Brewing more officially

I have owned the supplies to test my brews for a long time but have never really cared to find out what the percent alcohol my brews is. Well after having a few bottles explode I'm doing things a little more official this time. So for the record they batch has a starting possible alcohol level of 9% I will see where it is at in a week and report back!

Tomato processing is not my friend!

 So I have been wanting to try my hand at making some tomato products and after researching and planning decided to give it a try. I had some cards stack against me in the fact that I didn't have all the ingratiates I needed and was getting some conflicting information about canning the final products.

I was able to finish 7 jars of pizza sauce and 5 jars of salsa. Not sure how they really taste yet because they are still finishing the canning process and I'm going to let them sit for a week or so to age. I don't have high hopes for this batch though. One of the biggest reasons is the tomatoes I used weren't the best quality. But I was tired of just planning so I settled on what I could get at the prices I was willing to spend.

Another strike against processing my own tomatoes is the after effect of all the acid and spices. The salsa I made is a spicy salsa and my eyes and sinus are burning this morning and my wife informs me that some of my children seem to be having trouble as well. Plus my final mess didn't exactly get cleaned up before it was time for bed... no good will come from that!

Like many times when I have tried something new I have learned a great deal and if I try this again I will be altering what I do next time. I will keep you updated if all the trouble is worth the final product.