Recent content by brandonj

Making Tej is an involved process, it's not hops. Read the article on gotmead, it explains everything.

Well this is what I had in mind. I love cider and I love maply syrup so why not make a cider with about two to three pounds of maple syrup? I've made meads with maple syrup and they have never lasted long enough to age :mug: so I'm wondering how maple and apples will team up. Cheers

Well you can start that way with equipment or you can do some junkyard brewing as I and my fellow deviants did in high school. Find a jug of apple juice, glass prefered dump some yeast in, put a sanatized ballon with a pinhole in it over the mouth and set it out of the way. :tank:

I believe I saw an article on GotMead about Tej. You might want to try looking through the forums there as well.

A good idea, some basic equipment will make your life a lot easier when brewing.

... you drank live activated yeast? It will start eating your body! :D Nah, it's all good, things will tend to have a yeasty taste to them. Once it settles out the taste should go away.

Well for one the campden tablets are not needed. Honey is fairly sterile until you dilute it, an odd property it has. The trashcan and trashbag are not going to help you much as the gas will escape no matter what you do. In all honesty a carboy is not that expensive. I picked up mine for...

Joe's Ancient Orange is rather good. It never lasts long for me :tank: . I warn that it breaks some brewing taboo including using bread yeast *gasp* but it has proven itself time and time again so stick to it.

I've tasted some VERY good 14 year old mead. It was sweet and had a high alcohol content but you could never tell until you tried to stand up :drunk: Aging mead is an odd thing as some age very well and others don't age well past 5 or so. I'm drinking some Sky River semi-sweet mead right now...

Look on the bright side, if something goes wrong and it tastes good... go with it. It could have gone wrong and been horrible.

Well I racked over my 5 gallon batch of cider to a secondary carboy a few hours ago... and not to let the leftover go to waste I put some in a large glass and set it in the fridge. This batch was made with 5lbs of corn sugar as well so I've discovered it has quite a kick (woo! :drunk: ). It's...

I believe he meant 10-12lbs per five gallon batch, though if you check GotMead's forums you'll commonly see 15lbs per 5 gallons. Cheers

I haven't had much experience with progressive feeding but I hear it can add some odd qualities. Force carbonating should be fine. As for adding sweetness to a finished mead I try not to.

Your SG with that little honey is only going to be about 1.074... which is very low for a mead which usually is in the range of 1.085 to 1.110. As it is your mead is going to be about 9% AVB and be dry as a bone. You said you wanted a sweet mead wich is why I recommended at least 15lbs of...

10 lbs is a little on the light side for five gallons of mead. If you want a sweet mead I'd at least go with 15 lbs. If you've never tried making mead before Joe's Ancient Orange is an excellent mead to start with. The mead calculator elsewhere on that site will help you get your mix right.