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Bavksweetened (with remaining leatherwood honey) and bottled yesterday. I went up to 1.040 SG, which is a lot sweeter than I normally do, but I felt this batch could take it. The honey is light and not syrupy, so it didn't have any cloying sweetness even at that level. Maybe just because it's...

SG is down to 1.006, so I racked off the gross lees to secondary to let is degas and clear. Aroma: definitely floral, though not in a sickly sweet way. Like walking into a flower shop with a citrus tree outside. Fresh and light. Taste: young so it's a bit flat at the moment. Getting some pear...

In the HBT thread I referenced, the person who did the experiment added water to prevent it from burning initially since you can't constantly stir it in the oven. Even with that, she was able to get to 322F in 75min in the oven at 325F.

EC-1118 is usually a clean fermenter, and your temp is fine. I would try degassing with with a spoon or a drill whip. Splash racking at this stage might not be the best idea, I would start with something more gentle first to see if it does the trick.

I think you would be fine either way. Lately I've been racking out of the buckets when the SG is at or below 1.000, but that's just preference. I would not rack if the SG is above 1.020. Racking leaves yeast behind and you want to make sure there are enough to keep fermentation going to completion.

Now that you've made a few kits, my recommendation here would be to start throwing out the instructions right away on new kits. At the core, wine is just juice + yeast + time. All these different kit instructions are just guidelines based on whoever made the kits. You will also see manufacturers...

CO2 is heavier than air, so even taking off the lid doesn't really expose the must to oxygen unless you stir it and get rid of that CO2 blanket. You're not going to oxidize a wine (especially one that's fermenting) with a little bit of oxygen, so don't worry too much. Also, you don't need to...

Last year, I attempted my first bochet in the typical way: caramelizing some honey on the stovetop. I was fairly disappointed in the result which tasted like a slightly richer mead, but there were no caramel or toffee or marshmallow flavors. Posts on this forum mentioned that it's not about the...

Did I read that right that you tasted the wines 2 weeks after pitching and didn't notice a difference? If so, I'm not surprised. It takes a while after fermentation is complete for things to settle down and stabilize flavor-wise. I would let things ride for a month or two and then taste it...

New yeast is a must, and replacing the stabilizers is a good idea too. I would taste the juice to see where you are. Are there any "off" flavors? Anything like fermentation or rotten egg? Does the juice look homogeneous or is it separated? Does it taste like really sweet grape juice or is there...

I agree that you shouldn't let the juice go to waste. So if you just lost the Fpack, then all you need to do is make something for backsweetening. You can use simple syrup (basic recipe: 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, heat and stir until dissolved) or I think honey would be an interesting...

I'll keep you updated! It's fermenting away happily at the moment, SG 1.079. If I can ask, what specifically don't you like about the leatherwood honey? Is it the aroma or something in the taste that you aren't a fan of?

So I decided to splurge and buy a small 12oz jar of the leatherwood honey. Should be good for a 375mL and a 500mL bottle as a test batch. The aroma is very floral, but in a good way. Some tropical fruit notes as well, and some things I can't quite figure out. Very complex. The taste is...

I'm looking at some options for a really special traditional mead, and I came across Tasmanian Leatherwood honey. Has anyone ever tried this honey or a mead made from it? The tasting notes are a bit odd, so I want to know if I'm gonna spend a lot of money to make something with too weird of a...

I've made several batches of Welch's wine, mainly as porch pounders while my better stuff is aging. You do not need to add water. I usually add some sugar or honey to bump up the ABV, but that's personal choice. As for the bitter taste you mentioned, young wines that just finished fermenting...

You can add it and kmeta when bottling. Just make sure it's completely dissolved and give the wine a gentle stir so it's distributed.

It's a simple mead with mesquite honey and IKEA lingonberry syrup with 71B. It looks like those floating globs have either settled or floated and in the middle it's perfectly clear. So adding the hibiscus clarified it apparently.

So I added about 8 fl oz of hibiscus water (i.e. soaked 0.75oz of dried hibiscus flowers in hot water for 20min, then cooled it to probably 80F) to about 100 fl oz of lingonberry mead, and immediately it looks like something started congealing or something. The mead was already cloudy, SG of...

I'm curious as to people's thoughts about whether to add dried flowers directly to the wine in primary/secondary or make a "tea" and add that. I have a 12% abv lingonberry mead just finishing primary now, and I want to add some hibiscus flowers (0.75oz based on a recipe called Aztec Blood I...

Just my view, but a traditional mead is very simple and thus harder to master. There's nothing for any flaws to hide behind, and so they come right up front. Or, even a well-made traditional mead might not be your cup of tea. I personally don't like dry meads, I backsweeten mine to 1.010-1.025...