thought I was getting Cabernet Blanc. The white grapes were really picked over. I decided to make a blush of it. The grapes turned out the be dry, so there was not much juice. 72 lb yielded 4.5 gallons. I am going to use the skins in the Merlot.

As always, the grapes are pressed immediately after crushing. The juice was 26.4 Brix which will make 13.8% alcohol -- good to go!

2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Blush Recipe

72 lb Cabernet Sauvignon (4.5 gallon of juice)
4 g pectic enzyme
6 g yeast energizer
1 packet Red Star Premier Crevee

2015 Primitivo Zinfandel

I found some grapes labelled Primitivo which is the Italian name for Zinfandel, as shown by DNA some time ago. The lady at the counter knew this. The grapes were great though. I did a taste test with the Cab Sav and my Merlot, and the Primitivo was winner.

The grapes were juicy so the sugar was a little low at 24.4 Brix. I added sugar up to 27% Brix or 14.2% alcohol.

2015 Zinfandel Wine Recipe

108 lb Zinfandel Grapes
2.4 lb sugar
11 g yeast energizer
1 pack Red Star Montrachet

Almost the same recipe as last year. 

2015 Cherry Wine

I have a lot of cherry wine on hand from last year, but the cherries were on sale at the store, so I bought a few bags. These were California Cherries, and not too sweet. 


2015 Cherry Wine Recipe

11 lb Sweet Cherries (stemmed, and sliced, but with pits)
1.5 gal water
6 lb of sugar (!)
1 t yeast energizer
1 t pectic enzyme
yeast - Red Star Cravee


This made 10 L of wine which is aging well. 

The flavor was better without heating the cherries, but I probably had a lower yield of juice. 

Here is the wine label for this batch:

2015 Raspberry Wine

My brother Glenn made an excellent raspberry wine two years ago, so when raspberries were on sale, I bought 3 cases and here we are. I do have a couple raspberry bushes but they don't produce anything like what I needed.

This has about twice the level of raspberries compared to the online recipes. I wanted a stronger raspberry flavor. I can always dilute it at the end.

The plan is to ferment to dryness, and then mix back with either more sugar or a white grape wine. I plan to try both, but there will only be about 3 gallons total. I am a little concerned that I should add more water, but we will see.

2015 Raspberry Wine Recipe

9.75 lb water (1 gal + .6 qt)

15 lb raspberries (Well-Pict from California, with a handful of my homegrown raspberries)

7.3 lb sugar

1 lime - juice only

1g wine tannin

4 g pectic enzyme

5 g yeast energizer

1 Premier Cuvee

The sugar content was measure by refractive index at 27.7% sugar (25 brix.) This should give 13. 1%.