Recent content by jmureiko

Good luck! Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks for the heads up!

Very glad to hear another meadmaker willing to take on the sacred cow of varietal honey! I'm a beekeeper who's very natural about what I do, and varietal honey is (mostly) unnatural. By the way, why don't you purée?

It was 1.110. So just at the upper end. I read that the lower temps keep the ABV down.

I think it's funny that we're doing strawberry mead when they aren't in season. :-) I just started a half gallon test batch on Friday and just racked to secondary (it seems soon, but it went from 1.110 to 1.014 in less than five days! And I wanted to do my best to keep some residual sugars). The...

Ken Schramm only uses K sorbate. That may have been different before, but he recommends letting it finish fermenting and then letting it sit on sorbate for about three days. Degass it and bottle. Just make sure of no CO2!

I just tasted it and its not bad. No strong, harsh flavors. I used Cote de blanc yeast, and I was shooting for a sweeter finish, hence the lower temps... We'll see. :-) Thanks!

I just finished converting an old shipping container into a fermenting box. I insulated the walls with spray foam and made a few 1 gallon batches of mead to put in it. After going to check on everything this morning, my heater, which is set at 64 deg., had been switched to HIGH all night and the...

All grain can be done, I've heard, fairly inexpensively with the Brew In A Bag method. Just google it sometime. That's what I'm gonna try for the same reason. $$$

Touché! Lol!

Well, to be honest, I don't actually agree with that (with a friendly tone) :-). The research shows time and again that any form of alcohol consumed in moderation leads to be unmistakable health benefits. Check out this link for a mind-blowing wealth of evidence...

Phil chandlers book, The barefoot beekeeper, is a very worthwhile read on horizontal top bar hives.

I definitely agree with Nahone. Raw honey has tremendous health benefits, and my initial response would be that mead was, for centuries, considered a valuable health tonic. References made to by Greeks indicate a health interest as far back as 2000 years ago, and likely farther. I would also add...

Glad to hear you're taking a simple, less conventional approach than the traditional langstroth hive. I've moved to the horizontal top bar hive for this year in my apiary. I'd be very interested to hear about your experience with the warre!

That sounds wise to me. :-) What are your recommendations for degassing techniques?