Search results

A couple of years ago I made two batches of pineapple wine using the recipe from the EC Kraus website (now homebrewing.org). The result was a decently pineapple-y white wine. I suppose you could tweak this recipe and make a lower alcohol sparkling version. Not quite pineapple cider (as in...

My apologies AzOr, I must have forgotten my manners! Luckily enough I still have, ahem had, one bottle of the 50/50 tuna/apple blend and I just cracked it. The color has subdued quite a bit (it's been almost a year since bottling) and it's picked up a sort of pine needle (or maybe even hoppy?)...

Yes, I used whole fruit. I burned the hairs off over a gas burner and crushed them in my fruit crusher. Pressed the pulp in my little countertop press and hit the resulting juice with some pectinase. No slime/goo from the cactus at all after this.

I guess I forgot to let y'all know how it turned out! I'd say it was an overall success. I ended up blending the cactus with apple cider because I was a little worried 100% fermented cactus juice would be a little much. So I ended up with a couple of bottle of 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% cactus...

I've used M02 and always had good results. I typically start with an SG of 1.060 and end around 0.998, giving an ABV of about 8%. I bottle condition everything, priming with 1oz/gallon of sugar and have never had a problem where a bottle fails to carbonate. I just bottled my first batch using...

Could also be that the yeast is just taking it's sweet time to do the job as well. I'm currently doing some yeast trials (M02, S04, D47 and Nottingham) to see which I like the best. All were racked into secondary on Dec 19, 2020. After about 3 weeks, the M02 was crystal clear while the rest...

Have you tried degassing? I've found that dissolved CO2 can keep yeast/solids in suspension for a long, long time. Sometimes gently rocking those 1 gallon jugs is enough.

Well I stand corrected. Assumed that the alcohol & yeasties would interfere with the refractometer too much. Found this reference which explains things pretty nicely: Paper No (misco.com)

Yes, that's the only way I know of. You can use either refractometer or hydrometer for initial SG/sugar content, but once fermentation starts, hydrometer is the way to go.

I'm pretty sure the alcohol will skew the readings. As far as I know, a refractometer is for measuring the sugar content of "juice" only.

I made a batch of Skeeter Pee this winter from my neighbour's Meyer lemon tree. Bottled in December at about 7.5% ABV, bone dry and bottle conditioned by adding 1 oz per gallon of sugar. Tried the first bottle this weekend and it tasted really good. Only problem was it needed sweetness to...

I just started 4 gallons this past weekend. One D47, one S04, one M02 and one Nottingham to see which one, or ones, I like the best. Here's to beginner cider making! 766 + 4 = 770

Adding on the what ManSkills said, champagne (i.e. from the champagne region of France) bottles typically take 29mm caps, while beer, soda, etc. bottles take 26mm caps. Sparkling wine bottles from California (eg. Mumm Napa), typically take 26mm caps as well. As far as I can tell, the Cali...

I'm using 1 tsp per gallon per package instructions. Like I said, I'm going to do some trials (temperature, nutrient, etc.) to try and figure out which parameter is the culprit.

Maybe. It's a urea/dap combo. Used it with all the other yeasts with no problems. I'm starting to wonder if it's more temperature sensitive than the others. It's been fermenting between 60-64F. Package says temp range is 64-75F. Maybe I'm stressing the little guys out? I'll have to do...

Hi there, I'm a beginner when it comes to fermenting. I've made a few batches of fruit wine and cider with some success and I'm slowly improving. I've used champagne, montrachet and 1118 yeast in the past, all with good results. When I started my cider making journey, I switched to mangrove...

So I finally got around to picking those prickly pears. Decided to flame them over a gas burner on my stove. Long, painful process. I'll definitely go the charcoal fire route next time. Thanks AzOr for the suggestion. Got about 2/3 gal of deep purple/red juice with an SG of 1.03. Upped it...

I'm new to brewing/vintning and have come to realize that Bacchus is a quirky guy already. I made a batch of pineapple wine back in June and racked into two 1 gallon jugs for secondary. One jug was crystal clear after one month with no additional racking/fining/etc. The other jug was still as...

Decided to go with the crush/press option. Will most likely be harvesting and crushing this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes...

Hi there. I've managed to secure myself some prickly pears this year. I'm going to make some jelly, but I'm also going to try making "cider" out of the rest. Does anyone have experience with prickly pears? The way I see it I can either make juice by boiling the pears in water to extract all...