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qualify "burned" truly burned honey tastes like $#!t in a mead - makes it taste acrid. no way to remove the flavor either

Could add some tannins straight up; aging on oak should give you some; mlf is an option. Some people like to use glycerin - never used it myself

particles can affect it if buoyant. Also, it cannot be done while fermentation is active - the CO2 bubbles can cling on to it and raise it up. looking back, the low gravity doesn't appear to be off the mark.

atmospheric temperature and pressure can throw it off. test your hydrometer to see if it is calibrated properly put it in distilled water: if it reads 1.000, it's accurate

-an Acerglyn should typically be 50/50 honey to syrup - their gravities are pretty much identical. Once you crunch the numbers for your OG and yeast, all you have to do is split the sugar source in half between honey and syrup -maple syrup will ferment to a very bone dry almond like aroma and...

FYI, tartaric acid is the primary natural acid in grapes

There's a good chance you're going to go fully dry, and step feeding after could get you well about the 12% target. IMHO, "too sweet" is somewhat relative - but if the aim is light and refreshing, you're on the right track. i think your fruit profile is going to be pretty light in the end. I...

I like them, and you're recipe seems sound. In my experience, the malt comes across very strong in braggots. I did a similar braggot with Belgian wheat lme, coriander and orange peel, and it drank like a strong beer. I do a banana bread mead with only 10% malt as my sugars and it is still...

Yes, hops were pretty foreign to the UK until the 1500s, until introduced by Germans who brought their "Bier." At that time, "ale" was essentially pure fermented cereal grain, or "gruit" if herbs and spices were introduced. I have several historic recipe books from the 1500s onward, but mostly...

Thanks,looks interesting. Just ordered it

Was browsing through some historical books like Digbie's The Closet Opened and became more interested in exploring pre-hop ale recipes - either medieval ales without herbs and spices, or gruits with hop-alternative bittering agents. Anyone know of other good resources on such recipes?

The biggest caveat about re using yeast is that it can mutate, and change flavor and aroma profiles and alcohol tolerance Probably not an issue of it's only going to be once or twice, but if you're thinking of maintaining a starter culture permanently

Schramms sells many of his products for over 100 I cringe when I shell out 80 for a 300ml of superstition berry white

Yeah , I get that and keep getting bombarded with that link by moonshiners ...and then they go on to prove they don't understand anything about using wine or using it as a wash - as proven by the "experienced" guy who told me to just crank it to max becasue its "just sugar and water" a wine...

Interesting - mine was advertised as specifically being appropriate for alcohol distillation, but I'll have to check for this hole. doesn't make sense to me as to why the gas wouldn't justt escape at the end of the nozzle, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ definitely going to run at a lower temp next round

I think we're in agreement, but saying it differently? or possibly talking about two different things? however it seems we are agreement that the intensity of the boil will alter the aromas and flavors of the distillate by affecting the esthers and polyphenols of the particulates in the wash...

Right, I get that each liquid evaporates when it evaporates, but it isn't purely just liquids in the wash - the wine is full of particulate matter, so couldn't that be "cooking" during the boil and giving off some funky aromas and flavors that transfer into the distillate? It seems that...

So I just bought an air still to experiment with distilling some of my wines and meads - I know it isn't an optimal rig, but it fits my budget, production and storage capacities for the time being; didn't want to sink a bunch of money into another hobby if it ends up going sideways. the good...

Could be nice, but tricky not to take the honey into acrid territory.

I dunno I actually think it could work well with a soft tannin red, like Counoise and Pinot - i recently had a counoise that developed a toasted marshmallow aroma and flavor that was amazing