Recent content by Blamo

Hello everyone. Working on my first mead. Recipe was 5lbs Wisconsin cranberry honey and enough water to make 1.5 gallons. Added Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast September 6, original PA was just shy of 18%. Checked today and PA is at 3%, which is what I was shooting for, a little off-dry. So...

I've used honey to sweeten my cider's before but have never done a straight mead. My only paramater is that I would like it to finish slightly sweet if possible, although I can backsweeten if necessary. It will be a 1 gallon batch. How much honey should I use per gallon? What kind of...

I have a couple of ciders under my belt, so I thought I would try a wine. Had a plan to start with and then improvised along the way. Started with several pounds (4-5?) of red and white seedless grapes. After crushing with a potato masher I had maybe 1.5 quarts of juice. I decided that...

Ok so now that I have my first batch in the secondary, I thought I'd mix up something else. I'll write the recipe down and if anyone has any suggestions, fire away. 1 gallon plus 1 quart apple cider Juice of 3 pomegranates - extracted all the kernels and went to town with a potato masher...

Well, I did as I was advised in my earlier post, and just left the cider alone for 2 weeks. Yesterday, popped the lid off and took an SG reading - 1.008. Also tasted, very dry. So, this weekend, my plan is to rack to secondary, add pectic enzyme (I failed to do this initially), and let it...

Ok, more newbie stuff. After three weeks are up, what SG should I be looking for? I regret to say I failed to take a reading prior to starting, but I used 1.5 gallons of fresh cider (UV pasteurized if that makes a difference) plus 1 pound of honey, cote des blanc yeast. Then my next best...

Thank you all for the reassurance. I originally posted when I was at work, and when I got home, BUBBLES. One every 20 seconds or so. Seems to be picking up a bit since then.

I am making my first attempt at cider (or any fermentation for that matter) and am wondering how long it generally should take for fermentation to kick in. I pitched the yeast about 36 hours ago and have had minimal action in the airlock. Since I did not use a starter, can I assume it takes a...