When I'm looking through the various forums, trying to see if anyone has posted a thread that explains a problem they're having or just a question they're looking to find an answer for? Call me old fashioned (hell even that phrase sounds dated), but if you posted a question of "Why is X happening" ? Or "Made a whatever batch, but it's doing Y" ? Then I'm likely to answer it if I can offer something to point you in the right direction or maybe suggest how to work out what might be going on.
If you post "Stonehenge, the Mystery Brew", I'm not even gonna read your post. I don't want to read about new age weirdness. I want to try and be of help if I can, I like to try and be helpful. There's too much shit around where people or organisations want to charge for or sell knowledge. I'm very "open source" with my attitude toward knowledge. But if you start with naming your brews, with idiotic names, then fuck it, I can't be bothered to read through a load of "fairy story mumbo jumbo" to try and understand what the problem might be.
There's a few people over at Gotmead, that like to do that, presumably because they like to demonstrate their "right on", hippy credentials. Sorry, I just find that all too damn pretentious. Just tell me the type of brew you're trying to make and if I have something to add, I'll happily do so.
Call it something fucking stupid and bollocks, I won't even bother to read the post. I don't believe in all the so called mystical crap. There's no such thing as a fucking Druid, there might have been but they were likely just religious shamen types and the Romans wasted them all 2 millenia ago, with just historical and cultural references to them. There is no "magic". All the stuff that those wankers come up with at Stonehenge at the summer and winter solstices is just a lot of shit. All thought up by the pretentious pricks who take part in such nonsense.
So just ask me about meads but use sensible, practical descriptions of what you are doing/making and what you want to know, then no snags, if I can help, I will. Ask me about the other kind of shit and I'll likely just walk........
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Hydrometer queries etc.........
This post is just a reminder thing for any other, probably new mead maker who may come across my ramblings.
It's prompted by a few recent posts over at Gotmead. A newer mead maker was asking about final gravities and the possibilities of sweetening a brew, yet the persons post was a little confusing with the numbers that were quoted.
A brewing hydrometer measures original gravity for solutions that contain sugars, in the range commonly found in the making of alcoholic beverages.
There's a number of different scales that they can be calibrated too, though it seems generally the best/easiest one to use, is that of original gravity. They sometimes have a %ABV scale and colour bands with numbers and other bits like "bottle at this point" etc.
IMO, there's only one necessary scale that you need to think about using. Yes, I've mentioned it already, the original gravity scale.
Here is a picture that shows a hydrometer being used. I found it at "Grapestompers". It shows a hydrometer in liquid, but more importantly, it shows the original gravity scale.
You can see that the top, is numbered 0.990, with the numbers increasing as the scale goes down the shaft of the hydrometer. That is because the higher the sugar level present in the liquid, the higher the hydrometer floats in the liquid.
So a new ferment, or ideally, a must mixed for fermentation, irrespective of whether it's grape juice or honey/water, will make the hydrometer act in the same way. The lower the device floats, the lower the amount of fermentable sugars present.
Which is what makes it suitable to be able to measure the levels of fermentable sugars and once the yeast is in the brew, where it's got to on the fermentation i.e. as the alcohol is produced by the yeast munching the sugars, the device sinks further into the sample, giving a different reading.
Water on its own would normally measure 1.000 - and there will usually be an indicator of temperature, whether it's shown in Celsius or Fahrenheit, just depends on where it was made to be marketed or even the age of the device (ones for the UK market are now calibrated in Celsius, but older ones may show Fahrenheit, as would (most likely) one made for the US market). The temperature is shown for accurate readings i.e. if it says 20C, then measuring water to get an accurate reading of 1.000, the sample water should be at 20C etc.
Before I forget, I'm gonna link the Grapestompers guide to using a hydrometer. I haven't read it all, I just found it when I was looking for images to illustrate this point.
Now one thing that I've noticed, is that some new mead (and wine) makers get a hydrometer that's been calibrated and then has 3 different scales printed on (well "in" really) it. Here's a link to a very good set of pictures of one of those, the third picture at the bottom can be enlarged to show the printed scale laid out flat.
