Recent content by chelleomi

Hi all, Just bottled my Old Jubilation clone (Avery). 3 lbs light DME 5 lbs 5 oz light LME 1 lb 2 row pale malt 13 oz Special roast 13 oz Victory malt 1.6 oz chocolate 0.8 oz black malt 3.2 oz turbinado sugar 1 tsp irish moss 1 oz Brewers gold 1 oz Columbus hops WL 013 London...

First time fruit wine maker! I recently started some cantaloupe wine by melonballing the cantaloupe instead of pressing it for juice. Topped it off with water and added sugar. Is there any way to measure the initial gravity with the chunks of fruit in there? I read that people let the fruit...

Hey so I just added some wild grapes from the neighborhood to add a little tannin quality, and it smells and tastes good now! I read about some fruit wines that you let the fruit + water sit overnight before you add the yeasts. Is this because something is degassing? Perhaps that was my issue.

Is it a sour flavor? Right now, its so early, all I can taste is sweet and cantaloupe but I wonder what's going to happen as the sugars ferment away. I'm a huge fan of sours though so maybe if I wait long enough...?

You could try going supertraditional. Meaning - raw honey, dilute 1 parts honey to 4 parts water and let the wild honey yeasts rehydrate and do their thing. I did it this summer in Colorado while its pretty warm (80-90s), with a half-gal starter of raw honey to get the yeasts going before I...

I always thought the mead needed some acid and some tannins to turn about balanced. Maybe your pH was off during fermentation? But yeah, it seems like aging can really balance things out otherwise. It'll still be drinkable, I think. Meaning, you won't die.

It looks separated to me. I would rack the top stuff and if you really think there is something useful in the "cloud" maybe suck some of that up as well. I like the idea of racking the clear stuff off and cold-crashing the remaining bit to see if you can get anything else useful out of it. But...

If you want the flavor, I would think zesting is the best way to go. Or if you want to be more traditional about it, just cut up and throw a whole lemon in there! But yeah, a little at a time, you can always add more! No more than one lemon per gallon to start.

Hey all, Not sure where else to put this, but since it uses fruit like cider does... I came into two very, very ripe cantaloupes and decided to try to make country wine out of it (idea from Katz's The Art of Fermentation). I previously had made a delectable raw honey mead fermented with wild...