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My concern with a Chugger wouldn't be oxygen, as you should be purging the system with CO2 prior to using it, but the impeller knocking CO2 in solution out again and working against your goal. Since it's pre-carbonation stone, though, I'm not sure it would matter.

I'm surprised to hear you over carbed the beer using this system, that should be impossible to do if you're at serving temperature and pressure. Unless you weren't using serving temp/pressure, in which case you should be. Also your math is a little off. First, atmospheric pressure is about 14.7...

Do you foresee any issues with using an impeller driven pump? spittybug, is your pump impeller driven? I would have thought that would cause CO2 to come out of solution, much like degassing wine, but maybe because the system is pressurise it actually manages to help carb faster??

I've been looking at building something like this too, actually just wrote on my blog about it. One issue I ran into is that these cheaper diaphragm pumps appear to be made with ABS plastic, and are not considered food safe. Did you verify yours is food safe or what the plastic is before buying it?

This recipe has not changed much at all, but the most recent version can be found here: http://beer.thegremlyn.com/recipe/gremlyns-mild/

When experimenting, always change one variable at a time :)

Yep, CO2 bubbles and yeast.

Is there krausen? Airlocks are not good indicators of activity.

I agree, and recipe formulation is something I have done a lot of reading on. I've got a few of the style-based books to get a idea of the traditional ways to make certain styles, and try to draw information from a sensory experience of similar libations (i.e. I like to drink examples of styles...

I'm curious what the division out there is amongst brewers between whether you like to brew existing recipes or crafting your own. Granted this is a fairly non-scientific poll and doesn't account for bias of brewing experience, but oh well :) For reference: "Your recipes" refers to recipes...

I heated 3 gal of the apple juice and steeped the hibiscus in it for a while. I steeped it at 175F to make sure the hibiscus didn't bring anything to the must I don't want.

A couple of weeks ago I tried Viking Blod, and it was amazingly delicious. I figured I might as well have a go at making some mead of my own, and since I really like jamaica (hibiscus tea), I figure that would be a good place to start. I don't expect to make anything like Viking Blod, of course...

I make a habit of not converting volumes to weights or vice versa, so I can't speak to the conversion to tbsp, but it is a fair amount of malic acid, so I bet your not far off with your conversion. English ciders can really run the range, but tradition dry English cider is bitter-sweet at best...

Looks a bit cloudy. This should settle out and become brilliantly clear over the course of ageing it. Make sure you do age 3-4 months, as the flavour will definitely develop over time.

The malic acid all depends on how tart you like it. To figure out the right amount for me, I did some taste testing with scaled down amounts of juice. I just started a batch that is 3oz malic acid, and 0.2oz tannins, and I also pitched malolactic bacteria along with the yeast this time to see...

Let me know what you think!

You haven't even entered the patience phase... give it 4-6 months and then see how it is.

Never tried, I always keg... Once I tried it with some apfelwein and it was a no-go. maybe if you kick up enough when racking to the bottling bucket?

A little late, but no blow off needed with cider, it doesn't have the same denatured protein content to cause long-lived bubbles.

There is no high/low setting for the actual cooling system, the thermostat for the fridge works the same way as a Ranco, simply cuts the power at a preset temp. I just took out the stock thermostat, check to make sure it still ran, and called it good. The fridge plugs directly into the Ranco for...