These are fine, but they can cause confusion, and while the image shows one that has gravity, percentage alcohol and brix scales, the only scale necessary is the gravity one. There are uses for the %ABV scale and brix, but I've found the gravity scale the most useful because you can see the numbers and those numbers or at least the amount that they drop during a ferment, correspond directly to the % alcohol, even if you "step feed" a ferment, where you start it at one point e.g. 1.100, then you let it ferment to say 1.020, then you add more fermentable sugars (honey generally with meads) and the reading goes back up to 1.040, then you repeat that process, say 2 times before you just let the ferment finish, that is a drop of 80 points, but with 2 step feeds that allowed for an increase of 20 points each time, so that would give a total drop of 120 points, then the third step feed back to 1.040 and then allowing it to finish, lets use 1.000 as the final gravity, that adds a further 40 points to the total drop, so a total of 160 points (which is rather unlikely given the ability of wine yeasts - but this is just a hypothetical example anyway), by using the Alcohol Calculation Chart posted by Lockwood over at wines at home (link to a number of charts he's posted, but the one we're interested in is the alcohol calculation one - and you'll need something that can display a .xls file to view it), we can work out that after the initial 80 point drop, the batch has a %ABV of about 10.8%, then after the first step feed to 1.040 that drops back down to 1.020, it would have a strength of 13.5% ABV a total drop of 100 points, this being repeated increases the total drop to 120 points or 16.3% ABV and after the final feed back up to 1.040 which is then allowed to drop to the final gravity of 1.000, that makes the total drop 160 points or 21.7% ABV.
As far as I can work out, those figures are pretty accurate as to how the drop in gravity points equates to %ABV. Plus it's worth pointing out, that modern wine yeasts generally can be obtained that will ferment or "tolerate" 18% ABV, there are a few yeasts on the market that are advertised as being capable or tolerant to 21 or even 23% ABV. I can't vouch for those, I haven't used them, but I frequently use yeasts that will ferment to 18%.
I'm hoping that that explains why I prefer the single, gravity scale, hydrometers are the easiest to follow.
Of course, it's never all "going to be plain sailing". If you've used something in the batch that has fermentable sugars in it, that can't be easily measured, like fruit for example, then there's always likely to be some discrepancy to the numbers. It can only be a reasonably accurate measurement when all the fermentable sugars can be dissolved in solution, and that solution measured. There are various charts around the net that list the approximate gravity of juices or fruit, I can't say how reliable these are or might be - a few juices can be tested, like apple juice, orange juice and grape juice, as long as you remember that any pulp or other solid matter in the juice can skew the reading one way or another. A bit like dropping a hydrometer into your sample and finding that bubbles attach themselves to the side of the glass. You can usually just spin the glass shaft with your fingers and that removes the bubbles or if there is a lot of effervescence in the test sample, then you need to let it stand for a while for the bubbles to rise/escape.
Damn I hope this makes as much sense to any reader, as it does to me.......
It's prompted by a few recent posts over at Gotmead. A newer mead maker was asking about final gravities and the possibilities of sweetening a brew, yet the persons post was a little confusing with the numbers that were quoted.
A brewing hydrometer measures original gravity for solutions that contain sugars, in the range commonly found in the making of alcoholic beverages.
There's a number of different scales that they can be calibrated too, though it seems generally the best/easiest one to use, is that of original gravity. They sometimes have a %ABV scale and colour bands with numbers and other bits like "bottle at this point" etc.
IMO, there's only one necessary scale that you need to think about using. Yes, I've mentioned it already, the original gravity scale.
You can see that the top, is numbered 0.990, with the numbers increasing as the scale goes down the shaft of the hydrometer. That is because the higher the sugar level present in the liquid, the higher the hydrometer floats in the liquid.
So a new ferment, or ideally, a must mixed for fermentation, irrespective of whether it's grape juice or honey/water, will make the hydrometer act in the same way. The lower the device floats, the lower the amount of fermentable sugars present.
Which is what makes it suitable to be able to measure the levels of fermentable sugars and once the yeast is in the brew, where it's got to on the fermentation i.e. as the alcohol is produced by the yeast munching the sugars, the device sinks further into the sample, giving a different reading.
Water on its own would normally measure 1.000 - and there will usually be an indicator of temperature, whether it's shown in Celsius or Fahrenheit, just depends on where it was made to be marketed or even the age of the device (ones for the UK market are now calibrated in Celsius, but older ones may show Fahrenheit, as would (most likely) one made for the US market). The temperature is shown for accurate readings i.e. if it says 20C, then measuring water to get an accurate reading of 1.000, the sample water should be at 20C etc.
