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Thursday I made 12 batches of mead, and a little cider too. I'm barely recovered. This is a hobby. I don't want to cook, garden, or grow coral for a living either. Pretty much everyone I've met underestimated how much going pro would suck. And pretty much everyone I've met ignored me when I...

Late last night, and I don't know WHICH flights, so perhaps they are small.

The Friday flights in Denver were extremely long, but only 1 flight that evening, so whatever. The Saturday flights were indeed much shorter. Denver finished in 4 flights, Chicago in 5. Last I heard Nashville had 3 categories to go.

Yup. I'm sure you recall two years ago when a steward wrote down wrong number and your beer didn't advance until I found the error a few days later. The year before that I had a scoresheet marked with "3" but name wasn't on list as advancing. Told cover sheet was in error. At Finals the first...

Feedback on a friend's impy stout said "needs more barleywine"... As for "thin" mouthfeel on stouts, this happens all the time. They read "very full" in the guidelines, say "well I've had fuller than this, so it isn't enough." Often times they seem to looking for heavy whipping cream. Stouts...

That's too bad no one made the trip, though I'm not surprised when there's Kansas basketball going on. Organizer Mike knows why I couldn't make the drive from Wichita, and that I'll make it up to him another time. Sandy said there were about 10 more meads in STL than Indy, not sure about...

I do think it is easier (overall, not necessarily in an individual region) to advance in cider and mead, but once at the Finals I think it gets really hard there. There's just a small subset of really really good people making those styles. I'm a GM; judging trads and melomel in Finals was full...

If 53 entries is a cluster f...we should create one big category of 46? C'mon.

In fairness only one beer category had fewer than 13. And dark lager is always among the lowest. 32 pilsners is a surprise. I did suggest an alternative breakdown of styles that would have put EIPA with the bitters, given American Wild their own and still kept 26 beer cats, but I don't make...

I've found I have a much better time when I have something to contribute. Didn't really enjoy SD, but had none of my creations to share. Next time I fly to an NHC ima have to ship some goodies to a local first I think.

FWIW just tested my last bottle at 1.088 in my 63F basement. But that was the first batch; the more recent one could be higher. Personally I wouldn't want it sweeter at this temp, but I suppose it could likely support extra sugar if chilled. Good luck; it is special stuff Cheers-- --Michael

*just* SweeTango? No. In a blend, sure. Decent sugar source, like Honeycrisp. Not completely boring, but I find there are better, cheaper apples out there. Jonagolds are barely over half the price of Honeycrisp/SweeTango down here, just among the eaters. If I had a cheap source I'd pair it...

semi-dry US ciders with some astringency, moderately high acid, and complex fruity/floral aroma that keeps making you put your nose back in the glass, but little to no MLF. Basically what GLINTCAP called "New World - Heritage" earlier this year. honorable mention to English varietal blends...

I'm at 32 gallons this year, 19 gallons of various varietal honey trads and 13 of melomel of the blueberry, tripleberry + tart cherry, strawberry rhubarb and mango varieties. +503.5 = 535.5 gallons

I use dried hibiscus too. It can add a little astringency and some flavors - some say raspberry/rhubarb but to me its closest to cranberry - but neither would likely be very noticeable in a big or sweet or spiced mead, and I'm guessing you've got all three.

Just noticed this. Good for you guys that improved health. Now that I think about it I guess I'm on day 18. I'll probably have some this weekend. ...now, would I give up my two morning cans of Diet Dr Pepper? Get out of here with that crazy talk! :D

I would assume this comes from the extra oxygen that would be added during the bottle filling process. Basically if acetobacter already had a minor position in the cider but there was no O2 for this aerobic stuff to work that the bottling process could give them the O2 they needed to get a real...

a lot of people agree with you, and that's fair. What I'm saying is that when the yeast are not working that hard (slowly) they are not needing as many nutrients. Think of keeving, which I do only occasionally - we are intentionally trying to starve the yeast of nutrients. Basically what I am...

I know most people like fast fermentation, but I tend to keep almost everything very cool. Hydrogen sulfide production varies among strains, but I find that many fermentations that would stink at near room temperature are very clean when kept cool. With a couple exceptions I don't use...

is there some non-fermentable in this kit? Basically is there a reason why this is intended to stop at 1.004 and not go completely dry?