Recent content by taishojojo

Can you still get carbonation if you backsweeten (with AJ concentrate) and you racked into bottles (off the lees)? Maybe I'm 'mis-speaking'... You add AJ concentrate then rack off the lees into bottles. Will I get carbonation? (and subsequently have to pastuerize or fridge it)

I did read the sticky... (several really) The trick seems to be getting it sweet.. getting it carbed... stopping the fermentation process before eating a face full of glass. I just bought 3 1-gal bottles (glass even :) ) of Apple juice from Whole foods. Ill buy some airlocks tonight. I have...

sooo what if I bottled while it was still fermenting? is that what the priming sugar is for? let it finish... add a bit in the bottle, and bubbles.

I've never brewed a beer (only mead) so this may seem silly. At what point does carbonation occur? This may come naturally to beer brewers but everything I've read gives me the impression: it just happens... but how? I have a bucket... I have carboy... I even have grolsch style bottles I...

I did a batch but didn't add pumpkin or spices until I racked to secondary.

A local store has unpasteurized apple juice but it has potasium sorbate added. Can something be done to use this or am I just out of luck?

Could someone provide a good link to back sweetening, please. I had a batch get really dry. I bought a yeast that I was told had a tolerance of 12%. I racked to secondary and gave it a taste... it had a some teeth to it. Final gravity put this thing at 16.5%. I was wondering how to properly...

Thank-you for the responses... bear with me here. I'm only working my second batch. My first batch of mead I used an acid blend and wlp720 (sweet mead yeast alcohol tolerance ~15%) I took a sip when I racked it (about 5weeks in the primary). There wasn't any alcohol hotness. Now... I know...

I guess my next question is what do tannins do? Some articles I read, make em sound like a good thing... some sound bad.

Ive seen people using teabags or loose tea.... What affect does that have? If I steep tea too long it takes a chalky texture to it. So I cant imagine what days/weeks/monthes would do to a mead.

Well.. my first batch I had help... second batch I altered a little. Ive read in a variety of sources that honey isn't as acidic as yeast would prefer. Acid additive isn't necessary but helps (from what Ive read and been told). The bentonite... I was imitating from the first batch. My brain says...

I probably just need patience... I got home form work yesterday and checked it and it was bubbling away. Insert drill stir... degas and re-froth...

I carboyed my first batch. Tastes good (its cloudy though). I started a second batch. 15 pounds Orange Blossom Yeast Nutrient (half dose) Bentonite Acid Blend Filtered Tap water to 5 gallons A packet of Red Star Cote du Blanc dry yeast. OG: 1.118 I reconstituted the yeast with 1/4...

Thank-you for the replies... this is good to know. So... what is the line between O2 being good for fermentation and bad for clearing. My first batch of mead is a 3gal Orange Blossom. I kept reading that headspace in clearing needed to be minimal; so I bought a 3gal PET Better bottle...

Ive been reading on containers... PET vs glass vs ..... Yesterday I found something when reading on food grade containters... that was using containers that previously held food. I thought: What if I used 1-gallon water jugs from the store? Put my mead in that instead of buying a gallon...