Before I forget, I'm gonna link the Grapestompers guide to using a hydrometer. I haven't read it all, I just found it when I was looking for images to illustrate this point.
Now one thing that I've noticed, is that some new mead (and wine) makers get a hydrometer that's been calibrated and then has 3 different scales printed on (well "in" really) it. Here's a link to a very good set of pictures of one of those, the third picture at the bottom can be enlarged to show the printed scale laid out flat.
These are fine, but they can cause confusion, and while the image shows one that has gravity, percentage alcohol and brix scales, the only scale necessary is the gravity one. There are uses for the %ABV scale and brix, but I've found the gravity scale the most useful because you can see the numbers and those numbers or at least the amount that they drop during a ferment, correspond directly to the % alcohol, even if you "step feed" a ferment, where you start it at one point e.g. 1.100, then you let it ferment to say 1.020, then you add more fermentable sugars (honey generally with meads) and the reading goes back up to 1.040, then you repeat that process, say 2 times before you just let the ferment finish, that is a drop of 80 points, but with 2 step feeds that allowed for an increase of 20 points each time, so that would give a total drop of 120 points, then the third step feed back to 1.040 and then allowing it to finish, lets use 1.000 as the final gravity, that adds a further 40 points to the total drop, so a total of 160 points (which is rather unlikely given the ability of wine yeasts - but this is just a hypothetical example anyway), by using the Alcohol Calculation Chart posted by Lockwood over at wines at home (link to a number of charts he's posted, but the one we're interested in is the alcohol calculation one - and you'll need something that can display a .xls file to view it), we can work out that after the initial 80 point drop, the batch has a %ABV of about 10.8%, then after the first step feed to 1.040 that drops back down to 1.020, it would have a strength of 13.5% ABV a total drop of 100 points, this being repeated increases the total drop to 120 points or 16.3% ABV and after the final feed back up to 1.040 which is then allowed to drop to the final gravity of 1.000, that makes the total drop 160 points or 21.7% ABV.
As far as I can work out, those figures are pretty accurate as to how the drop in gravity points equates to %ABV. Plus it's worth pointing out, that modern wine yeasts generally can be obtained that will ferment or "tolerate" 18% ABV, there are a few yeasts on the market that are advertised as being capable or tolerant to 21 or even 23% ABV. I can't vouch for those, I haven't used them, but I frequently use yeasts that will ferment to 18%.
I'm hoping that that explains why I prefer the single, gravity scale, hydrometers are the easiest to follow.
Of course, it's never all "going to be plain sailing". If you've used something in the batch that has fermentable sugars in it, that can't be easily measured, like fruit for example, then there's always likely to be some discrepancy to the numbers. It can only be a reasonably accurate measurement when all the fermentable sugars can be dissolved in solution, and that solution measured. There are various charts around the net that list the approximate gravity of juices or fruit, I can't say how reliable these are or might be - a few juices can be tested, like apple juice, orange juice and grape juice, as long as you remember that any pulp or other solid matter in the juice can skew the reading one way or another. A bit like dropping a hydrometer into your sample and finding that bubbles attach themselves to the side of the glass. You can usually just spin the glass shaft with your fingers and that removes the bubbles or if there is a lot of effervescence in the test sample, then you need to let it stand for a while for the bubbles to rise/escape.
Damn I hope this makes as much sense to any reader, as it does to me.......
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Quick mead ?
When you read posts from new mead makers around the forums, the question that often comes up, is which is the quickest mead to make ?
Given that young meads can often taste like piss, that's not the easiest question to answer, because while a young mead can indeed taste hideous, the transformations that are wrought by ageing are amazing.
Taste a young brew, finished fermenting, cleared and then racked to bulk age and you can get just "alcohol hot" with some vague indescribable "what's left after the sugars have gone" sort of thing. Yet bulk age for 6 months or more and if you're really lucky, it might come good that quickly, it may need longer to become good, but the 6 months will demonstrate the changes that are happening in the bulk ageing stage.
Bulk ageing is actually a home brewers compromise. It allows us to produce a batch where all of the bottles produced from that batch will taste the same i.e. consistent. It prevents different characteristics developing from differences in heat, humidity, etc, which might occur if the batch was bottled prior to ageing. Of course, it would seem that commercial wine producers can indeed, "bottle age" their wines, but equally that is because they have access to temperature and humidity controlled storage for consistency, which we home brewers don't have or can't afford, generally speaking.
