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Why do you refuse to use sorbate and sulfite to stabilize your mead? You are already adding Urea and DAP, which in my opinion is worse for flavor and health than sorbate and sulfite. I would switch to a DAP-free method and use sorbate and sulfite. It'll last much longer if you can add some of...

after 2.5 months your yeast is probably pretty dormant. Also 1.027 is not too crazy sweet. And you've got 11% ABV there so no big deal. How does it taste?

I used to not add sorbate and sulfite. Now I do. Why? Better control over ABV and sweetness, and better longevity. My "living" meads that were never stabilized start to taste old after a year or so. Trust me when I say, the best meads in the world are dosed with sorbate and sulfite at some...

Hello everyone, I've had the belief that lower fermentation temps, in general, lead to cleaner and better ferments. Slow and steady. I've been using EC-1118 Prise De Mousse quite a bit for different projects this winter, since my basement is cooler than normal. The last 3 wine kits I bought...

There is a procedure in which you can measure both the pH and the TA of your liquid. Some prefer it to the standard TA method as well for things like red wines in which the color change is difficult to detect. Essentially you do the TA procedure with the pH meter, titrating the acidity until it...

It may have been Narbonne. I pitched it quite a while ago and I don't know that I noted the strain at the time. To say that pH doesn't matter wouldn't really be accurate. In terms of taste yes, but in other aspects such as preservation no. This is a good primer here...

Hey guys, I recently made a cyser and I learned some valuable lessons that would probably benefit other people, so here we go. In apple juice the primary acid is malic acid. Some yeasts are able to metabolize some of the malic acid. One such yeast is Montrachet wine yeast, if you do a little...

You should invest in a kitchen scale to weigh your honey. The one I got on amazon goes up to 9 lbs and cost about $15. Pretty accurate, goes to 1/10th of an ounce. I weigh all my honey before it goes into the pot.

Here's what I would do. Take 3lbs of honey and your favorite yeast. Add nutrients and ferment this for about 2 weeks. Fermentation should be pretty much done. After 2 weeks, add 3lbs of frozen (lightly thawed) blueberries. Wild blueberries are even better if you can find them. Put them in a...

Do you recommend adjustments to the Potassium Carbonate amount depending on OG, or if you are making a cyser or pyment? I imagine the starting Ph can very in a fairly large range. I'm assuming the set amount is for simplicity sake. I have a batch going, OG was 1.124 with the starter and the Ph...

1) I like to degass until I feel like MOST of the dissolved gas is out. It usually takes 3 times. Do your readings after degassing. Surely all those less dense bubbles hitting the hydrometer could affect your reading, don't you think? 2) It's hard to say what you're tasting. But I think a lot...

I have something crazy happening. My meads have been taking a LONG time to ferment now that I have switched over to using the Fermaid O protocol. My latest batch has been fermenting nonstop for 2 months. It dries out, so I add more honey. And then I wait, check gravity, and add more honey. Well...

I just made a raspberry melomel that I ended up racking 3 times. It turned out awesome and very clear. It used a bunch of raspberries and the racking helped me get rid of seeds and sludge. I have noticed that if I don't rack at least once my mead will still be pretty hazy, even a month later.

Has anyone had experience "acidifying" BOMM with either lemon juice or orange juice? I know on denardbrewing website a few of his recipes he adds an acid blend do the mead.

I had a mead that finished up 3 weeks ago, 3lbs of fruit / gallon, very heavily fruited. Was moderately hazy at bottling time. But something amazing happened. Just over 3 weeks in the bottle and I pulled one to check. Amazing clarity, and I didn't even add fining agents as far as I can...

Okay, so I know solera is only typically used for sour beers, but since mead ages so well, I'm wondering if this might work for mead as well. The basic idea is that you draw off 2/3 of the (mead, beer) from the carboy and bottle it. Then you add mead to this carboy and top it off. So each...

That's a good point. I'm going to assume that there will be no more active fermentation and if there is, that'll be an added bonus. Some quick calculations here. (Sweet Mead A = 1.050) (Dry Mead B = 0.998) If my target gravity is 1.032, that means I need 65% sweet mead and 35% dry mead. Or I...

I have a batch of mead that finished much higher than I calculated. I was going for 1.030 and it's right around 1.050. To combat this, I have started another batch that should finish around 1.000... as soon as it hits this level, I am going to blend it with the "sweet" mead and hope that some of...

Good place to buy Fermaid O? Morebeer/morewine has 750g for $60 shipped. ($80/kg) Winemakersdepot has 2.5 KG for $108 plus shipping. ($43.20/kg) Amazon has 120g for $26 shipped ($216.67 / kg) White Labs has the 2.5kg bag for $80 (plus shipping) and I'm not sure if individuals can order from...

One popular combo I've heard of in B. Nektar's Zombie Killer is Apples and Cherries. Another combo that seems great is blackberries and Raspberries. Strawberries and Blueberries. It's hard to go wrong really. One I want to try is peaches and raspberries.