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I reuse cleaned beer bottles. I have a bench top capper that looks like this, which I think is the most popular and cheapest unbranded capper (though not from the specific store I linked to). I've used it without problem, but the most recent batch of crown caps I bought is pretty hard to use...

@awoitte If you are concerned about etching, there's another warning you need to know: don't leave anything soaking more than a day. Many of us have experienced a white mineral film that sticks to the things we've cleaned if we soaked for too long. It looks the same as etching. You won't get it...

Thanks again for your info and links! My mead is high pH (4.62, and I will never again buffer without taking pH measurement first). I added 85-100 ppm sulfite, which still might not get me to the wanted level of SO₂ based on the charts I found. Do you know if these levels (low molecular sulfites...

I don't filter, but I understand that for most systems you need to clarify by traditional means before filtering. Otherwise you would clog the filter quickly. @Maylar I've read that periodically agitating the lees (don't remember how often) helps them flocculate better when they're finished...

I've damaged an auto-siphon (the inner racking cane part) and two bottling wands. They've all developed a milky white coating on the inside (chalky looking) within a few days after using them. The auto-siphon also crazed noticeably. I sanitized them in iodophor (not homebrewing iodophor but...

(Corrected.) I believe the sodium carbonate lowers the pH enough that the glass won't be etched to any significant degree. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it on bottles. I accidentally etched a table once while trying to make sodium silicate, but that was mostly visible just because it was a...

Okay, that's actually a much easier question. I made a bottle-conditioned plum mead I liked very much. I misplaced a bottle and opened it after six months. It was no longer enjoyable to drink. It was pasteurized (and did not seem infected), so I suspect oxidation. This is stronger proof than my...

You made many assumptions and I don't think you realize it. First, yeast in a finished fermentation is not vigorous like yeast pitched into a new must. Next, everything happens more slowly with mead than with beer. And let's compare the amount of fermentation that happens in primary versus in...

Thanks! You're right, it's a mead. It's a hopped mead, so it's the worst if both worlds: longer fermentation with lots of head space, and hops. And it's an intense flavor, so it won't get drunk that quickly, unlike the people that consume it.

Letting out some of the water out of the pot with a siphon would be reasonable, but I prefer a little better control of the time, if possible. On the other hand, if I could drain it fast enough, fully draining then filling with cold water would cool the bottles much faster than transferring...

I pasteurize at home, and getting the bottle out of the water is tricky while wearing leather gloves. Safety first, right? Is there any type of tongs designed to lift up a beer bottle from above? It only needs to lift it a couple inches out of the water so I can grab it with my hand. It doesn't...

To elaborate, this is based on a calculation of pasteurization units. Pasteurization units are calculated as follows, where T is the temperature in °C: PUs = minutes * 1.393^(T - 60) The times Bokonon listed were the times/temperatures necessary to achieve 5.6 pasteurization units. This is a...

I'd like to have the best of both worlds regarding easy carbonation, and shelf life (reduced oxygen). If I add enough sulfites to bind with oxygen, will that prevent yeast from bottle conditioning? If I can do this, would I need to add fresh yeast?

I wonder what the revisions are? Taking the YAN content of GoFerm into account is the logical addition. I've read about people messing up 1-gallon batches by adding several grams of GoFerm and ending up being able to taste the yeast nutrients when the batch is finished.

There is significant oxygen exchange through most sealing mechanisms, including the stopper and airlock. I suspect it doesn't happen during fermentation when the inside is at a slightly higher pressure than the outside, but after pasteurizing, I don't think you can keep it out. As for dry ice...

In an interview on the GotMead radio show, Ryan Carlson said he added ascorbic acid (an antioxidant) to his acid blend to help preserve color. I would also expect proper sulfiting (acting as an oxygen scavenger) helps a ton. I can't remember references* to back this up, but my impression is that...

I see you pasteurized it, so I'm not sure why this happened, but it certainly sounds infected. My first thought was that the Ribena came that way, only temporarily protected by acidity, lack of oxygen, and osmotic pressure. (Like honey, which can have yeasts, bacteria, and even botulism...

I dry-hopped a batch of mead, but the fermenter had way too much headspace. I only dry-hopped for a day and a half, then mixed with extra sugars and fresh yeast and bottled. There is way too much oxygen in the mead. This stuff will have little shelf life. I can feel carbonation after 18 hours...

Are you talking about electron beam welding? How do you use chelates in that?

I bought a 500 g brick of US-05 from a brewer acquaintance, and want to split it up into 10-20 smaller vacuum sealed bags so I only open each bag a few times and introduce less moisture and contamination. Plus, smaller bags can quickly come up to room temperature before I open them, preventing...