So here's a link to Gotmead main sites list of (apparently) "quick" meads.
Now I can't really recommend them particularly as "quick" meads, because apart from the Joes Ancient Orange recipe, I haven't tried making any of them.
The "JAO" recipe is pretty quick for a mead, it takes IRO 3 months. Joe himself, states that it's drinkable once it's clear. Indeed it is, but if you age it for 3 to 6 months as well, IMO, it improves immeasurably.....
Oh, and JAO is best made as close to the original recipe as possible. Of course, there are some issues that crop up over and over again. Like the yeast. He suggests using the Fleischmanns bread yeast, which is fine, but not a bit of good to me as Fleischmanns is a US brand. But having tried the recipe with local equivalents like Allinsons, Hovis, and even both Tesco and Co-op own brand, they all work fine. So I'm thinking that as long as you keep your batch basically the same i.e. the honey to water ratio, "normal" bread yeast, the orange, raisins and spices, then you should get a decent brew that conforms to the criteria set down by Joe.
The rest of the recipes, you'll just have to try for yourself........
Given that young meads can often taste like piss, that's not the easiest question to answer, because while a young mead can indeed taste hideous, the transformations that are wrought by ageing are amazing.
Taste a young brew, finished fermenting, cleared and then racked to bulk age and you can get just "alcohol hot" with some vague indescribable "what's left after the sugars have gone" sort of thing. Yet bulk age for 6 months or more and if you're really lucky, it might come good that quickly, it may need longer to become good, but the 6 months will demonstrate the changes that are happening in the bulk ageing stage.
Bulk ageing is actually a home brewers compromise. It allows us to produce a batch where all of the bottles produced from that batch will taste the same i.e. consistent. It prevents different characteristics developing from differences in heat, humidity, etc, which might occur if the batch was bottled prior to ageing. Of course, it would seem that commercial wine producers can indeed, "bottle age" their wines, but equally that is because they have access to temperature and humidity controlled storage for consistency, which we home brewers don't have or can't afford, generally speaking.
So here's a link to Gotmead main sites list of (apparently) "quick" meads.
Now I can't really recommend them particularly as "quick" meads, because apart from the Joes Ancient Orange recipe, I haven't tried making any of them.
The "JAO" recipe is pretty quick for a mead, it takes IRO 3 months. Joe himself, states that it's drinkable once it's clear. Indeed it is, but if you age it for 3 to 6 months as well, IMO, it improves immeasurably.....
Oh, and JAO is best made as close to the original recipe as possible. Of course, there are some issues that crop up over and over again. Like the yeast. He suggests using the Fleischmanns bread yeast, which is fine, but not a bit of good to me as Fleischmanns is a US brand. But having tried the recipe with local equivalents like Allinsons, Hovis, and even both Tesco and Co-op own brand, they all work fine. So I'm thinking that as long as you keep your batch basically the same i.e. the honey to water ratio, "normal" bread yeast, the orange, raisins and spices, then you should get a decent brew that conforms to the criteria set down by Joe.
The rest of the recipes, you'll just have to try for yourself........
Monday, April 01, 2013
Bochet part 3......
Well, the bochet seems to have fermented ok. I was very lapse with it.The master plan was to use the stirrer and make it my first stir plate attempt, but for reasons I don't yet understand, the fucking stirrer kept throwing the stir bar off the magnetic field. I even sent off for a longer bar to see if that would work but it didn't. So I lost interest in it a bit and forgot to add nutrient and stuff like that.
Anyway, it seems to have fermented ok and it's even cleared pretty much. I haven't tested it recently but when I did the other week it was at about 1.004 and now its racked out of the 5 litre erhlenmeyer flask into a DJ it still tasted a bit weird. Plus there was about a half litre of air space so I just topped it up with a sour mash whisky as it was to hand.
I'm not fussed how it's come out as I'm more interested in getting a working stir plate for some other traditional batches. I can focus on sorting out yeasts etc for now, as the D21 I did have had given up the ghost and wasnt starting at all.
Anyway, it seems to have fermented ok and it's even cleared pretty much. I haven't tested it recently but when I did the other week it was at about 1.004 and now its racked out of the 5 litre erhlenmeyer flask into a DJ it still tasted a bit weird. Plus there was about a half litre of air space so I just topped it up with a sour mash whisky as it was to hand.
