Recent content by tauschung

You could make a tisane, as you said and mix that water with the honey to form your must. However, fermentation will affect the aroma and flavor of the herbs. It is best to, as was mentioned earlier, add the herbs in at secondary so you can control the final product more.

If your tap water tastes fine, then it is fine to use in your mead. The water is very hard where I live, so I use the plain-jane spring water that comes in 1 gallon bottles. Do not use distilled water in your mead.

@bobbrews: I agree. In an ideal world, I would steep the peppers in the heated must to get the most oomph from the pepper. But, at this point I do not want to risk oxidation or just plain screwing up the mead. So, I think that a good compromise is rehydrating the pepper in water and racking...

@TheBrewingMedic: Just to be clear, the mead is already finished fermentation. I will not be heating it up for the pepper. I will rehydrate it in water before adding it to the mead, though. I discussed the oak idea with my wife. I think I am going to see how it imparts its flavors with a...

@bobbrews: That sounds like a winner. I knew I would have to rehydrate them, but was unsure if I should just stick it in the mead. In retrospect, seeds would impart some off flavors. My wife suggested the canned chipotles, but I struck it down. There's too many variables there. I don't want...

@Double_D: They have all kinds of dried and fresh peppers at the supermarkets here. But, I don't think that popping them in the carboy will accomplish my intended flavor profile. Have you used any of the peppers in your homebrews? If so, how have they turned out?

I'm going to split up my 5 gallons of show mead I made a year ago. One of them is going to be my Bobby Flay mead, or Pomegranate capsicumel. My question, is, how would I impart a smoky spicy flavor into the mead? I loooove those cans of chipotle peppers packaged in adobo. And, I think that...

@billyda59: you need to aerate your must during the first 1/3 of fermentation. I don't know what kind of vessel you have your must in, but you can either stir it with a spoon or rock it back and forth to get all the CO2 out.

@bobbrews: I plan on purchasing a masticating juicer in the near future. I've been saving up for a while. The potato scrubber was a fantastic idea. After failing miserably at trying to burn the glochids off, I ended up just wearing heavy gloves and rubbing the pears against them to get the...

@TheBrewingMedic: How did you calculate out that? I'd like to know so I can work this out in the future.. @bobbrews: Cool. The only reason why I heated it was because I had read that it gets thick and has an awful consistency when the pulp hasn't been cooked and the protein hasn't been...

@huesmann: do you think it would affect the quality or taste of the mead though? I think that it might have an affect like aromatics do on cooked meats... Personally, I would not take the chance, and would wait for the fires to clear up. I might be too cautious though.

@ExoticMeadMaker: Right. If you use campden tabs and then pitch the yeast within the set time limit, you'll kill your yeast. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you aren't using campden tabs, then there is no reason why you can't pitch your yeast now.

@TheBrewingMedic: Great idea! I can definitely do that. I guess I was not clear. I'm trying to figure out what starting gravity I should be shooting for. Or even, how to calculate out the starting gravity. I know that for sweet meads you can use a ratio of honey to water. But, I'm not...

@TheBrewingMedic: I like the way you think. I was originally thinking that I would add some juice in both primary and secondary. But, I'm not sure that I have enough. Well, at least, I have not seen any recipes that have posted the amount of juice they used. I already have the juice in the...

Hi, I'm in the process of making 1 gallon of a prickly pear mead. I had about 2#, and have it juiced to 4 Cups of barney blood. I think I can get more out of it..but I have class tonight. I'm looking to make a medium sweet wine. Here's my recipe. 4-5# local varietal honey 2# prickly pear...