Recent content by meadnoob

Thanks (huge relief), and I'm sorry for not searching the archives thoroughly, I'm sure it's been asked before. 1st beer homebrew in years, with a new kettle and burner and I've been really worried with the heat. I'll post a report on this thread after kegging and CO2 and tasting.

Hi, I brewed a batch of IPA and the temp was relatively stable throughout the fermentation process. I did the 2nd dry hop a few days ago and it's fermented out at my desired FG, but the temp outside spiked to well over 100 degrees yesterday. The carboy is in a dark closet but I have no AC and...

I took the first suggestion shortly after the reply and added water. I had to siphon a bit off first to make room since it was filled to the top. The batch had already started fermenting so the carboy was doing it's best impression of Old Faithful, shooting out of the top, but it settled and...

I made the mistake of adding the must to the carboy, taking a sample and putting it in the fridge to cool to 60deg, then put the yeast in before taking the reading. I used the same amount of honey as the last two batches, but this is avocado blossom honey and the OG was way higher at 1.141...

Batch #1 Orange Blossom in a 2 gallon American Oak barrel.

How do you measure starting/final gravity with dried fruit added, since the fruit doesn't add water? My next batch will use dried fruit (cherries) so no extra water will be added to dilute anything. If it's a brix thing, I don't know how to measure brix and any simple tips would be great. Thanks

I think I'll stick with a tube and siphon the old fashioned way from here out. I cleared the batch with bentonite and it worked really well. It's super clear, tastes very good now and fermentation appears to be nearly complete. I'm prepping a 2 gallon new American oak barrel now and it'll take a...

I after reading your reply, I adjusted the hose and tried with a bucket of water with the same results. I'm confused because the small one works fine so I wonder if there's a flaw in the large one(?).

I racked it today to get rid of the cake on the bottom. A few things: 1) My long auto-siphon didn't work, but the short one did. I'm a bit bummed about that and can't figure out why. Everything on both devices look the same. I used the short one but it required racking some of the yeast and...

DeafMeadMaker - By "bubbling way", I mean the product in the carboy has bubbles rising to the surface, at a lesser degree than when it was at first start, but i'd say similar to a minute or so after opening a bottle of soda pop. Consistent bubbles, but the airlock bubbles much much infrequently...

The batch is still bubbling away, much less than when it kicked off on May 16, but almost 3 months seems like a long time(?). I'll just let it go until it stops bubbling and rack it one more time. It's still a bit hazy and there's a cake of yeast at the bottom.

I went ahead and racked it on 6/6, about 3 weeks after starting the batch. ABV was 12.4%. I took a taste from the test jar and the verdict is I like the taste of fresh still fermenting mead (I drank the entire sample :mug:). Fermenting temperature has been about a steady 64 degrees F. It's...

I'm down to just under 20 bubbles per minute (it was about one per second when it started), or about once every three seconds. Should I rack or wait until it stops entirely? I still see bubbles in the carboy rising to the surface. Also, it's still hazy. Is this normal? I see lees at the bottom...

Thanks again for all the replies, it saved me a mess I would have had to clean up. I kept it simple. I put the honey jars in a pot of water and heated it just to make the honey more viscous so it wouldn't take forever to pour and dissolve. 3 - 1 gallon containers of spring water. Half of each...

SkeletorMob, thanks for your detailed response, and sorry if some things were unclear: 1. I'm not actually bringing the must to a boil, I've read 175-180 degrees in some recipes, but my understanding is that I simply need to warm the honey/water mixture so the honey can completely dissolve and...