I'm not fussed how it's come out as I'm more interested in getting a working stir plate for some other traditional batches. I can focus on sorting out yeasts etc for now, as the D21 I did have had given up the ghost and wasnt starting at all.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A quick rant !
I like to try and be helpful around the mead making forums. Often in respect of stuff that newer mead makers ask, and especially when it comes to getting ingredients that might have local equivalents.
Equally, we (as in us lot this side of the pond) have to often "make do" as the stuff you see mentioned on the mead forums where there's a high proportion of American mead makers, just isn't easily available.
There's a lot of info out there. It may be that it's been posted by one of us UK based mead makers, so it's easier to ask the "why's and wherefore's". Even if it's been posted by one of the US based mead makers, it might just need a bit of a pointer to set someone in the right direction.
They just need to have a bit of a search, and read the fucking guidance. Hell ask a few questions, there's plenty of people who will explain why if they do X, they won't get Y, they'll go straight past Z and end up back at D.
High gravity/strength is fine, just don't put all the fucking honey in a batch at once. It will cause problems stressing the yeast and possibly resulting in off flavours that may either take years to mellow, or even not at all. It's easy to make a batch that needs to meet certain criteria, but it's likely that if it's suggested that it's made in a certain way, then there's a fucking reason for it.
Don't try and re-invent the wheel, you'll just end up looking like a cunt who can't even make basic recipes. Plus you'll stress yourself out trying to work out "what went wrong"......
Ok, I'll get off my soap box.........
Equally, we (as in us lot this side of the pond) have to often "make do" as the stuff you see mentioned on the mead forums where there's a high proportion of American mead makers, just isn't easily available.
There's a lot of info out there. It may be that it's been posted by one of us UK based mead makers, so it's easier to ask the "why's and wherefore's". Even if it's been posted by one of the US based mead makers, it might just need a bit of a pointer to set someone in the right direction.
They just need to have a bit of a search, and read the fucking guidance. Hell ask a few questions, there's plenty of people who will explain why if they do X, they won't get Y, they'll go straight past Z and end up back at D.
High gravity/strength is fine, just don't put all the fucking honey in a batch at once. It will cause problems stressing the yeast and possibly resulting in off flavours that may either take years to mellow, or even not at all. It's easy to make a batch that needs to meet certain criteria, but it's likely that if it's suggested that it's made in a certain way, then there's a fucking reason for it.
Don't try and re-invent the wheel, you'll just end up looking like a cunt who can't even make basic recipes. Plus you'll stress yourself out trying to work out "what went wrong"......
Ok, I'll get off my soap box.........
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Bochet part 2......
Ok, so I had left the caramelised honey alone as I was sulphiting to make sure that I didn't screw up in any way.
Now the intention was to use some of the D21 I had for the yeast - on a completely different issue, I'd given some of the packs to another mazer from one of the forums I go to (he's local to me). He was trying to use it and it just wasn't starting to ferment, after he'd tried making a starter with it too and had no luck, I rehydrated some with some GoFerm, then topped it up with a little of the bochet must, only to find that it wasn't gonna play.....bugger!
So I just left it on the stirring plate and put a pack of 71B in to rehydrate and start doing it's thing.
By last Tuesday, it looked fine, producing some gas etc, so it went straight into the must and is fermenting fine.
I wanted it to be a stir plate batch, but the little spinner (not a proper stirrer, but one that was made for 1 gallon wine batches originally) doesn't want to keep the stir bar spinning, it just throws it off.
A little bit of experimentation with a jar of water, and it seems that I've got to raise the flask up about 1cm above the stirrer. I don't know if the issue is the strength of the magnets in the stirrer, the weight of the stir bar (it's 36mm long) or what. So I've cut little pieces of wood this morning to stand the flask on and I should be able to get the stirrer below the flask and get it spinning correctly.
It's my first go at using a stirrer etc, as I just want to try it out at this stage.
Apart from that, the ferment seems to be going great guns and is chucking out the CO2 and bubbling away just nicely.......
I'll see if I can get any pictures etc......
Now the intention was to use some of the D21 I had for the yeast - on a completely different issue, I'd given some of the packs to another mazer from one of the forums I go to (he's local to me). He was trying to use it and it just wasn't starting to ferment, after he'd tried making a starter with it too and had no luck, I rehydrated some with some GoFerm, then topped it up with a little of the bochet must, only to find that it wasn't gonna play.....bugger!
