Search results

I don't think you're right in saying that citric acid is converted to acetic acid during fermentation. I recently made a mead with added fresh lime juice (high in citric acid) and had no vinegar characteristics in the resulting mead. I know if your sanitization isn't good you can introduce...

If you are planning to backsweeten your wine the ABV can be a bit higher. I had a cranberry wine recently at a local winery that was 11.5% ABV and it was pretty good! One thing was that there was a slight bitterness to the finish, so depending on how yours turns out you may need a bit of aging.

My first mead batch was a gallon of traditional and a gallon of lime, both made with the same honey but different yeasts. What techniques/practices make a great traditional mead may not make a great melomel. Traditional is all about bringing out the honey flavors while a melomel is a lot more...

As a rough guide, 2.5lb honey per gallon will get you about 11% ABV based on my last batch. So with 10lb for 3 gallons you'll probably be around 13-14% ABV if it goes dry, plus whatever sugar gets fermented from the juice you add later. So I would go by SG instead of the amount of honey/gallon...

Mead is very similar to wine with one major exception: you have to add nutrients during fermentation since honey doesn't have much beyond sugar to feed the yeast with. I use Fermaid-O. But otherwise, meadmaking and winemaking are the same process. What you want to make is a melomel which is...

At 0.996, you're basically done fermenting. There is a lot of CO2 in the wine so the bubbles and airlock activity are degassing not fermenting. I would transfer to a carboy, degas gently, add kmeta, and let it rest for a bit. I hate the kit instructions because they like to rush things so you...

If I can add a tad of wisdom, make sure you stir well before tasting. I was oaking a cab sauv with a spiral and after 3 days the oak was overwhelming, but after I racked it and tasted again, the oak was very faint. Similar experience with some mulling spices in a merlot. So make sure everything...

@1d10t the genesis of my question was a whisky tasting class I attended where the distillery was super proud of their water source that was family-owned and had a unique mineral content, which got me thinking about the water added to mead. So perhaps with non-distilled spirits, it's more about...

This may seem a bit odd, but I was in Trader Joe's today and saw bottles of "artisan glacier water" from Norway. It got me thinking about what effect the water used in mead making has on the final flavor profile, since pretty much everyone focuses on the honey flavor profile. So if I were to...

Was at a local winery recently that had an extended maceration chardonnay I was able to sample. It had a really good body and a nice depth of flavor, but it also had some significant medicinal characteristics to it that might not be to everyone's liking. So just be careful not to overdo it

I think you are okay on the headspace for that short of time. The dose of kmeta will have protected you. But always trust your smell/taste tests. As for sweetness, I found that my favorite local fruit wines are around SG 1.020-1.030 which would qualify as sweet. So that's where I would...

12hrs after adding the chito and everything is nice and clear again! So I guess the answer is to clarify after backsweetening and not before. Good to know moving forward. Thanks for all the advice everyone!

I was chatting with the winemaker at a local winery a few weeks ago, and he does a 3 week EM on all his dry reds (cab sauv, cab franc, and merlot mainly). He found 3 weeks was the sweet spot to boost tannins and flavor without getting bitterness from the seeds. His wines are really good imho so...

I usually do add chito after about 12hrs. But when I first clarified this mead it was already crystal clear with just the kieselsol so I didn't bother with the chito. But maybe I do need it after backsweetening.

Update: I added 6mL kieselsol to each batch yesterday morning, and as of now nothing has changed. The mead is still hazy but nothing seems to have settled out either. I'm going to try adding chitosan tonight to see if maybe the opposite charge clarifier will work.

It reminds me of the look of a pectin haze where it's not clear but I can't identify any particles floating in it. So I don't think the cause of this is pollen or wax, both of which I had in these batches after fermentation since I used raw honey. But kieselsol worked spectacularly when I used...

I left my skins free floating because I read on here that those bags may float with CO2. I racked as normal after EM and then put the skins and lees in a fine mesh strained and gently pressed to get back more wine.

You are correct about the 3 stage process, but step 1 doesn't sound right based on your explanation. With an extended maceration, you basically just put everything in the primary fermenter and leave it there for 6 weeks or so. The yeast will finish fermenting after about 2 weeks, but the...

Hey @Mazaruni how long did you boil the honey to caramelize it? I've seen a bunch of different times online, and I was curious how long you went. I ask because cooking it too long will create unfermentable sugars, and I've seen people cook it from 20min to over 2hrs

Trader Joe's has a good selection of preservative-free fruit juices. Pretty much anything the doesn't have any sulfite or potassium sorbate listed on the ingredients can be used easily. One thing you can the to bump up the flavor is add a can of welch's grape juice concentrate. That will give it...