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Just picked up some rice balls today so will be starting a batch later.... will have to wrap in a plant seed starter mat as the house is probably too cold otherwise.

I had made a sweet potato casserole and that got me thinking about potentially doing a sweet potato wine. Sure enough, Jack Keller had a recipe for that (page 290 of pdf). In the recipe he calls for peeling the potatoes, dicing and then boiling them before removing them- the potatoes never make...

I was looking at Jack Keller's Sweet Potato Wine recipe and I noticed that in the instructions you only added half the sugar(1 Lb) at the start, you then add the remaining pound of sugar 5-7 days later before pouring into secondary. Can anyone explain why you would do this and what the benefit...

I make small batches so use 1 gallon wide mouth fermentation jars for secondary for my wines, meads and ciders. If I have excess, I have a selection of wide mouth mason jars for the extra. I have fermentation lids like this that I use for those. Nice part is if you pop out the rubber nipple in...

How was the bottle sealed? Cork might have been too porous, or cap might have not sealed fully. I suspect the issue was temperature though, from what I've read, carb drops like slightly warmer temps then what you have noted.

I would also point out that if the fermentation is proceeding smoothly, you don't have to add extra nutrients just because the schedule says to.

Nutrient addition and scheduling as that is a huge difference from winemaking since honey lacks the nutrients found in fruit or juice. Types of honey and impact on flavor- so they know not to accidentally make a pure buckwheat honey mead. Aging and the impact on flavor as most meads benefit from...

Yes. And no. The wine fermenting to a lower sg will change the taste, as will aging the wine. The yeast and nutrients shouldn't impact the flavor negatively unless you went very heavy handed. But you need to be patient. 6 days is ridiculously short for wine making. I typically see closer to 21...

I have a flexible plant germination mat with a temperature probe. I wrap the mat around the primary bucket and drop the probe in. I have it shoved in a closet where it's cool, and set the temp at the desired temp, so it doesn't drop too low, so this just minimizes the fluctuation.

Yes, mead generally does well with a staggered nutrient schedule. The fact that you used juice will help alleviate that somewhat as juice has more for the yeast to feed on then pure water. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/beyond-beer/improve-mead-staggered-nutrient-additions/

Patience. I usually have no noticeable activity for 24-36 hours or so. Meads take longer. Looks like that juice doesn't have any of the preservatives that inhibit fermentation which is good. That yeastvhas a high abv tolerance and wide temp tolerance which is also good. How warm is the area...

You can make anise extract the same way you do vanilla extract. 2-4 tbl anise seeds in 6 oz vodka, or 14-16 star anise in 6 oz vodka. Put in a swing top jar and shake daily for 30 days. Both have a slightly different flavor so doing both will allow you to tweak the flavor. Star Anise is...

I have a gallon of ginger mead bulk aging at the moment. Recipe was pretty simple: .5 lb ginger root, not peeled, sliced into thin strips 1 gallon water. 3 lbs honey. 1 crushed campden tablet. 1/8 tsp fermaid 1 packet D47 yeast. Directions: Add half the water and ginger root to a pot, bring to...

Personally, I would not do a 5 gallon batch when just starting out with mead, I would do four 1-Gallon batches and experiment with styles. One should probably just be a straight, traditional mead, but for the rest, play around.

My next wine will probably be a serrano lime wine. I've had a hatch green chilli cider, and a raspberry habenero cider and they were both fabulous.

I only ever do 1 gallon batches of anything-wine, mead or cider. Makes it alot less heart breaking if it flubs. That and I have too many ideas on things I want to try. Case and point, this year I have done a cider using saison yeast, a ginger mead, rosehip wine, Bartlett pear wine, apricot date...

Just one gallon of ginger mead. Currently bulk aging, don't plan on bottling until August next year. Need to try the coffee mead I bottled in October 2022....

I had a steel framed Biachi Volpe touring road bike years ago. The longer frame made it much nicer on my lower back. My wife and I would do a 50 mile round trip ride on the Clear Creek trail from Commerce City to Golden. Up hill on the way out, and you better have good brakes for the way back.

Just like any other type of filtering your wine, beer or cider, it removes particulates. In many cases though it also removes flavor nuance. I would stay away from filtered honey if I have a choice. Hell, I want to try making mead with comb in honey at some point.

Racked off the lees today. Pretty impressive clearing in a month. Flavor is significantly less tart than a month ago. If comparing to a grape wine, I would say tastes like a viognier. I suspect I will end up backsweetening slightly but not much. Now the waiting begins. Probably won't touch until...