So I just left it on the stirring plate and put a pack of 71B in to rehydrate and start doing it's thing.
By last Tuesday, it looked fine, producing some gas etc, so it went straight into the must and is fermenting fine.
I wanted it to be a stir plate batch, but the little spinner (not a proper stirrer, but one that was made for 1 gallon wine batches originally) doesn't want to keep the stir bar spinning, it just throws it off.
A little bit of experimentation with a jar of water, and it seems that I've got to raise the flask up about 1cm above the stirrer. I don't know if the issue is the strength of the magnets in the stirrer, the weight of the stir bar (it's 36mm long) or what. So I've cut little pieces of wood this morning to stand the flask on and I should be able to get the stirrer below the flask and get it spinning correctly.
It's my first go at using a stirrer etc, as I just want to try it out at this stage.
Apart from that, the ferment seems to be going great guns and is chucking out the CO2 and bubbling away just nicely.......
I'll see if I can get any pictures etc......
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Bochet....
Ok, so "Bochet" ?
Well Bochet is a mead made from burned or caramelised honey. It's sort of been on my "todo" list for some time.
The problem is, well was, that when it comes to caramelising the honey, you have to have a large pan and be very careful. It's thought that the honey expands when boiling like 3 possibly 4 times and it's hotter than hell. If it gets on the skin, it's like being burned with molten plastic apparently. Well after all, it's molten sugar so it'd just be boiling wouldn't it.
Anyway, one of the members over at Gotmead or was it at Homebrewtalk (doesn't matter as it's the same person i.e. WVMJ/WVMJack) said about caramelising honey, but instead of an open pan, to use a pressure cooker. He likened it to boiling cans of "Condensed Milk" to make the toffee flavoured stuff like you see on "Banoffee" pie. The same thread (at whichever forums it was at) someone else also suggested using a "slow cooker" type crock pot pan/device. Now I didn't want to fuck up the slow cooker as I'd still have to make sure about adding water periodically, because apparently if you use an open pan, after a while it starts to thicken up and then needs to be watered down so that the boiling honey doesn't end up like very hard toffee when it's cooled down.
The picture is of the 4lb of honey I had to put in jars to I could see what happened with it when it went into the pressure cooker. The honey isn't varietal or anything, it's from one of the buckets that I bought from the chap in Oxford after he scored 400lb of honey on ebay. He sold me about 100lb or so in weight and this is just from one of the buckets.
This is what it looks like after its been in the pressure cooker for an hour. The jars were still hot when I took the picture, but you can see that it's become a lot darker.
The suggestion of using a pressure cooker was to do with, when using an open pan and direct heat, you can caramelise the sugars too much and the honey, well the sugars in the honey can become too dark/burned and it may cause problems when trying to ferment it. I can't say what the pressure etc was for the pressure cooker, as I just put the jars in, filled it half way up the level of the jars with water (the trivet was in the bottom to keep the jars off the bottom of the base of the pan). I understand it's possible to use it to cook with a reduced pressure but from memory, it would have had about 15lb pressure of steam.
I didn't do a perfect job either. The remaining water showed signs that at least one of the jars must have leaked a bit. Yet the jars all still seemed full, so maybe it was just that the heat increased the pressure inside the jar(s) a bit and forced a bit of the honey out into the water. I'll have to see how it measures up when I mix it with water and measure the gravity before pitching yeast into it.
My limited knowledge of this means that I'll have to wait and see what it's like once it's cooled, whether it sets/goes hard or not, and whether I need to mix it hot or with hot water to dissolve it or not. This is very much, a voyage of discovery for me. I haven't completely made my mind up yet, but it may be my first attempt at a stir plate recipe. I'm only going to make it like a traditional anyway. It's a good excuse to try out the nutrient bit's I swapped with another person from the forums who's local(ish) to me. I sent him 50 grammes of GoFerm and 50 grammes of FermaidK and he reciprocated by sending me 50 grammes of Dynastart and 50 grammes of Nutrivit. GoFerm seems to be the same as the Dynastart and FermaidK the same, well similar at least as the FermaidK - I say the same, the products are designed to be used at the same time in the same way.
