Recent content by dios_es_un_tortuga

Primary fermentation seems to be done so I added 1oz ginger, 3 grams black pepper, 3 grams grains of paradise, 4 grams cardamom, and 3 cloves. This was quite the vigorous fermentation. It looked almost like a mild ale krausen. Not splitting this batch due to the desire to ferment too many other...

You'll probably have to back sweeten it a bit to balance the bitterness. Beer has a lot of unfermentable sugars in it which does that for you, but mead will ferment dry.

Just tried the commercial product. Quite tasty, but not exactly named appropriate I think. Zombie killer conjures up a rather harsh sensation. Maybe a whiskey. I think that even Michonne and Andrea (book) would consider this a tad light. That said, after I finished drinking it, it occured...

Well that yeast can handle high gravities so I don't think that's your problem. The must might be too acidic. If you add some potassium bicarbonate, that might help. I think that's a high floculator, so it might drop out with a lot of residual sugar. Perhaps rousing the yeast will help it...

Little update this is four months old now. I did add extra coconut and pineapple to the secondary. Shredded coconut clogged my siphon, even when I put a hop bag around it. As such I had to keep pumping the siphon and I'm worried it might oxidate a little, but it's good now. The rum and...

There is definitely a lot of variety in meads, but they do taste more like wine than beer. I think you should try more than one of anything before making a final decision. There are methyglins which taste of various spices and melomels which have fruit character. They may be more to your liking.

I enjoy the taste of yarrow beers. It's safety concerns are specific to people with ragweed allergies, so if you don't have that you're fine. Bog myrtle has safety concerns for people who are pregnant, but so does alcohol, so no conflict there. Randy Mosher did scare me away from the wild...

Both of those spice suggestions sound like they would play well with the bochet's base flavors. I currently don't have enough carboys (empty) to do split batches, but perhaps I'll get some more before aging is done. My first mead was a habonero chocolate mead and I really liked how those...

I just want to comment on the subject of buckwheat. I have done a stout/buckwheat braggot and found them to be a perfect paring. Perhaps a little overpowering for lighter styles, but for bold flavors you can't go wrong.

I was thinking of spicing this according to one of the old recipes. Two ounces each ginger, grains of paradise, and long pepper, and a unspecified number of cloves (I'm gonna go with two not ounces, but two cloves). Surprisingly my generally well stocked Indian grocery does not have long...

The more I thought about this the more I wanted to do it, so I put off making a barley wine and devoted my carboy to this tonight. I just finished putting every bit of clothing I was wearing in the wash. Even being forewarned and heading advice I got a bit of a magma burst. I think next time...

I'm thinking of doing a cucumber pale ale. I was going to add a little borage at the end of the boil. I'm also going to chop up enough cucumber to fill a 750 ml mason jar and then pour cheap gin over it. Two ounces of juniper are going in the boil and two more are going in the secondary with...

Thanks for the advice. I've searched Bochet on here and found some good threads. I've had a few dme yeast starters boil over, so I've learned the importance of careful pot watching. I don't have the patience for test batches. The risk to wallet doesn't out way the risk to time to me. To...

It occurs to me that caramelizing malt results in complex unfermentable sugars. I'm not too familiar with the chemistry involved, but if standard stove top caramelization is similar to the reactions involved in crystal malt then a half caramelized honey bill would result in something...

50/50 honey/water works out to be about 1.207 og. You might want to scale it down to 1/4. I've used cocoa nibs before and couldn't pick them out. I only used 4.5 oz for five gallons though. I think a powder like dutch cocoa might work better though.