Recent content by theron.hall

I feel as though I was leaning the way of your thoughts. I was unaware of the US standard for pesticides, but I figured it was worth asking since I had so little credible knowledge on the topic. Thank you for your response.

I'm going to brew my first banana wine. I bought 3 lbs of bananas and since have discovered that pesticides may be an issue. What are your thoughts? Will I be all right to wash them and use them or should I scrap those bananas and make a banana cake until I can get some organic ones? I'm...

How long should it take to settle mildly disturbed leese? I carried a 3 gallon carboy upstairs to bottle today because it was darn near crystal clear but the lease mixed up in transport so I've got it sitting on the counter patiently waiting for it to clear.

That's correct. My water here is very good. It's actually a little on the acidic side and with the berries I'm thinking the mead is probably on higher end of acidic but I haven't bought a ph tester for my brewing yet.

No chlorine here. Straight from my well.[emoji16]

Sorry my edit didn't come through. I meant cough syrup. It tastes like medicine.

So the cyser has disappeared rather quickly but the melomel is very much like cough syrup. Will aging work that out?

Well the first two batches are now officially bottled! The cyser came out really nice. The triple berry melomel is a little too dry and potent for my taste I think but maybe it'll mellow out a little in time.

Thank you Bernard Smith you have been very helpful!

You were totally correct! The melomel is down to a gravity of 1.006. I couldnt believe how low it was! It tastes really strong of alcohol. The cyser still has some sugar content and tastes like a sweet apple brandy. If this gets any dryer I'm considering a back sweetening. So to back...

I haven't. But I sure will. As sweet as it was i thought at least a couple of weeks would be necessary. Thank you.

Everything was progressing nicely before I went on Vacation. The house was maintained at 60F for the week away. When I returned my cyser was not nearly as active in the air lock. My melomel had a dead air lock. [emoji53] I thought hmmm maybe 60F was a little too cold for them and brought them...

I strained out the cloves added nutrients and degassed it this afternoon. So funny thing.... no bubbles in the melomel air lock but when I tended it (nutrients and degassing) it was full of frothy foam. So the fermenter bucket I got is not sealing. I'm guessing? Or is it because there is so...

Thank you. I intend to stir 1tsp of nutrient a day and degas twice per day for the first 5 or 6 days. After that I'm on vacation. Should I work about explosions while I'm away?

I thought the berries would increase the abv, but how can I measure that sugar content?