I'll have to have a think, because I'm intending to use the 5000ml erlenmeyer flask as the fermenter, but haven't yet ordered the bung for it (it's not the same size as a 1 gallon demi-john fermenter, it's neck seems to measure 40mm), but I can just use a bit of cling film and an elastic band as it shouldn't be an issue as the yeast will produce enough CO2 to protect the surface until it's finished and then I can just rack it to a DJ. I'll have to have a bit of a read to work out how much of the nutrient to use as I'll probably be doing it as a staggered nutrient (probably only in 2 parts though).
Here's a picture of Charles the cat, who was perched on the newel post of the stairs being nosey. No particular reason for posting the picture, just that I hadn't seen him sitting there before.......
Well Bochet is a mead made from burned or caramelised honey. It's sort of been on my "todo" list for some time.
The problem is, well was, that when it comes to caramelising the honey, you have to have a large pan and be very careful. It's thought that the honey expands when boiling like 3 possibly 4 times and it's hotter than hell. If it gets on the skin, it's like being burned with molten plastic apparently. Well after all, it's molten sugar so it'd just be boiling wouldn't it.
Anyway, one of the members over at Gotmead or was it at Homebrewtalk (doesn't matter as it's the same person i.e. WVMJ/WVMJack) said about caramelising honey, but instead of an open pan, to use a pressure cooker. He likened it to boiling cans of "Condensed Milk" to make the toffee flavoured stuff like you see on "Banoffee" pie. The same thread (at whichever forums it was at) someone else also suggested using a "slow cooker" type crock pot pan/device. Now I didn't want to fuck up the slow cooker as I'd still have to make sure about adding water periodically, because apparently if you use an open pan, after a while it starts to thicken up and then needs to be watered down so that the boiling honey doesn't end up like very hard toffee when it's cooled down.
The suggestion of using a pressure cooker was to do with, when using an open pan and direct heat, you can caramelise the sugars too much and the honey, well the sugars in the honey can become too dark/burned and it may cause problems when trying to ferment it. I can't say what the pressure etc was for the pressure cooker, as I just put the jars in, filled it half way up the level of the jars with water (the trivet was in the bottom to keep the jars off the bottom of the base of the pan). I understand it's possible to use it to cook with a reduced pressure but from memory, it would have had about 15lb pressure of steam.
I didn't do a perfect job either. The remaining water showed signs that at least one of the jars must have leaked a bit. Yet the jars all still seemed full, so maybe it was just that the heat increased the pressure inside the jar(s) a bit and forced a bit of the honey out into the water. I'll have to see how it measures up when I mix it with water and measure the gravity before pitching yeast into it.
My limited knowledge of this means that I'll have to wait and see what it's like once it's cooled, whether it sets/goes hard or not, and whether I need to mix it hot or with hot water to dissolve it or not. This is very much, a voyage of discovery for me. I haven't completely made my mind up yet, but it may be my first attempt at a stir plate recipe. I'm only going to make it like a traditional anyway. It's a good excuse to try out the nutrient bit's I swapped with another person from the forums who's local(ish) to me. I sent him 50 grammes of GoFerm and 50 grammes of FermaidK and he reciprocated by sending me 50 grammes of Dynastart and 50 grammes of Nutrivit. GoFerm seems to be the same as the Dynastart and FermaidK the same, well similar at least as the FermaidK - I say the same, the products are designed to be used at the same time in the same way.
I'll have to have a think, because I'm intending to use the 5000ml erlenmeyer flask as the fermenter, but haven't yet ordered the bung for it (it's not the same size as a 1 gallon demi-john fermenter, it's neck seems to measure 40mm), but I can just use a bit of cling film and an elastic band as it shouldn't be an issue as the yeast will produce enough CO2 to protect the surface until it's finished and then I can just rack it to a DJ. I'll have to have a bit of a read to work out how much of the nutrient to use as I'll probably be doing it as a staggered nutrient (probably only in 2 parts though).
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Christmas Pudding flavoured mead ? part 5
Well, I finally got bored waiting. Not sure if its stuck or
not yet. So I've racked it off the fruit debris and sludge. The bucket
level was at 3 gallons and I've managed to rack out about half a gallons
worth of the sludge.
Actually, I didn't rack it I strained it through a stainless sieve as it would never have travelled down a racking tube.
If
I've got this mobile blogger app right, it should upload a picture of
the 2 and a half gallons of liquid. It still looks like the contents of a
blocked drain or sewer, but it tastes marvellous........
