Recent content by jedijon

As I'm sure my questions indicate - I'm struggling to understand the nature of the Koji mold organism. I've had collegiate microbial coursework but no relevant experience/experimentation. The key question seems to be "when is the thing making enzymes and when is it alive". You're starting...

I made a 5 cup [dry] rice, 3/4 cup refrigerated Koji [not moistened further], champagne yeast pitched on day 2 batch. It's in a 1 gallon glass jar with a rubber band/towel airlock. At this point we're ~3 weeks in and there's been lots of liquid for the majority of the process. I've shaken...

Here's some thread necro from a scientist. I've got a $300 refractometer & numerous precision hydrometers at work so accuracy isn't an issue. It's what a prior poster was observing - that there's not parity between the two measurements. I've checked this pre and post ferment on beer and...

Can anyone provide an all-inclusive synopsis of the testing & additives that go into home wine making. A buddy is making 160 gallons [has only made 10-20 gallons, more like KIT WINE making basically...in the past] and I'm making 20+ on the side as well. Here's how MY MIND breaks this down so...

I've used champage cider, nottingham's, english cider yeast, and some belgian yeasts. There hasn't been any noticeable difference in fermentation speed, the open topped fermentations I've tried have been a mess of secondary bacterias that are a real risk, and you can feed it half a lb (in 5-6...

My ratchet press is 2nd hand, but effectively brand new. Everything is clean, crisp, oiled, and looks to be in perfect order. However, I tried pressing pulp (garbage disposal generated) and I can't get hardly any pressure on the cake. It's still plenty moist at the end. The press ratchets...

Hard cheese probably won't let you recover any bacteria - the water activity [amt of available water, a good indicator of how friendly to micro growth, typically determined by moisture content + salt level] on them is fairly low. New opportunistic mold spores have a good time, but the...

Okay - so I've got unlimited access to peaches & apricots. I could certainly dry them and then later rehydrate them and make a wine. What are the pros/cons to said process rather than just making the wine to begin with from fresh fruit? I can see dehydration as a storage technique - but so...

How'z them clovers? My dandelion wine is halfway to the finish line, so I'm curious about all things lawn-booze related!

Unfortunately, I'm updating my own thread. In case you can't tell - I'm a complete beginner w/cheese. In fact, I'm currently learning to milk the goat...meaning that making cultured dairy products is just the next logical step in the process. The update goes thusly: I don't local access to...

I know it's possible to re-culture your P. roquefortii (blue mold) from finished blue cheese. What I'd like to know is if anyone has cultured, or has a link to information regarding same, the white mold from Brie/etc.? I'd like to scrape off a few square inches of brie rind (or maybe the...

So you're saying A) 4lbs of blackberries = 1 gallon of juice and B) the SG of the juice was ~30? Just clarifying. Table sugar is ~45 pppg, so if we can assume that all your sugar was in solution - then 90 points of your 110-120 came from sugar leaving 20 or 30 to be from blackberries. If...

Thanks for the replies. The 3 piece valve seems the better choice. I do intend to nest the items for storage, not to make a double-walled vessel. Another "nesting" question. Would the 40 quart stainless and 40 quart aluminum Winware kettles nest? I can see that I need to allow >1.25"...

Two part question; leaning towards the Winware kettles because they're nice and low and should boil off well. Anybody have the 32 and 40 quart and nest them? Second half of the question, any way to get a valve/thermometer combo on both and STILL nest them?? I was thinking weldless bulkheads...

So what is the OG of Blackberry must prior to diluting with water? In my case BB are probably <$ than sugar...