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great job! Wish I had this to get me started.

I do this for the first 5-7 days of fermentation in my primary which is a bucket. I keep it covered with a clean cloth. You can boil the cloth is you like, I dont. just make sure the entire inside and top lip of the bucket is sanitized. and your spoon and spoon arm. all the way up to your elbow...

In the name of science, of course.

I was thinking puke inducing hotness. More of a joke than anything. But yes, I hope to have something to force down in shots

I am working on a very hot, high ABV mead just for ****s and giggles. I am currently planning on going with Habaneros, anyone have any other suggestion? Plan on fermenting a 1 gallon batch of 5.6 lbs honey with some EC 1118 and two peppers, then aging on top of two more peppers. And...

Just a forum tip, try to avoid "double posting." The aim is to try and put everything into one post until someone responds so that it is neater and easier to read! Also, This The Winemaking Home Page Edit: You can also edit like this!

besides, half a liter(16 ounces) is little more than one beer, so I would say that it was in fact alcoholic, just very weak.

if you take apple juice and sugar and allow yeast to get into it, they will eat and release ethanol. No way to avoid that. Now, if your father did not allow yeast, but some other "bug" to do the eating, then its possible that they did some work without any ethanol waste, but I dont know what...

over on the beer front, there is a trend that has gone around to leave the beer in primary on the yeast for longer, instead of putting it in secondary. People are saying that it requires much longer than one or two months for yeast to begin imparting off flavors.

definitely a plus for cider! Mucho cheapo. At a supermarket you can get a gallon of unpreserved (except vitamin c) apple juice for 4 dollars. A dollar for yeast makes the raw ingredients a whopping 5 dollars. If you want the mead, I find 2.8 lbs for seven bucks at my grocer. No need to get...

I stir with a nicely sanitized spoon until the foam that develops stops growing. Depending on the mead, you can get a couple inches of foam to an entire bucketfull. If I am stirring and foam keep rising and its over 5 inches I take a break and come back in half an hour. My arm and hand aches...

the most important lesson is even more important in mead making. Patience! haha glad its chugging along. if it stops bubbling dont worry, it may just not have started yet, and the bubble was from a change in atmospheric pressure.

I use one, but due to time constraints and lack of real tool I was forced to make the hole for it with a razor.... So I dont know what the correct size is (I was told an inch, but it probably changes with the manufacturer) BUT a razor does work, you just have to be really careful. I then used a...

I think the issue could be the gravity. You said its at 4.0 pH, but how did you test that? was your instrument calibrated? I am not sure, but perhaps because you didnt let the sulfites outgas, you "stunned" the yeast. Thay combined with the high gravity would mean a very slow to start fermentation

so far I dont see anything that you did to kill the yeast. How many lbs of honey did you use? what temp did you rehydrate at? When you used campden, did you cover it with a cloth to allow the gasses to escape? the lag phase might just be taking long for some reason. I wouldnt worry yet

To get a mead ready for drinking sooner, you have to help the yeasties along. This comes in the form of supporting their different phases. Aerate strongly before you even pitch. I like putting the must into a container that holds twice the amount of must and shaking it like crazy. What i do...

if its a glass vessel I usually just put a torch to it to dry off any liquid. Be advised that glass rapidly changing temperature likes to shatter. And water is an EXCELLENT conductor or heat.

I feel like this thread gives the wrong impression to people living in the ****ty non MA states about us. There is no way to throw down and bash people in the mouth on the internet. Since when do we talk this much without beer bottles to the dome? Just saying guys, we have a culture to protect.

All of it, especially corny kegs. haha

I started on a budget as well. Here's the basics on cheap: 1.) Fermenter: 4 liter table wine jugs(carlo rossi) or one gallon jugs(apple cider, etc.) 2.)Airlock and drilled stopper. three bucks. 3.)Honey 4.) Yeast nutrient. 1.25 5.) Yeast, 1.25 6.) Campden tablet if your not gonna boil...