{edit} This morning, it's had a chance to settle and I find that there is indeed, quite a lot of sediment. The clear glass, 1 gallon jar has a good 2 inches of sediment settled, and the half gallon clear glass jar is nearly half full of sediment. I'm presuming that this is fine sediment from the pud base and yeast based lees, but I'm gonna have to check the gravity tonight after work as the batch may be stuck.
Saturday, January 05, 2013
Christmas Pudding flavoured mead ? part 4
Ok, so just tested it to see how it's going. It's testing at 1.064 so between 15 and 20 points drop since wednesday after noon.
Now while I expect it too slow down as it gets further in, it seems to have slowed a little quicker than I'd thought it should, so as I can't find any info about the temperature range for the Gervin GV4(26) yeast there's nothing else for it, the brew belt has gone on, too see what happens.
It could be that the honey is causing a bit of an issue with pH and acid levels, but I don't want to try and test pH, because until I can strain it off the fruit and pud debris, there's too much fat and other fine particulate matter in the batch - I'd rather not disturb it too much at the moment i.e. strain a sample etc to take a pH reading.
I'll leave if for a couple or three days and see what it's like with a little warmth from the brew belt is like.......
Now while I expect it too slow down as it gets further in, it seems to have slowed a little quicker than I'd thought it should, so as I can't find any info about the temperature range for the Gervin GV4(26) yeast there's nothing else for it, the brew belt has gone on, too see what happens.
It could be that the honey is causing a bit of an issue with pH and acid levels, but I don't want to try and test pH, because until I can strain it off the fruit and pud debris, there's too much fat and other fine particulate matter in the batch - I'd rather not disturb it too much at the moment i.e. strain a sample etc to take a pH reading.
I'll leave if for a couple or three days and see what it's like with a little warmth from the brew belt is like.......
Christmas Pudding flavoured mead ? part 3
I nearly forgot to post this bit....
I followed the recipe as per how Duffbeer at WaH posted onto the day 2 part. I didn't take gravity reading for the day 1 part as I was just blindly following the recipe (which is always a mistake, you can never have too much info for recipe/fermentation management).
So, with the day 2 part, I just kept adding the honey, but as I was too lazy to try and melt some of the crystalised bit, instead of ending up at the 1.130 point as suggested, I ended up with 1.140 - though I'm not concerned with that as the yeast is supposed to be capable of 21% ABV which is 154/155 point gravity drop. So as long as I get more than 133, which is 18%, any residual sugars would just mean that I add less to back sweeten with it's finished.
Not last wednesday my curiosity got the better of me and I managed to remove a sample without any fruit or other debris to affect a hydrometer reading. I got a gravity of about 1.080 so it's on it's way down nicely.
I'll test again today and see where it's at. If it's not down to about the 1.030 area I'll probably put the brew belt round the bucket to warm it up a bit, as the dining room averages at about 18 to 19C - the brew belt would bring it up to 24C. And on the basis that "reds" prefer slightly warmer ferments than most whites (when considering grape musts/wines), it shouldn't be an issue, though I'll have a read around to see if there's any downside to this, I might even just drop an extra Q over at WaH too see if they thing that there's anything wrong with this "master plan"......
I followed the recipe as per how Duffbeer at WaH posted onto the day 2 part. I didn't take gravity reading for the day 1 part as I was just blindly following the recipe (which is always a mistake, you can never have too much info for recipe/fermentation management).
So, with the day 2 part, I just kept adding the honey, but as I was too lazy to try and melt some of the crystalised bit, instead of ending up at the 1.130 point as suggested, I ended up with 1.140 - though I'm not concerned with that as the yeast is supposed to be capable of 21% ABV which is 154/155 point gravity drop. So as long as I get more than 133, which is 18%, any residual sugars would just mean that I add less to back sweeten with it's finished.
Not last wednesday my curiosity got the better of me and I managed to remove a sample without any fruit or other debris to affect a hydrometer reading. I got a gravity of about 1.080 so it's on it's way down nicely.
I'll test again today and see where it's at. If it's not down to about the 1.030 area I'll probably put the brew belt round the bucket to warm it up a bit, as the dining room averages at about 18 to 19C - the brew belt would bring it up to 24C. And on the basis that "reds" prefer slightly warmer ferments than most whites (when considering grape musts/wines), it shouldn't be an issue, though I'll have a read around to see if there's any downside to this, I might even just drop an extra Q over at WaH too see if they thing that there's anything wrong with this "master plan"......
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