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Welcome! Although to my view, you're not "up" in Wisconsin, you're down south in the Banana Best. :) Welcome to our obsession.

That’s my method- freezing the fruit makes it very easy to use, and I generally ferment on the fruit the first few days or so, up to a week. I think that’s most common, although I had a friend who used a steam juice extractor on their wines, and while the taste of their cherry wine was...

Just something I thought of- if it comes out great, would you consider sending a bottle to Ken? I bet he'd be interested. He doesn't cook his fruit (and he grows his own fruit) so it would be a different melomel for sure, but still................. I haven't had HOD in a long time, but Ken...

I'm glad you're happy with your choices!

Thanks- I've never done that with many wines or meads and just wanted to ask. I started making wine in 1985 or so so I wondered about it.

Can I ask why you cook the fruit? I've never done that with any of my meads or fruit wines, except for the banana one, so I am curious.

No, that should work as long is there is no sorbate or benzoate in the ingredients.

Palmer never, ever, said that water targets are more important than the actual mash pH. Water targets are silly- I mean, most of them have whatever the water that 'may have been used' has. Like a bicarbonate level of 102, for example. Well, the actual target of bicarbonate is that which...

70 pounds of blackberries this year. Starting the must in a few days.

Ingredients play a great role in yeast attenuation, simply because some ingredients are fully fermentable (simple sugars), some less so but still fermentable like base malt with a lot of maltose for the yeast to 'eat', and some far less fermentable (crystal malts, roast malts) and some mashes...

I'm in!

Why are you adding more sugar? It'll be rocket fuel. I like an OG of 1.090 or so for my wines.

Any high OG/ABV beer that should finish slightly drier than it would with all DME, like IIPAs and some IPAs. Another style that benefits from some simple sugar would be light lagers, and also cream ale would be appropriate. Since American light lagers tend to use corn or rice as adjuncts and...

When you listen to Gordon's talks, he makes it very clear he acidifies the entire liquor to 5.5 pH. I like Gordon a lot, and he is a fantastic beer judge with a great palate for sure. He's done so much for the BJCP and homebrewing community, and I respect his thoughts immensely. That said...

I'd love to test this!

No, I smoosh it up with the long handled stainless spoon (bag is tied so the fruit is in there loosely, or I'll use two or three bags) and don't ever open the bag.

The idea is to prevent mold by not letting air touch the cap and so ideally it would have been tied and submerged all along. But it's better late then never.

Yes, that's not idea. Can you tie up the bag and submerge it?

I'd take off the airlock, and clean it well and rig up a blow off as was mentioned or put something like a clean towel over the opening and keep the airlock off until the vigorous fermentation slows. You can also dump this into a different sanitized fermenter, like a bucket with a lid and airlock,

Yes, stir it down several times a day so all is submerged. Break up the cap that may form, and stir well.