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hightest · 10-05-2008, 08:13 PM

For the benefit of those who may not know me, my name is "Hightest". My mead-making background goes back over two decades. Some of you may have seen my screen name on brewing forums such as: The Brewboard, WinePress, Got Mead, Northern Brewer, and More Beer. I was a mead forum moderator for over four years, organizing and managing several online group brews, and answering many brewing related questions.

During those moderating days, I found forum members often asked common questions. When I realized how many times I answered these questions, I prepared some FAQs to save me a bunch of keystrokes. The following topics will link you to these FAQs (With the exception of the speadsheet (XLS), all are in PDF format):

Basics
What is Mead?
Honey Fermentation Concerns
Making A Basic Mead
Rehydrating Dry Yeast
Staggered Nutrient Additions
Maple Syrup, Facts & Grades

Additives
Yeast Nutrients, Energizers, etc.
Urea Based Nutrients
Fining: What, When, & Why
Sparkolloid Fining
Bentonite
Adding Potassium Carbonate
Potassium Sorbate

Tools
Calculate Your Mead's OG
Mead Calculator Spreadsheet

(8/04/09)
Refractometer How to

(2/18/09)
I Need Help...! (11/24/08)

Advanced Concepts
Restarting A Stuck Fermentation
Servomyces - Good for Mead?
Autolysis - Is it really bad?
pH Probe Use & Care
Brewing Additive Shelf Lives
Malolactic Fermentation (MLF)
The ABW vs. ABV Relationship

(11/11/08)

Fermentation Charts (12/31/08)
2005 Fall’s Bounty Cyser
2006 Apple Butter Cyser
2006 Riesling Pyment Comparison to Estimate (01/01/09)
2006 Riesling Pyment (Group Brew)
2007 Traditional Mead
Raw Chart Data (12/03/09)

If you have any questions, please start a new topic concerning your question in the mead forum so that others may also learn from the resulting discussion. I only ask that you be patient for my reply as I'm finding that I'm not able to spend as much time online as in the past...

Perhaps others can add other mead-related FAQ links to this topic as well...

**BigKahuna** · 10-05-2008, 08:17 PM

Looks pretty cool....although I do have a bit of an issue with the PDF's. I suppose it isn't an issue for like 99% of the public.

Sounds like you've got a pretty thorough background in mead and brewing....welcome to our board.

hightest · 10-05-2008, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigKahuna

Looks pretty cool....although I do have a bit of an issue with the PDF's. I suppose it isn't an issue for like 99% of the public.

Sounds like you've got a pretty thorough background in mead and brewing....welcome to our board.

Thank you. What is the issue with the PDF format? It was done that way intentionally - mostly for printed format control.

**BigKahuna** · 10-05-2008, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hightest

Thank you. What is the issue with the PDF format? It was done that way intentionally - mostly for printed format control.

It's an issue with my browser not the PDF's

Good Work.

Driftless · 10-24-2008, 01:29 AM

Eureeka! I've struck gold!

Thanks for this treasure trove.

hightest · 10-25-2008, 01:16 PM

Notice to Mead Calculator Spreadsheet users

This spreadsheet was created using Excel 2003 (XLS). I recently found out that there is a compatibility issue using Excel 2007 with XLS type files. However, there is a way in which you should be able to use the Mead Calculator Spreadsheet.

Microsoft has a Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack that is designed to allow Office 2007 users to work with earlier office files. I hope this "fix" works for you.

Driftless · 10-26-2008, 07:07 AM

That explains the error it gave me when I tried to save it... still seems to work though. Anyone using office 2007 should change the default save to 2003 (instead of the pre-set .xlsx format) if they want anyone else to be able to read it... Another ploy by microsoft to force a costly upgrade on the world.

Is there a way to unlock the copy? I would like to tweak a few things, add a few parameters - but I can't seem to figure out how to change anything...

Cheers!

hightest · 10-26-2008, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Driftless

...Is there a way to unlock the copy? I would like to tweak a few things, add a few parameters - but I can't seem to figure out how to change anything...

The spreadsheet was intentionally protected for several reasons - one was to prevent inexperienced users from inadvertently changing / deleting formulae and certain cell information. Moreover, to prevent it from showing-up on the net in altered forms.

The notes area was an addition prompted by user comments, so if you'd PM me with your thoughts we can discuss them as potential spreadsheet revisions.

Driftless · 10-27-2008, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hightest

The spreadsheet was intentionally protected for several reasons - one was to prevent inexperienced users from inadvertently changing / deleting formulae and certain cell information. Moreover, to prevent it from showing-up on the net in altered forms.

Fair enough. I'm just used to working with Open Source, and Creative Commons (also here) -- the theory being you give others the freedom to expand, improve, change, share, as long as they keep your credits, keep it open source, and don't sell it.

Either way, its still a great tool - and thanks for sharing this.

hightest · 01-31-2009, 01:03 PM

Posted Rev. 10 to the Mead Calculator spreadsheet - Adds a 2nd NAS table that calculates the additions in decimal teaspoons (for those who may not have a digital scale).

Also unlocked a cell that was inadvertently locked. As no one mentioned this as a problem up to this point, I guess it wasn't interferring with the spreadsheet's use...