Recent content by Krawu

Update time: I racked it to secondary at the 1 month point exactly, on April 15th. Activity had stopped about 10 days before that - this stuff absolutely blazed through primary, probably because the Mugicha served as yeast nutrients. One month later it's clear enough that you can read through...

One question regarding this recipe: does it have to be the young growth tips of spruce? I called up my local forestry and they were very sceptical about doing that, given how the spruce population in Germany is in pretty rough shape in recent years due to climate change and pests and it looks...

I like to think that the origins of many foods and drinks are just fortunate mistakes. Ale was probably invented when someone let the porridge made from low quality barley that had already started sprouting sit for a few days too long. Blue cheese is literally mouldy cheese. We have a signature...

Haha, no worries. I used a slow cooker set to high to caramellize it, but left it in there for a loooong time. That way a good portion of the honey can caramellize but it's basically impossible to burn. It was a very dark brown in the end but not burnt and the taste extremely dark, earthy, and...

I added a reminder to update the thread to the SpGr note on the barrel 🤜🤛 Given that it's quite the toasty Bochet it may take some time to age to a drinkable state though. What I'm hoping for is that the mugicha will add a more grainy, nutty, dry toastyness the toffee-like toastyness of the...

Thanks again. Unfortunately I had no sulfite tablets or powder on hand (they seem to be kind of rare in Germany anyways there's a total of 3 on Amazon)) so I'll have to rely on my yeast outcompeting anything else that may be in there. What I did was to follow your advice to make a starter to...

Thanks for replying. I'm just looking to use the Mugicha for flavor, the fermentable sugars would of course come from the honey. The Mugicha itself is pretty much sterile after brewing since I usually simmer the roasted barley in water for 20-30 minutes to make it. My main concern would be that...

So I really like Mugicha, which is water in which roasted, unhulled barley has been steeped or boiled. Since I tend to drink it basically instead of water during the summer and it's weighed against gold in import stores I usually bum a large bucket of unmalted barley from a local grain silo...

Oops, I didn't see the main category, just "General discussion." If some kind mod could move the thread to the appropriate category I'd be very grateful.

New brewer here, I recently started my first mead but am scoping out how to best use my brewing equipment after that, looking to build up my own stock of aging wines and meads. I already know that different yeasts do varying degrees of well in different temperatures. I've read that mead is...

True, when there was a special occasion that warranted killing of a whole animal (which was out of the question for average household due to how much more valuable the dairy and eggs from them would usually be) the meat would undoubtedly be fresh. But there is undoubtedly economic incentive to...

It's not so much a question of access, it's a matter of supply and demand. Before the introduction of cane and beet sugar honey was really the only way to sweeten anything. Because of this a LOT of people wanted it, be it for cooking, sweetening wine, fermenting it and even using it as a...

They were unable to filter must, they usually just boiled the everliving hell out of it but and skimmed the scum off the surface but some pollen or debris or other contaminants were unavoidable and even desirable. That was most likely what acted as yeast nutrients. They also added herbs and...