Recent content by VineSwinger

When fermenting nearly anything as finnicky as mead can be, it is easier to back sweeten with the same variety of honey of used in the initial fermentation. Yes, a mead may mellow upon bottling, but it will not get any sweeter in the botle.

I find that when I have made the JAOM recipe that is best to make 3 gallons. Every place I have brought some or put it on the table it has disappeared as if it were going out of style!

Well, now is the time to change that flavor profile around in the apple/lime mead...if you want to. Apple juice, or concentrate added in, along with some lime zest will go a long ways in secondary. You probably blew all the fruit flavor out in primary fermentation. Add what you want, try it in a...

From my experiences with salts/sugars/preservatives, recipes will specify weight measurements because of varying densities, moisture content/viscosity and other factors. Volumetric measures, for this very reason are considered unreliable for certain applications.

I did some experimenting with Splenda and SP last night. I mixed 1/2 gallon SP (SG .998) and about 2/3 cup of Splenda together and although very tart, it was very delicious and without a huge spike in blood sugar for the testers. I think I will bottle half the batch dry and back sweeten the...

Groeb/Miller farms Dutch Gold Honey The WEBstaurant store just a few and one more if you'd like some star thistle honey...sleeping bear honey Do a search and they will come up...best deal is always on 60 lbs, but you can get 5lbs at decent prices usually.

In the book "The Complete Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm, there are a couple of recipes for pyment, in them he uses Alexander's Riesling concentrate. It may be a much cheaper way to go as each can is only $15.99 at Midwest.

I've had it in the carboy for nearly a month now, still opaque. Degassed the crap out of it, followed sparkaloid directions exactly....will it eventually fall clear? can I rack and re-do the sparkaloid?

32 oz for $1.99 at just about every grocery around me, Metro-Detroit area.

I did the very same a few weeks ago to some cranberry SP. I added another bottle of lemon after fermentation, I used sugar and cranberry conc. to sweeten it. Came out sweet n sour, disappeared fast! It does get opaque, but still a beautiful sight, looks more like the commercial product most are...

I used 1/2 gallon glass growlers with screw on caps for mine, even those seem to disappear fast.

I've had a few meads before, never tried to make one. With quite a few wine kits and a few batches of skeeter pee behind us now, I want to try a mead. I was thinking a metheglin inspired by a Christmas cookie my grandmother used to make. The cookie (or bar) is called Lebkuchen (or German honey...

Thanks Lon, coming from you that is a great compliment!

My wife and I have been making wine for a few months now, we used the slurry from our first batch of merlot to make some SP. After clearing, racking and flavoring we have come up with a tasty concoction that disappeared very fast. Using the merlot slurry produced quite the beautiful garnet...

I must agree, this forum is probably the best one I belong too. I have only been on here for a short time, but must say the politeness and generous sharing of knowledge is simply amazing! I do belong to an outdoors oriented site, and on there many of the members nit-pick, attack and harass...