Recent content by ALPS

Last falls batches should be ready for Christmas '09: 8/26/08 mulitberry melomel, OG 1.130 10/5/08 Cayuga White, 1.090 10/7/08 mead, 1.127 10/?/08 vanilla cinnamon methoglyn, 1.120+ 10/19/08 Reisling 10/20/08 Traminette Pyment, 1.126 And a few others that are still waiting to...

I've been using HT's SNA for a while now and can attest to it's validity. Have one going over 17% with D-47 kept around 62-64d F. I'm curious to know if anyone has experience with D-47 at lower temps? I know it's good down to 50ish for white wine (~1.090), but what about high gravity...

Hightest!?! :eek: Here?!? :confused: lucky HBT...

Joe's Ancient Orange has about the fastest turn around time of any mead I've seen. http://www.moremead.com/mead_logs/Ancient_OCC.html

Yes, a few. If you have never made mead before why so many varieties and so much oak? Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for someone with no experience and a sure way to disappoint yourself. What are you going to do about the increasing headspace when you remove 12 oz of mead from the...

While I can not comment on the use of the BrewBelt, I can offer you some other things to consider. Skip the acid blend. You can lower the pH too much and slow or inhibit fermentation. If you think you need it later, add it a bottling time. Make sure you aerate the must well prior to pitching...

Hey Bob, put away one of those kegs, get a cooler and check out this site: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ Pictures included. Keep it simple for your first couple of brews and get the process down before you worry about extra equipment. Figure out what does/doesn't work for you and build...

Right now, while it's still fermenting, you have a huge amount of CO2 in solution. Adding anything to it, especially things like nutrients with a lot of surface area, provides nucleation points, or a place for the CO2 to come out of solution. You'll end up with a volcano of foam. Stir it up well...

Just remember, before you add any nutrients to a fermenting mead first dissolve it in some boiled and cooled water and make sure you degas the mead before pouring it in! How are you guys rehydrating your yeast? Ever try GoFerm?

No reason you can't move the carboy (or bucket) to a cooler place and wait for a few more weeks till you have all your ingredients gathered up for the next batch. By then a lot of the yeast will have dropped out of suspention, and then you'll have a clearer mead to rack to secondary. Or you...

You might want to recalculate. 15 pounds of honey mixed with 4 gallons of water will net slightly over 5.25 gallons at 1.100. What I don't understand is how the OP can use over a gallon of honey and over 4 gallons of water and end up with 5 gallons total. However, the starting gravity looks...

With only roughly one gallon of honey per 5 gallon batch, any of the yeasts you listed should ferment this to bone dry with little effort on their part.

Day 18: (today) SG: 1.010. Airlock activity has slowed down a lot over the past 4 days. I think it's just about done.

I'd stay away from 71B for anything "white". Any spices I'd wait on and add to secondary, if at all.

The Reisling or Gewurztraminer would both be excellent choices. Traminette is also good. I'd use enough honey to get the gravity up around 1.120, so maybe 7 to 9# depending on what the grapes came in at. Have you decided on a yeast yet?