Homebrew Mead Wine

I'm a few days into blueberry (96oz blueberry juice, 32oz honey, D47 yeast) in a gallon juice jug. Started with with S-airlock. Never used one before. Krausen started foaming into air lock. Immediately pulled and replaced w/ 3 piece standard. Krausen bubbling into that one too. Hrm. Never experienced that before, always brewing in 5 gal batches w/ ample headroom. Did some research and it's totally a thing in gallon batches, it seems.

So, currently I have triple layer cheese cloth soaked in a starsan/water solution and rubber band holding it on. Krausen already calming down with less back pressure to contend with. Will place 3 piece airlock back on either tomorrow or Monday and see if that resolves it.

Might do a blow off tube setup for the gallon experiments.

Researching those, I found this hilarious story:
http://www.love2brew.com/Articles.asp?ID=279

Man, you're fancy...or I'm a caveman. [LOL] I use balloons for all of my 1 gallon batches.

Got 8 gallons going now, including 2 JAOM gallons. One sliced with peel and pith as per the recipe, and one zested, peeled and seperated into slices with pith removed. We'll see which is better.

My wife brought home a bag of Clementines yesterday. I have to do a gallon or two with those. So yummy.

Bottled my first cider last night. Was able to fill approximately 24x 750ml wine bottles, and went with corking instead of capping. When I first put it in secondary I tasted the sample I used for taking a gravity reading. I did not like it because 1) apparently cider really does need some time to age 2) I was expecting something more like Angry Orchard (didn't realize traditional ciders are nothing like that).

At the time, my only available container was a 6.5 gallon carboy, but I only had ~5 gallons of cider. To rectify this and raise headspace, I placed 1000 sanitized glass marbles in the carboy and 64oz of apple juice. The apple juice fermented out a slight bit, but not too much. This provided more apple flavor. This was done on 6 December 2017. I'll typically name the batch based on beginning of primary, but since the addition of the apple juice resulted in more fermentation, I'll break with that and name this batch based on 6 December. That's the feast of St. Nicholas. Since he is famous for punching the heresiarch Arius in the face at the Council of Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed was written, I'll call this batch:

Arianism Is A Heresy Apple Cider



The little icon is Jesus Christ Enthroned; liking the clarity:

http://i65.tinypic.com/6pyupu.jpg

Screenshot of ABV via original/final calculator:

http://i65.tinypic.com/a2vic3.png

Here's quick video on Arianism and St. Nicholas, for those interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtin5iLHd-U

An Old English chant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skvzr3QOSHE

Lyrics w/ translation:
http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/anuna/stnicholas.htm

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Here's the blueberry. Klausen has retreated enough I feel comfortable placing the airlock back on. I need to confirm that gravity reading. I realized last night that I was dyslexia-ing the hydrometer. The cider was the first time I used it, so I need to go back and confirm what I thought was the blueberry's gravity and possibly correct based on my new understanding of how to read the hydrometer:

http://i64.tinypic.com/1z3mg0g.jpg

Started 3 more gallon-sized experimental batches last night.

The most experimental is the Coconut/Pineapple/Honey mix. Was browsing juice at Sprouts and saw the coconut and decided I'd follow the wild hair.

Here it is with its blow off tube cooking after less than 24 hours:

http://i66.tinypic.com/bzs6e.jpg

Its ingredients are:

64oz coconut juice mix (http://www.lakewoodjuices.com/product_detail/id-6/)
32oz Pure pineapple juice
32oz honey
1/3 2 packets of premiere cuvee
SG: 1.14 (!?). I had to do a double take as the hydrometer was bobbing so high in the wine thief. The must was almost like syrup, it's so thick and sugary.

No idea how the thing will turn out. I imagine it will be quite high in ABV... north of 18%. It's either going to be delicious or the most awful thing ever and give me botulism. Not sure which. Very glad I opted for the blow off tube because I would have had a royal mess this morning when I went to the basement to check on progress. Blow off tube is just 3/8"O.D.-1/4"I.D. tubing from Lowes. Bought 1x 10' package and cut to 33" sections, sanitized before use. Routed into starsan/water solution.

The other two are tart-cherry/honey and pear/honey. 96oz juice/32oz honey and 1/3 (2x) packets of premiere cuvee, each.

They're going, but so far not forming a klausen like the coconut/pineapple. The blow off tube is bubbling like crazy on that one. Will switch over to 3-piece air locks for all 3 once I know their fermentation is more stable.

Blueberry gallon has turned out weird. Racked to secondary and it almost tastes... sour? vinegary-ish, but not really? I'm going to let it age and see what happens.

Pear turned out alright, but it's a little hot. I need to let it age.

Tart cherry turned out pretty good, but also needs to age.

Pineapple/coconut juice one tasted like Hawaiian Tropic hand sanitizer. It went down the drain instead of into secondary. I just couldn't see it aging well, and I had so much blow off in primary I only had about 1/2 gallon left, so I would have had too much head space for comfort.

Newest batch of cider has a SG of around 9.8%ABV. Will let it age a few months and then see how it tastes.

Cyser has been in secondary a little bit already. Will likely bottle around September or October.

Very cool. The JAOM I made a while back is good, just a bit sweet for my taste. I like mead rather dry.

I have a few experiments going: cucumber mint and ginger pear. I'm still a total newb at all this, but it's fun. Everything I've made so far has been drinkable.

Yeah I've had some batches I probably should have poured down the drain too. I bottled some of them given the advice that "they'll age and taste better"... guess we'll see. I also have a few carboys that are probably 3 years old at this point "aging" meaning I haven't bothered to see if they're any good yet... just check the airlocks every once and a while.

The pineapple coconut was my most experimental. It definitely had North Korean levels of fail. I'd have been better off doing pineapple straight, and then some toasted coconut flakes to steep (or whatever the proper term would be).

My intention with the blueberry and cherry batches was always to gift them, so I'm hoping the blueberry recovers with age. The blueberry was with d47 instead of the trusty premiere cuvee, as with all the others. I might re-try with PC yeast and see if perhaps d47 is the culprit.

I've yet to do a straight mead.

I also learned that 4 separate gallons is a PAIN. I washed/sanitized the siphon between pulling each from primary into secondary. The whole process easily tripled my time output. I definitely prefer 5 gal batches since they require less back and forth.

I recently read of a fermented whey/milk drink called Blaand. It's a Norse drink that made its way (whey? ha!) into Scotland (through the peaceful exchange of ideas for which the Norse were so known and respected, no doubt!).

I'd like to try it if I can find a recipe which isn't vague and has good notes behind it.

Call me blasphemous, but I've read more than one brewer claim that really HOT water is all you need to "sanitize" your equipment. I doubt Vikings had starsan, though it certainly can't hurt to use it. My guess is they just boiled everything. I've done about 20 one gallon batches and haven't had any nasties growing.

Flame away...[Beer]