Recent content by Jon Eduardo

Cheap and less complicated to make, viewing from my corner of the world. Holiday season spurred a lot of grocery promotions. Got my 100% "Ceres" brand apple juice on 1 U.S. dollar off if I buy 2 liters. I got me 10 liters. Did the first trial batch, just to check how will it turn out. Came out...

just started with cider; 1 gal drunk, 1 gal brewing.. total:2 gallons; more to come!

My best bet with what has happened was the sudden change of weather around here. As most of my friends says, the country has two seasons, raining and not raining, and that happens within an eighteen hour span. Plus during the ferment, I noticed some grayish mold blooms on top of cupboards, and...

With regards to yeast nutrient, I used 1tsp of Fermax for the whole lot in total. It's the only I have in hand. I have used it in my other brews, all have been successful. The smell it was giving off; it was more than a sulfur smell, more like a puke smelling rotten durian (no offense to...

Update on this brew. I had to dump it. It got stuck 3 times, cold crashed and racked it twice to clear the dead yeast at the bottom. Last pitching resulted to a white slime on top of the liquid. Fermentation restarts and runs for a day then stops dead on its tracks. Always resulted to a very...

Finally, I have finished fining this mead, racked twice with 7 days in between. On the final racking, used 1/2 gram per liter in a 50ml slurry. Turned out better than I hoped for. It took a week to full clarity, and bottled it this afternoon. Two weeks ago, I tried a jigger sized serving and...

Yeah, ascorbic acid. I was distracted by the lady walking by. Hehe

I did pulverize the eggshells with a coffee grinder and a mortar and pestle, ending up in a cornstarch consistency. A trick I learned from South Africa whom I worked with 10 years ago. In this case, size (particle) do really matter, the finer, the better. The reaction was quite fast, an hour...

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I am using something similar, mine are Bormioli Fido 5L jars, originally intended for storing dried foods. Drilled the glass tops with a 12mm diamond coated bit for the airlock grommet. I say go with it, drilling plastic is easy.

It's all glass, that is why my housemates don't like watching me while I clean the thing in the kitchen sink. It's nerve racking to handle. It's a Bormioli Fido 5L, found it in a local provision shop near where I work. I drilled the top with a 12mm diamond coated bit, at work, in full view of...

Thanks for the correction. I really have to go back to using hydrometer. This refractometer is confusing. I have no means of measuring TA at the moment, but the cordial and the juices are drowning in ascorbic acid, hence the low pH. On the positive side, this means I can add more honey!

Had to scratch the itch to brew. My original plan was a straight cyser, but that Ribena Blackcurrant bottle caught my eye. Grabbed it, together with a couple of liters of pasteurized apple juice. On caveat though, I have to boil the Ribena to somehow neuter the sulfite and sorbate added, as per...