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My guess would be that the "clouding up" part is an indirect, al beit qualitative, measurement of the yeast population density. Like you, I previously thought that an air lock was a way of controlling the yeast by forcing them to make alcohol instead of reproducing. But I no longer think that...

I've tried that approach, and it seems to work if the yeast population density is high enough, but if it isn't, then the result seems to be unhappy yeast. I'd be curious if it's true or not, but it seems as though the yeast are able to sense their own population density. Why do I say that...

For a mead, how much O2 do you give it?

For your dry yeast, do you mean rehydration with GoFerm (which I am doing), or a real starter? What's an immersion blender?

What I'm finally figuring out is that when pitching just 2g dry yeast per gallon, the must needs a lot more aeration. Otherwise, it complains by emitting divergent aromas. When I was pitching at a much higher rate, the aeration seemed perhaps unnecessary, whereas at these low pitch rates lots...

Interesting! Since the goal is to both de-gass and aerate, I thought everyone was using the power drill method, whereas now it seems I'm the only one. After doing some reading up on how mentos quickly de-gasses cola, I think part of my error was putting the stir rod too low into the mead at...

I thought that by now I had enough experience that it woldn't happen, but it did. I was degassing a 5 gallon mead with a power drill in a 6.5 gallon Big Mouth Bubbler, and it triggered a volcanic mead eruption which dumped half a gallon of sticky mead must onto the floor. I suppose I could use...

Hmmm. Looks like racking using a closed loop transfer (to avoid oxygen exposure) might be possible: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/closed-transfer-from-fermonster-big-mouth-bubblers.585875/ However, using the new second generation fermentasaurus might be an even better choice...

Reporting back: I started a 5 gallon batch of M05 Mead today in my brand new siphonless 6.5 gallon plastic Big Mouth Bubbler. The straps that came with the BMB, when properly adjusted, do indeed hold the lid down. To complement this BMB, I think I'll probably order a 5 gallon BMB to use as a...

How long do you cold crash for?

I believe the answer may be to age before backsweetening, because surely there is little to no chance of restarting fermentation if backsweetening is done after aging. So, the sequencing I'm leaning towards is: 1. nominal finish to primary fermentation. 2. Rack to secondary after first adding...

Yup. Because I have it, I haven't tried without it. However, I'm fairly sure it's just a matter of bending the tube a little bit, which you could do yourself, to let in more sample. That's all that the titrettor does. The valve leaked on the very first titret that I tried. If it wasn't...

Reporting back: I tried the titrets. It seems mainly good for getting a ballpark number, and it's hard to get a more accurate number without knowing what the ballpark number is first. Otherwise, it might take 100 steps of letting minuscule amounts of the sample into the titret, waiting for...

At what "stage" should the airlock be put in place?

For a traditional mead, how much tartaric acid do you recommend adding?

Now $2.99. No longer free.

Reporting back: I blended part of the 150ppm SO2 mead with a young new mead that hadn't yet been treated with metabisulfite in a 1:2 ratio, yielding a theoretical 50ppm SO2 in the combined, blended mead. It worked: the bad SO2 taste went away. It seems there was no permanent damage from dosing...

https://www.amazon.com/Simi-Valley-Home-Brew-F9-GLEI-XXVC/dp/B00FJIKOJK/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=malic+acid+brewing&qid=1557766779&s=gateway&sr=8-3 I was reading about how it is sometimes used by professional candy makers to punch up the flavor in their candy, and then I thought: well, maybe the...

Not yet. I will be soon though: I just recently acquired SO2 Titrets for that purpose.

Why?