Recent content by dmomo

for #4 are you staggering your nutrients? I think that's how moonlight meadery is successful with their higher gravities without creating all the harsh fusel alcohols.

Both naval and valencia oranges are nice and juicy, and the sugar content of the juice is probably similar in each. I'd go by weight. Let's just hope the thickness of the rind is negligible enough for this purpose. I really want to try JOAM with some blood oranges.

By the way. I was given some awful port that someone made for their wedding about 6 years ago. I found an extra bottle three months ago. It was awesome!

I'm with roadymi. Let that sucker age! It sounds like your standard "green mead" problem. The turpentine taste goes away. As for the oranges, were they peeled or unpeeled? Either way, age should mellow that out. Try to imagine how it would taste beyond the harsh turpentine flavor.

The chill in the basement had this fermenting for quite some time. I primed and bottled it on Saturday, June 2nd. There was only about 4 1/4 gallons left after sampling / siphoning / etc. I mixed in just slightly more than one cup of DME. I used wheat simply because that's what was used in the...

Thanks for the tip. I think the plastic bottle is the way to go!

I have a batch of sweet sparkling cyser that I just primed and bottled. The plan is to open one every week or so until it is sufficiently carbonated and then pasteurize the remaining bottles before leaving them to age. To avoid opening too many bottles, I put the odd amount in a zip-lock...

Could you split the difference and try 1/2 of each? Maybe you could just buy a case of something safe like Sam Adams; Then push your own brew as "for the bold". Tattoo lovers won't want to think themselves anything less. Good luck and cheers.

I've had something like this on one of my meads. It turned out to be harmless. Not sure what it is. Don't worry just yet. It may even be oil from your hops or residue from your sanitizer.

Thanks for that link! Does the type of DME matter? I have wheat DME handy, though the calculator only has manufacturers, not varoations.

Thanks. Part of me wants to try to bottle half with each so I can compare. But that's a very small part of me. I'll likely just go ahead and use the DME.

When i DO start the bottling, I suppose this makes sense. There is always some uneven amount that does't fill an entire bottle. I usually put it in a bottle and toss it in the fridge for immediate consumption. Next time, I'll use it as a canary for my very delicious coal mine.

Quick update. I went to start the bottling process, and took a gravity reading first. I was still at 1.07! I think it's a slow fermentation due to the temperature in my basement. I remember liking the way it tastes, but it's actually very sweet now that I tried it again. So, I halted my...

Yooper, Thanks! I don't do much cider. I totally overlooked the stove-top pasteurization option. This is a test batch and, sadly, it's only 1 gallon, so I won't have the leisure of "test bottles". Maybe I'll bottle, wait a week, sample one.. then make a judgement call.

Looking at kbuzz's suggestions, I would be afraid that cold crashing would do the trick for a little while, but if the few active cells left started up enough to carbonate, we'd eventually have bottle bombs if I decided to let it age. Reading through the link from Maynard, it looks like there's...