Recent content by D the Catastrophist

If you have a chance- City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico does 'Star Parties'. They have a permanently mounted telescope with a retractable roof that they let people look through, and a local group will bring additional telescopes. I got to see the Orion Nebula through 3 different size scopes...

Had this happen with my ac unit. The new gfci tripped and failed within a day of install. Course my ac unit is cursed- had 2 pumps die a year apart. First was only 2 years old.

I have a similar concern that I keep in the back of my mind-all of my 5 uncles were/are alcoholics, over half of my male cousins are or have struggled with addiction. So, I do a few things: 1. I limit myself both on intake amount and frequency. 2. My wife is well aware of the family issue and I...

Yup. Fairly normal. 71b tolerates temps from 59-86 F for fermentation, generally the warmer the quicker so you got the benefit of the 'moderately fast' fermentation speed, which is how lallemand describes the yeast. Just an fyi- I try to have my wines ferment at the bottom of the temperature...

Most fruit don't require mashing. I dice the bigger ones like pears, apples, strawberries. Berries like raspberries and blackberries get tossed in whole. Blueberries I'd give a light mash to break the skin, but otherwise after a few days in primary(I stir morning and night for the first week)...

Without a hydrometer it's guesswork, but with that much honey, your looking at close to 20% abv if fermented to dry. So, I would do a couple things: 1. Taste a small amount using sanitized ladle. I suspect it will be sickly sweet, but 71b is jokingly called 71Beast for a reason. people have hit...

I use pectic enzyme, 1 tsp per gallon(and I have used up to 6 lbs of fruit in a 1 gallon recipe). I don't refrigerate it, but it is kept in a cool, dark area. I make sure to add at least 24 hrs before I add the yeast as I have read that it works best without Alcohol present. Never used bentonite...

Nope. Nothing works 'everytime'. My wife absolutely hates them. Dark beers, stout, porters anything hoppy are out. She can't even tolerate the smell (and this is someone who drinks her dark roast coffee black). Sour beers were a win though, and a pleasant surprise for both of us as we had never...

I used the plastic champagne corks. I was able to insert vua hand no issue.

My wife hates the taste of hops, so most beers are out. However, we found she likes sour ales, especially Flanders reds. White ales like blue moon are tolerable, as are heferweisen. Small batch experimentation is key.

To answer your last question first- yes. At the start you want oxygen. So whether that is sealing the lid with a solid bung and shaking the crap out of it, or getting a drill with a sanitized whip attachment, you want it well oxygenated. Over oxygenation is only an issue later. Once in primary...

I crush it up and mix it in right at the start. I usually add pectic enzyme at the same time. Then I wait 24 hrs before adding the yeast to give the pectic enzyme a head start as I had read the presence of alcohol reduces its effectiveness.

Just picked up some rice balls today so will be starting a batch later.... will have to wrap in a plant seed starter mat as the house is probably too cold otherwise.

I had made a sweet potato casserole and that got me thinking about potentially doing a sweet potato wine. Sure enough, Jack Keller had a recipe for that (page 290 of pdf). In the recipe he calls for peeling the potatoes, dicing and then boiling them before removing them- the potatoes never make...

I was looking at Jack Keller's Sweet Potato Wine recipe and I noticed that in the instructions you only added half the sugar(1 Lb) at the start, you then add the remaining pound of sugar 5-7 days later before pouring into secondary. Can anyone explain why you would do this and what the benefit...