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Having a pipeline of many batches is what almost every home wine maker achieves and that means that we are never chomping at the bit to crack open bottles of wine or mead or cider before they are ready. We have bottles from batches we have made years ago, and so we are OK allowing a batch we...

Hi WoweeAGenericname, and welcome to this forum. The thing about bread yeast is that because it is used in dough to make bread, bakers don't care that this strain of yeast really does not flocculate - (fall to the bottom of your fermenting vessel). It basically stays in suspension, which is why...

Welcome aboard, Jesse. Here's the thing: take a lesson from the makers of sparkling wine and Champagne. They can age for years, before bottling, and to bottle prime, all they (and you) need to do is add a tiny amount of yeast into each bottle, with the sugar. THAT is precisely the original...

After you rack to age, or rack to bottle, I might pour the lees into a tall but narrow vessel - a wine bottle, for example. Place this bottle in the fridge and after a day or two, the liquid will rise towards the top and the sediment will fall towards the bottom. You can rack the liquid off the...

Curious about the amount of honey you are considering for backsweetening. One cup of honey supposedly weighs 12 oz and 3.4 of a cup will then weigh 9 oz . You plan on adding 21 oz of honey (in wine making and cooking - despite the use of "cups" and "spoons" in the US, a far more accurate...

Rather than simply macerate the fruit on sugar, you might consider first, freezing the fruit hard, then allowing it to thaw. The ice crystals in the fruit will tear apart cell walls and the amount of juice that you can extract will be far more easily extracted. You MIGHT want to then make an...

No argument from me. I just thought that it was important for the poster to heat the honey. I agree that around blood temperature is best if you need to heat the honey, but I think that honey loses medicinal qualities above about 150 F, and certainly, it loses aromatics and flavor molecules at...

Experimentation is always good, even when the results are not what were predicted, but experiments need to be grounded in the scientific method. And this experiment seems more like a hope and a prayer rather than something based on observation, data collection, hypothesis generation and testing...

Curious. What made you choose Nottingham for this "cider" Sure, lots of brewers go with Nottingham, but many seasoned wine makers go with D47 or even 71B. Not sure what Nottingham ADDS to the performance. And then you are making this an apple-grape cider ... so an ale yeast and not a yeast that...

The one minus, is that the solution has a great deal of froth that takes hours and hours to dissipate. So, if you are skeptical of the SG and want to measure it before pitching the yeast, you may have a long time to wait. But if you treat honey as typically increasing the gravity of water by 35...

With waxed cheeses, you should not really need to monitor them as closely as you might with unwaxed or cheeses exposed to the air. Not certain, but I do think you almost certainly need to turn the cheeses about twice a week to ensure any moisture in the cheese is not pulled by gravity through...

Hiya Mtn.Rose, Certainly no expert, but some cheeses are salted before pressing, some cheeses are dry salted and some cheeses are brined. For example, Cheddar is salted before pressing, Feta is brined, and squeaky curd cheese is salted after pressing. That - in my limited experience - has very...

Here's another very simple and very quick method of dissolving any honey in water or juice. I add a cup or so of the water I intend to use to my blender, which I have sanitized in Starsan, and then add a batch of the honey and blend. This mixes the honey and aerates. . Repeat, dumping the...

Hi owenab - and welcome. Just very curious about your "science project"? What exactly are you hoping to look for or measure? How "scientific" is your project? In other words, what variables are involved and what are you controlling to determine the effects of changes to the variables? Also, how...

After a little more research, I see that there are three methods of salting Gouda (Perhaps 4), adding salt to the curds, adding salt to the rind, bringing and brining after adding salt to the curds... I am using an 18% brine (not the 25%) and planning on brining the 2 lbs (more or less: will...

I would agree with you, except that I have no way to vacuum pack anything. As it happens, I occasionally make beeswax candles so I am all set up for cheese waxing (I use a double boiler, so never get the wax above 212 F, so the heat is not enough to wipe out every last mold cell, but it is hot...

Ha. Ha. Doing OK. And have indeed, been making cheese. Just waxed a Cheddar and opened an Asiago, and today I began making a Gouda - It's undergoing an overnight press and will be brined on Friday.My first washed curd cheese AND my first wheel that used two gallons of milk. On the 'wine" side, I...

OK, if you KNOW that it is not ultra-pasteurized, then I have no good answer unless your rennet was spoiled or was for making junket and not cheese. But could you possibly check the packaging on that milk? As I say, over this side of the border, I don't think it is possible to buy low...

In the US, most store-bought goats' milk is ultra-pasteurized. You really cannot create strong curds with UHT milk. Are you certain that your milk has been low temperature pasteurized?

No one has suggested that you use your airlock to monitor the progress of this "second" or more accurately speaking, this re-fermentation. You don't tell us what the starting gravity was, or the gravity when you added more sugar. those data would be helpful, but also important would be to know -...