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Wine Maker's Toy Store
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Dallas Home Brew
January 2014
Volume 12, Issue 1
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Happy New Year!
All of us here at The Wine Maker's Toy Store and Dallas Home Brew want to wish each of you a wonderful 2014.
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Monthly Specials
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We are back to our monthly specials and you can click on the following links to see them for the month of January 2014. We will also have periodic specials, so make sure that our email address is not classified as spam, if you want to receive notice of the specials.
Selected wine kits, $10.00 off, selected beer kits, 10% off and selected wine bottles, $1.00 off per case. Click on the links below to see the items on special.
Beers of the Month
Wines of the Month
Toys of the Month
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New Products Arriving this Month
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Our new products from Italy will be arriving around the middle of January. We are very excited as we will be offering some unique products, as well as, some of the best pricing on other products. One of the new products is the plastic fermenting bottle. One of the features is that it has a wide mouth to make cleaning much easier.
Be sure to watch next month's newsletter for the new products and introductory pricing.
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FIRST AID KIT FOR WINE MAKING AND BEER BREWING
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It's Saturday night and you are checking the specific gravity of your wine or beer to determine if you are ready to go to the next step. You reach for your sanitized hydrometer and it slips out of your hand, it does not bounce, and you spend the next few minutes cleaning up small pieces of glass. Now what? Hopefully, you reach for your Toy Store First Aid Kit and continue making your wine or brewing your beer.
Having a Toy Store First Aid Kit can save you the frustration of waiting until the supply store opens so you can finish the task at hand. It can also save the time and money of a trip to the supply store or shipping costs. A first aid kit can be assembled with a few very valuable but low cost items and everything should fit in a shoebox.
Here is our recommended list:
- Spare Thermometer - There is nothing worse than going to check the temperature of your grains or your must and dropping, breaking, or just misplacing your thermometer. Once again, an additional $6.00 item will save you a lot of frustration and may save your batch.
- Spare Hydrometer - A wet hydrometer is a very slippery thing and it will likely break if dropped or jostled about. Someday they may be made from a less fragile material but until then, having a spare in the first aid kit is a good idea.
- Extra Yeast - A real source of frustration and apprehension is watching your latest blackberry wine or India Pale Ale beer do nothing for the last three days. It could be that the yeast was out of date and weak, died from exposure to high temperature before you received it or it was re-hydrated at too high of a temperature. Instead of a fermentation that won't start maybe it's a fermentation that has stuck and it needs to be restarted. No matter the reason, the nearest pack of yeast is three days away. Lalvin EC-1118 and Red Star Premier Cuvee are great choices for wine in your first aid kit, while Safale SO5 is a great all-purpose yeast for your beer. Remember to periodically rotate your inventory and keep a fresh pack in the first aid kit. If possible, store this component of the first aid kit in the refrigerator.
- Yeast Nutrient - If you have a stuck fermentation and you are going to restart it, having some yeast nutrient to add will help the yeast deal with the alcohol environment. A little nutrient will help ensure there is a viable yeast population to complete the fermentation.
- Extra Corks and/or Caps - From personal experience, there is nothing like preparing for bottling just to find out you have no corks or caps. An extra bag will get that batch bottled.
- Drilled Stoppers and Airlocks - It's a good idea to have various size stoppers, airlocks and bottles available for saving the extra wine from racking. You can use splits, wine bottles, half-gallon and one gallon jugs to store small amounts of wine which can be used for future topping off. We recommend having several sizes of drilled stoppers on hand: #2, #3, #6.5 and the small multi-fit stopper.
To make it easy on you, we have created kits containing these items. To see what's included in each package, click on the following link:
First Aid Kits
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Spam
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We have seen a rise in the number of our emails winding up in spam folders. Please make sure that the following email addresses are not classified as spam, so that you will continue to receive our order and shipping confirmations, as well as, any special coupons like the birthday coupon.
sales@finevinewines.com
support@finevinewines.com
geocorn@finevinewines.com
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| Customer Feedback
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Since the day I started this company, I have taken extreme pride in the way we conduct business with our customers. All of us here at the"Toy Store" enjoy talking with our customers and we appreciate when our customers take the time to comment on our service and pricing. I would like to share some of the emails we get each month from our customers:
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I got my order yesterday. I don't you how you do it but you always ship on time and fast. I like ordering from you.
Gary - Kansas
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George,
Not a question, but a compliment.
I usually drop by and pick up my kits, but have ordered 4 from you since the beginning of Dec. At this time, 3 have been received, and the last one already shipped.
Thanks George and staff for the great service.
Brian - Texas
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Brew Day
Brew day will be held January 4th, from 10 am to 3 pm. We will have 2 extract and 1 all grain batches in the demonstration..
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As a reminder, we continue to add products and content to the web site, therefore, if you have any special requests, please let us know. We like to hear what you have to say about our site, our products and/or our customer service, good or bad. Please send your comments and/or suggestions to the contact us link below.
Don't forget we DO like you to CALL!
If you have any questions about our products, our service and/or wine making or home brewing, please call us. We are here to serve you and enjoying assisting you in any way we can. We have an international toll-free line so you WILL call us.
We always try to answer the phone when you call; however, sometimes, we are unable to answer the phone as we are on the other lines or we have customers in the store. If you get the voice mail, please leave your name, number, brief message and a best time to call. We will return your call just as soon as we can. If you don't want to call, just send us an email. We usually answer our emails daily. Please remember, we are a resource and we are here to serve you.
We don't want to be the biggest store, just the BEST!
Cheers!
George, Joseph and Brian
Fine Vine Wines, LLC, The Wine Maker's Toy Store and Dallas Home Brew
866-417-1114 (Long Distance)
972-323-7921 (Local)
972-323-7955 (Fax)
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