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Arghhh. Good catch, Maylar. Thanks. Those periods get me every time.

A question out of ignorance. Oaking brandy. If I was making a whisky from beer I would expect to really oak that baby, but what about brandy? I have a small batch o brandy I am making from wild grapes that grow near my home. How much oak is used in brandy making? About the same as when making...

The thing is that you want to know pH to know how much K-meta to add to inhibit oxidation : the lower the pH , the less free sulfur you need - but then even if you know the pH providing the precise amount of free sulfur is not so easy to measure, so (I think) unless you have a lab set up, we...

Had never experienced this before when I made other liqueurs and dropped the gravity from 65-70 to about 30-40 depending on the liqueur. Only when I worked with anise.

What you might do is check out an Inkbird (or similar) temperature controller. The idea is that you can set the controller at a fixed temperature and it will turn the heater off when that temperature is exceeded by one degree and will turn it back on when the temp falls below your setting. I...

Your arithmetic is not good. Assuming the figures you are posting are correct. If 1 lb of honey raises the gravity of water by .035, then 15 lbs would raise the gravity of that water (1 US gallon) to 1.525 (the 1 is 1.000 , the density or gravity of water) - 15 * .035 = .525, and if this was in...

Hi Akustaka - and welcome. Even without an hydrometer wine makers can determine fairly easily starting gravity when we know two pieces of information, Hydrometers are more useful for monitoring fermentation - THAT is not anything we can estimate or guess. The two pieces of information are 1. The...

More useful than providing us with where you bought your honey would be the varieties of honey you are fermenting. Honey is not simply a commodity. Clover honey is not identical to wildflower and wildflower honey pollen collected by bees in the spring is very different from wildflowers producing...

While I tend to think that 99% of folk who perform on Youtube know less than zilch about what they purport to instruct , you may want to check the video you watched. Performers can get their facts very wrong but it is hard even for me to imagine that no one would have corrected that...

Sherry is a wine that is deliberately oxidized. You'll only get vinegar if you allow aceto-bacteria to infect your wine in the presence of air. Absent the bacterium, you do not convert wine into vinegar. BUT you need to prevent the bacterium from inoculating your oxidized wine.

Your experience may be very different, but I have never made a delightful mead (or wine) that treated coffee as a drink. When I simply extracted the flavors from the beans (macerating) rather than using water to make the coffee, the flavors were far less bitter and far better integrated. That...

What about the problem of autolysis. After a (long) while the dead yeast cells at the bottom are likely to break apart and release their guts to the outside. Those flavors are not often desired. Typically we rack off the yeast and cells that flocculate will end up on the floor of the fermenter...

I agree. Erythritol is a good sugar. Not quite as sweet as sugar so you may want to bench test any amount you are thinking about adding.

This is possible. To reduce the alcohol from 68% to approx 30% I calculated I needed to add 1 L (which included the syrup) which was certainly more than the 800 ml I was using.

Bottled this past Wed and it had not cleared, last night. Tastes fine. Just disappointed that it is opaque and not bright and clear.

No obvious "oil slick" but there is some subtance on the surface. There would not be much oil as I used perhaps 30 g of the star anise macerasted for about 6 weeks or so and then removed before I reduced the alcohol concentration.

I intentionally reduced mine to 30 % ABV from 68% which was when the drink became opaque. The water was added as I bottled it.

I think you score 180 (darts) This is exactly what happened and looks like this is also the reason why it occurred. Thank you.

If you are buying store bought apple juice in the US , my guess is that the manufacturer is forced to pasteurize the juice either with heat (dispreferred) or by UV light (best practice) to kill any potential for ecoli or listeria on fruit that will be gathered from the ground. Bottom line: there...

Gotta say that mead is easy to make. Get 2.5 lbs of any honey - could be clover or wildflower or a basic varietal like orange blossom or an expensive varietal. Get about 7 liters of good spring water , pitch any wine or ale yeast you like add nutrients (does not have to be TOSNA: you can add the...