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Hi all! Just made a batch of the above mentioned cyser, 5 liters (1,3 gallons) of it. In the recipe Schramm recommends cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, just 1 tsp of the first two and three cloves for 5 gallons, not sure of if others would agree with this and no time specified so thought I would ask...

Hi all! I just racked my fall's bounty cyser after just under two weeks, it had fermented almost dry and almost no oxygen/carbon dioxide bubbles where seen in the demijohn. During racking for some unknown reason a big amount of bubbling/oxygenation happened inside the racking cane and hose, and...

I'm making a cyser with raisins and chopped dates, and a big bunch of them are floating on top. The yeast has nearly fermented all sugar in about a week which is fast for my standard. I'm thinking of keeping the cyser in primary for 1-2 weeks more. Should I swirl a bit every day to keep the...

Hi all! I'm planning to do the Fall's Bounty cyser tomorrow from The Compleat Meadmaker. Schramm gives instructions to top of to 5 gallons with water, is there some specific purpose with adding water instead of just adding extra apple juice? Also I'm planning to add vanilla beans beside the...

Fellow homebrewers! I just bottled my first batch of mead. Problem is my ancient corker which I got from my grandfather didn't push the corks all the way in (see picture). Will long-term storage still be okay or should I think about other solutions? Thanks!

Hi all! So I tried making my first mead in february which is conditioning since then, unfortunately a little too warm since I couldnt find a colder placer (18 degress celcius/64,4 fahrenheit). After a few months I noticed a little cloudy "sediment" at the top when the carboy was swirled, which...

Hello all! I'n brewing my first mead with D47 and I want to step feed it. Now I have some questions for you all: 1. Do you swirl/shake the mead after feeding it with honey for oxygenation and release of CO2 or do you just drop they honey in and leave it? 2. Do you add extra nutrients (fermaid...

Since I overdid my first try for a mead starter with way to much honey (without taking a gravity reading), and in the process pretty much killing the yeast, I'm curious to how you people do it. I found an older thread with a few different replys, but if anyone else is willing to share how they...

Hello all! Yesterday I tried making my first ever mead starter after reading up a bit. I'm planning on making a 2 gallon/7,5 liters mead with lalvin d47. I wanted to learn making a starter instead of pitching several packages of yeast. So yesterday I made a starter out of 5 dl of honey and 1,5...

Hello all! I have a friend who has been making mead for a while, and he claims that yeast becomes better at fermenting honey if you harvest it and use that for your next batch. He claims that this harvesting and re-usage of yeast gives the mead a much better taste. But when I scroll this forum...

I'm trying to find out how to go about mashing as I only want to brew small batches, basically around 1,5 gallons/6 liters. Is it possible to make a good mash tun from a cooler or something for such small batches? Palmer talks a lot about the importance of the mash thickness in the tun not being...

Like the title says, is there some simple way to just calculate what the FG will be after addition of juice concentrate to a cider that has finished fermenting, without taking a sample? Let's say if I have 5 gallons of cider at SG 0.995 and want to add concentrate of SG 1.200 (I guess...

Has anyone had good results with spontaneously fermenting juice made from a fruit, berry or vegetable (like carrot or beetroot)? After tasting mikkeller's lambic with beetroot I have half a mind to just try to ferment beetroot juice I've made myself from beetroots put through a juicer. I'm...

I recently coldcrashed my first batch of cider and racked it to secondary. There is still a lot of carbon dioxide action in it afterwords though so in case I haven't stopped fermentation I plan to backsweeten with self-made concentrate. I understand that some do this by taking orchard or...

My first batch of hard apple cider just finished primary fermentation and I'm coldcrashing it right now. After I've transferred the cider to a glass carboy with little to no headspace, how long do you recommend that I store it before bottling? I want to do most or all of the conditioning in the...

Another newbie questions! I'm currently letting a batch of non-alcoholic cider/apple juice cool down before pitching. Thing is, I'm going to pitch at ambient temperature in my kitchen (68 F / 20 C), which is a bit warmer than the cellar where I will put it after pitching (61 F / 16 C). Is this...

The topic says it all! Do you have any recommendations about how much Nottingham I should pitch into 2,5-3 gallons of apple juice/cider? I would like it to get the job done without overpitching. Thanks!

I have a 6,5 gallon glass carboy which I've just received from my grandfather, in pretty much perfect condition. Anyway I cleaned it with some PBW just to make sure, and put it upside down in a DIY carboy stand, but after approximately 48 hours it still hadn't dried. There were plenty of small...

I just commenced my first attempt at brewing, a scandinavian christmas drink called "glögg". Many difficulties arouse, but the only thing that is still vexing me is the airlock. I filled it up to a desirable level but when I inserted it into the glass carboy the levela shifted so the outer...

I just received an old and pretty clean glass carboy from my grandfather who did some brewing some decades past. The only thing problematic is some white stain at the bottom which seems hard to remove. First I tried a mixture of rice, baking soda and water (read that one on another forum). That...