Recent content by jaxn

$3,500. It was a steal. A barrel of Jack Daniel's won't be half as good and will run you about $12,000.

I'm a big bourbon guy, and some friends and I recently bought a barrel of Four Roses bourbon. The whiskey is fantastic, and now I've got this 55-gallon barrel just begging me to fill it with something. I'd like to do a mead. I've done about a dozen or so batches of mead with varying success...

We had some flooding here in Nashville, so my meadery/brewery is temporarily out of service. I had about 30 gallons of 8 different batches that are ok now but had to be moved. I hope to try this one soon and see if it's ready, but things are still a bit hectic ATM.

I made a Pliny the Bastid this weekend that called for 1.5 oz of Chinook hops in the mash, and I completely forgot to add it until it was too late. :o But I felt a little comfort from when some friends with much more experience than me said they didn't think mash hopping really makes much...

I might try heating a little longer. But I think I might not have gotten my point across. My issue isn't heat loss over time. It is heat variations in different parts of the cooler at the same time.

About 5 minutes.

I'm fairly confident that I'm hitting the temps overall since my beers have been coming out fine, but when I take readings after dough-in, the variation from one part of the MLT to another is substantial. I'm using a 60qt Ice Cube, and have been having the same problem with both 5-gal and...

OK. Thanks. I skimmed and didn't see it. :o FYI, most folks use the bulleted format to make it easier to follow.

You should aerate for atleast a few days and add nutrients. What was your process? Did you just add honey to the juice at room temperature? Did you get an OG reading?

It's funny. Everyone said that, but it mostly went like a typical racking. :fro:

:D I did a no-no by going straight to glass. But here is mine on day -1. I'll have to take a current photo.

9 days ago it was at 1.024, pH 3.5. It tasted of sour strawberry but was still drinkable. I finally got a chance to rack to secondary tonight. Holy smokes! 1.001 and SUPER HOT!!! :eek: That puts my ABV at almost 18%! Yikes. I think I'll put it on some more honey and strawberries in...

Same here.

Thanks for the tips. I wouldn't have thought of a frosting bucket. But I have lots (too many according to SWMBO ;)) of buckets already that I can use. It wasn't a matter of not having the equipment, it was more that I hadn't realized how vital a bucket was for a mead primary. How are you...

Do you want it to be pretty dry? It will be with that yeast. My first mead was similar: 12lbs clover honey, 4 gallons apple cider, and champagne yeast. It got down fairly low 1.008 and was amazing. Just be sure you don't get a lot of the white part of the orange peel. That stuff it too...