Completely new to Brewing, your criticism please :)

brewscoe said:

Sweet. I appreciate your help. I will be dabbling with aging my next few but for these two I wanted to have a sort of baseline to compare versus aged. how long do you typically age for and what does it do for the flavor of your brew?

Click to expand...

I don't really have a set timeframe, every brew acts differently. Aging does a lot of different things for cider/apfelwine/mead. It gives it time to clear completely, the alcohol mellows out so it's not as "hot", the underlying flavors that sometimes seem to be lost right after fermentation slowly come back. In meads the more subtle honey characters become more pronounced, often a little more sweetness comes back. All flavors from any additions like spices marry and provide the depth and layers of flavors you want. That's why a mead that may seem drinkable, even moderately enjoyable after only a couple few months will be good in 6 months, great in a year and if you can cellar some it'll be amazing in a few years.

There are a lot of factors to consider, a lower gravity beverage or ones with fruit additions tend to be drinkable quite a bit sooner that say a sack mead. The type of yeast used will influence it. The storage temperatures. There are just a lot to consider, best method I've found is judge the appearance, flavors, aroma, all of which will tell you when it is ready to be bottled or when it is ready to be enjoyed.

It has been fermenting for about 15 days now, and the bubbling has come to a slow spot. I do not have a carboy and airlock setup, but more so just my cook pot with some syran wrap pulled over and a pinhole in it. It has done a perfect job of keeping it vented whilst also keeping stuff out of it.

Now, I do believe I am done with primary. Should I taste it? If it desirable.. do I drink it? If not desirable should I secondary it? and maybe add some more ferment-able sugars? I was thinking if I do not secondary it I was going to utilize sterilized pop bottles to store it, as they have an easy to seal cap with an internal seal.

I am fairly confident I understand most of the brewing process, however what to do after the fermentation process is stumping me a bit.

What is the best plan from this point.

rosfrei said:

It has been fermenting for about 15 days now, and the bubbling has come to a slow spot. I do not have a carboy and airlock setup, but more so just my cook pot with some syran wrap pulled over and a pinhole in it. It has done a perfect job of keeping it vented whilst also keeping stuff out of it.

Now, I do believe I am done with primary. Should I taste it? If it desirable.. do I drink it? If not desirable should I secondary it? and maybe add some more ferment-able sugars? I was thinking if I do not secondary it I was going to utilize sterilized pop bottles to store it, as they have an easy to seal cap with an internal seal.

I am fairly confident I understand most of the brewing process, however what to do after the fermentation process is stumping me a bit.

What is the best plan from this point.

Click to expand...

Brewing and fermenting are not the same. Definitely taste it and if you like it then drink it. But odds are it may be gassy. If you do plan to age in clean/sterilized pop bottles you cannot seal with bottle lids because the mead will be offgassing and you will be popping lids or exploding bottles...grab some latex balloons and simply fit one over the top, secure with tape, etc. As the gas is released the balloon will fill, when the balloon deflates it can be an indicator that it is no longer producing/releasing gas. Some people poke a pinhole in balloon but I never did that and never lost a balloon (early days before I had stocked up on airlocks). The mead will be clearing during this time also and you may notice sediment, if so, simply transfer to clean/sanitized bottle in about a month for the first time leaving the sediment behind. Consider repeating every 60-90 days as the wine clears if it still drops sediment--otherwise leave it alone. Once clear and no longer dropping sediment then seal your bottles.

rosfrei said:

It has been fermenting for about 15 days now, and the bubbling has come to a slow spot. I do not have a carboy and airlock setup, but more so just my cook pot with some syran wrap pulled over and a pinhole in it. It has done a perfect job of keeping it vented whilst also keeping stuff out of it.

Now, I do believe I am done with primary. Should I taste it? If it desirable.. do I drink it? If not desirable should I secondary it? and maybe add some more ferment-able sugars? I was thinking if I do not secondary it I was going to utilize sterilized pop bottles to store it, as they have an easy to seal cap with an internal seal.

I am fairly confident I understand most of the brewing process, however what to do after the fermentation process is stumping me a bit.

What is the best plan from this point.

Click to expand...

Buy a demijohn or find a jug that you can rack it too and pop an airlock on it so it can settle and degas. You could put it in pop bottles but the residual gas would make it a little bubbly.