Recent content by IrishBrewer420

UPDATE: I have officially started the recipe and so far it is going great! A few days into fermentation and it is going healthy and strong. Plan to transfer to secondary within a week or so. The vodka/oak/cinnamon extract is a very interesting and fun step that I've never utilized in a brew...

Thank you for the info. Perhaps I do need a different book. Now that you mention it my book is pretty basic and the recipes are quite similar. I do have a somewhat close relationship with the people at my LHBS. I live only a block away and visit frequently. And I wasn't actually going to call...

Thank you, I guess I should make sure my wine gets a little air. I did stir it vigorously during primary stage but left it undisturbed under airlock from then on out. I am still hoping that if I give my wine enough time to mellow out in bottle (3 months or more?) it will hopefully at least...

Treat with campden? Wow, if the only thing that ruined my wine was not using those tablets, I'm going to be extremely unhappy and will contact the seller of the recipe book I used to express my displeasure. I'm already working on my next wine and this one DOES have campden tablets in it, so...

It never occurred to me to treat my water before brewing. I have made several batches of beer using the same untreated tap water as I did with my wine, and the beers came out perfect. However, beer gets boiled; my wine base had to be unheated cold water. Also, I actually do have campden tablets...

Uh-oh. I'm very glad you told me this, as I did use the recommended amount of pectic enzyme. I didn't account for pectin in my jelly base - you'd think my book would have. So if my off-flavors are produced by an increase in methanol, how can I be sure my wine is safe to consume? Could I possibly...

Thanks for the info all. Appreciate your insights. Very glad to know that I have not ruined by 5 Gal. batch by capping it. It's very interesting to see the commercial wines utilizing this method. They look like very good wines that I would certainly try if able. One question; when you say it's...

I am wondering if it might possibly hurt wine to package it like beer. What I mean by that is using beer bottles and crown caps in order to bottle the wine, rather than using wine bottles and corks. Now, I fully understand that the practice is not recommended or ideal, but as long as it does not...

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to do that then.

Thanks for all the input guys! Even if it is by only a few decimal points a tiny spike in ABV is fine by me. And I am certainly not a commercial brewer, but you never know what the future might hold.

Hey all, I just bought some oak chips I'll be using for my upcoming batch of mead. I wasn't sure what variety went best with cherry mead, so I picked the cheapest kind there was. Anyway, some of the labels say to soak the wood for one hour prior to use and other labels made no mention of this...

I am wondering if bottle conditioning can have a direct affect on the alcohol content of beer. Obviously, we add sugar to trigger a "renewed fermentation", and the CO2 gas which would normally escape through the airlock is sealed in the bottle, thus carbonating the beer. I'm curious that since...

Don't worry about it looking gross mid-process, that's totally normal. Actually, I'd worry if it DIDN'T look gross. Same thing with regular beer, when I check on it a few days in it usually resembles a swamp. :)

Around the World - Queensryche

The whole flower except for the green parts? Awesome! That's what I needed to know, thank you. I also do like the idea of boiling them on the stove, and I'll probably go ahead with that. Could I alternatively boil water then pour it over my petals in the primary?