blasterooni
PIpe line is now well established
Well, for me at least, apple season has come to a close. All of the trees I know of are picked clean, or there are but a few left well out of reach and not worth busting out the ladder to pick. So this morning, I started my first batch of mead. It was the idea of making mead as my grandmother once did from here own bees back when I was a kid. I have fond memories of the carboy, with an airlock bubbling away in the dining room. I never got to taste it, but my mom, truth be told, says it tasted pretty bad.
I hope to make at drinkable mead at the very least, and while dear grandma Ida's apparently did not come out that well, its a tradition I wish to continue nevertheless. So, I went and purchased about 9 pounds of honey to do a 3 gallon batch, though I added some sugar to bring the gravity up to 1.100. I don't know if this is a bad thing to do or not, but I don't think it will have any appreciably bad effect on the final product, necessarily. My simple recipe for my 3 gallon batch is as follows:
8-9 pounds of honey
19.5 ounces of sugar
3 gallons of spring water
5 grams 71b
OG: just shy of 1.100
pH: too high for my test strips, so I added some malic acid to bring it down (its what I had on hand). I need to check it again tonight to see where it landed. My aim is pH 3.8-4.0
I plan to move the carboy into the fermentation chamber once the cider has finished clearing up. My target temp is 68F
I used Go Ferm to mix with the dry yeast when I rehydrated at a 1:1 ratio, and I added 6.75g of Fermaid K and 3g of DAP to the must. I plan to follow SNA nutrient additions at 1/3 and 2/3 sugar break adding 18.6g fermaid O and 1.1 g DAP at 1/3, and and 18.6g fermaid O at 2/3, no DAP. I will aerate twice daily for 3-5 days and degas as well. The airlock has not bubbled yet (been about 5 hours since I pitched), but I can see the pressure building as the water in the airlock has moved from a balanced state. The first bubble should escape pretty soon I think (it may have already as its been a while since I last checked for activity).
Looking forward to see how this goes,with absolutely no expectations for success. However, if I follow the protocol laid out above, it think I will at least have a drinkable mead at some point within a year or less perhaps! I want to make Grandma Ida proud!
Skal!
I hope to make at drinkable mead at the very least, and while dear grandma Ida's apparently did not come out that well, its a tradition I wish to continue nevertheless. So, I went and purchased about 9 pounds of honey to do a 3 gallon batch, though I added some sugar to bring the gravity up to 1.100. I don't know if this is a bad thing to do or not, but I don't think it will have any appreciably bad effect on the final product, necessarily. My simple recipe for my 3 gallon batch is as follows:
8-9 pounds of honey
19.5 ounces of sugar
3 gallons of spring water
5 grams 71b
OG: just shy of 1.100
pH: too high for my test strips, so I added some malic acid to bring it down (its what I had on hand). I need to check it again tonight to see where it landed. My aim is pH 3.8-4.0
I plan to move the carboy into the fermentation chamber once the cider has finished clearing up. My target temp is 68F
I used Go Ferm to mix with the dry yeast when I rehydrated at a 1:1 ratio, and I added 6.75g of Fermaid K and 3g of DAP to the must. I plan to follow SNA nutrient additions at 1/3 and 2/3 sugar break adding 18.6g fermaid O and 1.1 g DAP at 1/3, and and 18.6g fermaid O at 2/3, no DAP. I will aerate twice daily for 3-5 days and degas as well. The airlock has not bubbled yet (been about 5 hours since I pitched), but I can see the pressure building as the water in the airlock has moved from a balanced state. The first bubble should escape pretty soon I think (it may have already as its been a while since I last checked for activity).
Looking forward to see how this goes,with absolutely no expectations for success. However, if I follow the protocol laid out above, it think I will at least have a drinkable mead at some point within a year or less perhaps! I want to make Grandma Ida proud!
Skal!