May 2009 Newsletter
May 2009
News from: Winemakers Depot
WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE:
- Tips, Topics, & Factoids
- New Products
- Featured Products/Seasonal Products
- Promotions
- What’s New at Winemakers Depot
- Industry News
- Drop us a Line
- Recipes from Our Friends
TIPS, TOPICS, & Factoids:
Note Taking – Whether it is your total acidity before fermentation to be compared to post fermentation, tracking your temperature and the rate your specific gravity is falling during fermentation, or what type of yeast you used so you can replicate or stay away from it for a future batch, nothing can replace quality, well organized note taking during your wine making process. My suggestion is a small 5.5 x 8.5 inch ringed binder (maybe a planner style) with rings that can be opened so you can move pages and sections around to keep in chronological and alphabetical order by types and batches of wine.
Bottled Water versus Tap Water – If you add bad water to your wine to reduce sugar levels prior to fermentation or add bad water to your concentrated wine kit your wine will not be as good as it should be. Whether you have tap water or well water and it is treated with chlorine, fluoride, high in iron, hydrogen sulfide, too hard, too soft, use bottled water instead. It does not have to be fancy; I use Costco’s Kirkland brand water which is only about 13 Cents a bottle, cheap investment.
Save Money – While we sell the Wine De-Gasser/Wine Stirrer that attaches to your drill and fits through the mouth of a carboy for mixing your wine and we love to sell them to you, I never hesitate to recommend simply using an ordinary Racking Cane to accomplish the same results. You will be amazed at how well you can whip your wine and stir the contents of your carboy with a Racking Cane. Simply put it in your carboy at an angle with the tip at the perimeter of the bottom and rotate it around reversing directions a couple of times. A less expensive, effective way to stir the contents of your carboy and no drill is needed.
Which Wine Yeast Do I Use? - We get a lot of calls about a lot of different topics, but one of the most common question is about which yeast to use. As you all know wine making is part science and part art so there is no one yeast for any one specific wine. However, there are preferred yeasts for certain goals for particular fruits. To help you decide which wine yeast to use we have created the following reference chart for Red Star and Lalvin wine yeasts applications. You can also find it on our website at
www.winemakersdepot.com/Wine-Yeast-Quick-Reference-Chart-W27C11.aspx
NEW PRODUTS:
We have several new products at Winemakers Depot this month. Since our last Newsletter we have added the following:
The following Items Were Noted in Last Month’s Newsletter but Worth Repeating:
Coming later this month will be Wine Kits from WineXpert
FEATURED PRODUCTS:
Fruit Flavoring Concentrates – Whether you want to add flavor to your wine or beer or did not get the taste you were looking for from your wine or beer, you can use these natural syrup flavorings to enhance your final product. Go to
www.winemakersdepot.com/Fruit-Flavor-C42.aspx
PROMOTIONS:
Here are a few of the items we have on special right now.
WHAT’S NEW AT WINEMAKERS DEPOT:
· Our automated/integrated shipping cost calculator for using the US Post Office is in full operation. That’s especially great news for our friends in Alaska and Hawaii where the Post Office offers substantially better rates for shipping to those two states than any other package carrier.
o For those of you in the lower 48 states keep in mind even if you selected UPS Ground Service, at the time of shipping we switch about half of these ground orders to USPS Priority Mail (2-3 Day Delivery). These orders that are switched to USPS Priority Mail are typically smaller orders. There are a lot of factors that a website shipping program simply can not take into account. At the time of shipping all factors are taken into account and often times we upgrade the service to USPS Priority Mail, and always at no expense to our customers.
INDUSTRY NEWS:
Tax Free Shopping on the Internet May be Coming to and End?
With Sales Tax revenues at the state levels having been significantly reduced due to the current recession, Federal Legislators and State Governors are proposing legislation that will result in taxing purchases made over the internet, where as most internet sales are exempt from Sales Tax resulting from a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that made Mail Order sales exempt from Sales Tax in most cases but provided a window for Congress to later change the policy without running into a conflict with the US Constitution. Sounds great to increase revenues for schools, and fire and safety services and such until you think about the ramifications as shopping over the internet will certainty decrease.
- By adding taxes, costs will go up. By adding more administration to retailers, prices will go up. With cost advantages to internet shopping diminished there will be less sales, thus resulting in fewer businesses and less competition, which means prices will go up.
- As a result shoppers will get in their cars to shop and burn more fossil fuels, contributing to a whole different set of problems.
- Shoppers in rural areas will lose the cost advantage and possible convenience and time savings of shopping at home with a reduced number of internet sources.
- With reduced sales internet based businesses will be forced to layoff employees placing more workers on unemployment and reducing the buying power of these laid off workers.
- Some businesses will simply fail with reduced sales creating additional hardship situations, more vacancies in warehouses and retail locations that are already struggling, and yes lost local tax revenues. Even an internet based business pays local taxes, many if not most municipalities have B & O taxes they collect, they also have revenues and fees for business licenses, and taxes on the supplies to operate theses businesses that are typically purchased locally. Many internet businesses have walk-in retail locations that may very well fail without the internet sales, resulting in the loss of the sales tax from the walk-in business.
- The Federal Government is extremely concerned about the viability and the strain US Post Office has on our government and economy as it currently operates at a loss. Internet sales create a huge flow of high revenue packages into the US Postal System which would be dramatically reduced causing further financial burden on the US Postal Service and certainly layoffs of postal workers. Similar problems will be created for companies like UPS and FedEx. Not to mention reduced purchases by these companies of American made vans, trucks, airplanes, and package handling equipment and facilities.
- Keep in mind this recession will end, the taxes that are being proposed will not, and the businesses that fail, the jobs that are lost, the fuel burnt to drive to a store, and the time lost by having less shopping options from home will be difficult or impossible to recover.
Due to the nature of our business I am very much interested in any legislation that could impact on our business. However, I am equally concerned about any legislation that may be simply reactionary and might not be a solution, where the un-thought out consequences by lawmakers potentially make matters worse and result in an actual net loss in tax revenues and private dollars flowing into the our economy. I bring this to your attention as many of you shop our on-line store and likely do other shopping over the internet. If this is an important topic to you, regardless as to whether you support or oppose the proposed legislation, have your voice heard by contacting your State’s US Senators and your District’s US Representative. Remember, no taxation without representation, now that does not mean no taxation, as many hands make light work, but just make sure decisions are being made by the people and for the people.
· Have a question about a product
· If there is a product you need but can’t find on our website
· If there is there is a topic you would like to see covered in our next or future Newsletter
· If you have a recipe you want to share
RECIPE of the MONTH: Dandelion Wine
We had many inquiries this past week regarding Dandelion Wine. Given that spring is here and I look across my field full of dandelions with their bright flowers I was inspired to make Dandelion Wine this month’s recipe.
Since this Newsletter got a bit longer than I typically like to have them due to my expose on the forthcoming proposed Sales Tax legislation, here is a link to four Dandelion Wine Recipes on Jack Keller’s website
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp- My technical input... Just make sure you stay away from the dandelions your neighbor’s dog has visited!