Recent content by bernardsmith

If you know the ingredients and you know the starting volume, then it is easy to estimate your starting gravity. Here's the rule of thumb: one pound of honey dissolved in water to make 1 US gallon of must will increase the gravity of the water by 35 points - and so give you reading of 1.035. Two...

Yeah , brewers tend to go for Safale yeasts, but 71B has an affinity for malic acid - the predominant acid found in apples. Its' a harsh acid and 71B chews about 40% up and transforms it into lactic - a far more smoother acid, one that wine grape makers prefer but they need to add bacteria to...

Not gone down the path of batonnage, but pitching 71B and allowing the cider to sit for a year changes what you normally drink as a caterpillar into a butterfly. Much or the malic is transformed into a softer,smoother lactic acid and the transformation is like night and day. You might also try...

Pectic enzyme will remove a pectic haze but that is not the only reason why a wine or cider looks torpid. If you don't degas, the CO2 that is saturating the liquid will keep fruit and yeast and all kinds of particulates in suspension. Sure, your cider will eventually self -degas, but that can...

Hi dirigiboy - and welcome. Loved your tale about making cider 40 years ago. My guess is that the cider you made was probably around 6-7 % alcohol by volume. Most apples have about a pound of sugar in a gallon of pressed juice so the starting gravity (density) would be about 1.050. A cider at 6...

I decided to avoid the problem altogether, and got about 12 gallons of monitored spring water from the local state park

Sorry, not clear. There is no boiling or heating anything when making wine. That's why only beer making is referred to as brewing, not wine.

Trying to repair my ignorance: in wine making, I won't use my municipal water - although it tastes fine for drinking, making coffee, baking and cooking - because it does contain chlorine. I use spring water. But when it comes to making a wash for distilling spirits, how critical is it that the...

Not so certain that it is the copper, itself that is toxic, but for sure even a small quantity of copper sulfate can kill you dead. Using copper pots or copper wool to scrub pans would seem to be harmless even if you cook with lots of acidic foods or you are very aggressive when you clean with...

A couple of quick thoughts. Using copper wool - the sort you can buy at your local supermarket used for scrubbing pots is what some folk use. You might slip a few threads inside your siphon tube and rack through the threads or place a small bundle in a hop sock which you attach to the end of...

I have decided to make 2024 the year I focus on making fruit "ciders" (your coolers) at around 5-7% ABV. Certainly, you can find bottled juices at your local supermarket, but frozen fruit is also a way to go. And then there are Winexpert Island Mist wine kits that are labelled as "coolers"...

Looks like I may be a bit of a contrarian here but I boiled 4 oz of chocolate malt barley per gallon of mulberry wine for the pronounced chocolate flavor this roasted barley provides to chocolate stouts and I earned a silver medal at the Cellarmasters of LA wine competition in November. I have...

Two quick thoughts. 1. I'd start by making a batch larger than the batch I intend to bottle. The lees are then the sacrificial amount that is in the primary but when you rack, you completely fill the secondary right up into the neck. 2. The sediment and the lees you pour off into a tall and...

I guess my question is what exactly are you calling the "apple cider" you are fermenting. If the juice was pressed to make a sweet drink (apple juice) then 99 times out of 100 the people pressing the fruit are pressing table apples. Cider apples tend to be too tart, too tannic and too crumby to...

Is your Buckwheat honey from the west coast? East coast buckwheat tastes worse than awful. No good reason to spoil the lovely flavors of Orange Blossom with east coast Buckwheat. I used this honey for my first ever batch of mead and was unable to think making a second batch for more than 4...