Search results

Anybody have any Mazer Cup results/feedback they want to share? Lessons learned and such? This was my first year entering any thing. I did not medal (as expected) but definitely appreciate the feedback and scoresheets I received. I think it is invaluable. I entered 4 different meads in 4...

I only recently started using 1 gallon carboys so I could do more experimenting making 1 gallon mead batches. I primary in 2 gallon buckets and then transfer into 1 gallon glass carboys for secondary/clearing. I bought #6 stoppers for them as every where I could see, it seems that is what most...

Started (2) 1 gallon(ish) meads a couple of days ago. Came home today and was puzzled/concerned that my dining room smelled like H2S. Thought I had everything worked out pretty well but seems I have a hole in my process. Anybody want to point it out for me? Batch 1 1 gallon spring water 4...

Been making more meads lately and came across an old Curt Stock recipe i found somewhere years ago. I trust that the recipe is good as he clearly knows what he is doing, I'm just concerned with pushing the yeast to its alcohol tolerance as I've never done it. My concern is that with the...

When making fruit wines, I have been reserving an amount of the pre-fermented must for backsweetening. I add my fruit and water to the bucket with the appropriate amount of campden tabs prior to adding any pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, etc. I normally let it go for 2 days rather than 1 so...

Recipe: 10 lbs - Frozen Blueberries 4 lbs - Fresh Pineapple 3.5 Gallons - Bottled Spring Water 4.5 tsp - Acid Blend 7 lbs - Table Sugar Yeast Nutrient - per label instructions Pectic Enzyme - per label instructions Yeast - Lalvin 71B Campden Tabs Potassium Sorbate OG - 1.080 FG - .996 (back...

Made a few of these over the years and never quite been satisfied with the results. Have some finishing up fermenting now and looking for some advice. In the past, I've either cooked the honey too long and wasn't happy or the yeast I used took it down to being bone dry and I wasn't happy with...

It's been more than 8 years since I last brewed a beer. Done a few ciders/meads in that time but no beer. I brewed an extract last weekend as a tune up for my processes and want to jump back into AG, likely this weekend. So much more brewing software available now and I'm attempting to create...

Tasted my strawberry mead tonight at 11 months and the alcohol seems hotter than it should be at this point. RECIPE: 17 lbs honey 23 lbs frozen strawberries (5 in secondary) KV-1116 (rehydrated w/ GoFerm) SNA Was at 2/3 break in 4 days and down to 1.00 in a week. Topped off 3/4 G water in...

Can anyone point me in the right direction to convert mp4 videos to an avi format? I'm looking for something free that's not going to impregnate my laptop with anything other than exactly what I'm looking for. I'm getting my feet wet in astrophotography and I'm unfamiliar with this conversion...

For a 5 gallon batch it seems fairly common to add 1 campden tab per gallon and 1.5 tsp potassium sorbate per gallon. The problem I've got is that may campden tablets are apparently much stronger than what most people use. I don't have them in front of me but I believe it says to use 1/3 of a...

I'm really not having any luck finding a citrus melomel, proven recipe. I have no interest in making JAOM. I don't want any spices, just a strong citrus flavor. I'm sure people are hesitant to go too far with just citrus because of the fear of it being to acidic. I understand that concern...

I'm not finding a lot of information about how long to keep a mead on the fruit. The current batch I've got going, I'm looking for a strong fruit flavor. I had 17lbs of strawberries in the primary. I racked that to secondary after 2weeks (it was down to .998 already). I racked onto another 5...

I'm starting to get my feet wet with some different melomels and I'm wondering about using mostly juice and honey vs. water and a larger amount of fruit. My first melomel is only a month old so I can't say how it's turned out but I used 18 lbs of strawberries in the primary and 5 lbs in the...

I've had good luck backsweetening and bottle pasteurizing my ciders with no nocticeable change in the flavor profile; I'm wondering if I'll have the same luck with my strawberry melomel. I don't want to use anymore chemicals to stabilize before backsweetening, I'd prefer to just bottle...

I started a strawberry melomel on saturday, pitched Sunday. I've been degassing daily with a lees stirrer. Just for the hell of it, I decided to take a gravity reading yesterday and it's dropped from 1.134 down to 1.030! What the hell is that about? The recipe was basically 3 gallons of...

I just noticed that my campden tabs are 150 ppm. Apparently that may be 3 times the "normal" tabs? I'm making a melomel and it calls for 3 campden tabs for a 6.5 gallon batch 24 hrs prior to pitching the yeast. I used 3 tabs but then looked at the label and it says "use 1/3 tablet (50 ppm)...

I'm planning on bottle pasteurizing for the first time using a backsweetened cider. The plan is to let it ferment completely, backsweeten with more AJ, bottle, and then pasteurize. I'm not going for any carbonation on this one. I wondering if anyone has had/would have a problem with...

I made my first attempt at a mead about 3 years ago. Long story short, it didn't turn out. So I've sat on it for the past 3 years hoping it would improve. It didn't. So I finally dumped it the other day and had is soaking in Oxyclean. I bought some AJ today to make a cider and I was going...

I've played around with different cider recipes/processes for a couple of years but now I'm interested in bulk pasteurization. My plan for the current 5 gallons i've got going was to check the gravity when fermentaion was near complete, I like it around 1.014 or so. Once I reached that level...