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It can. There are a host of wild yeasts and bacteria. Brettanomyces is the most common wild bacteria to encounter and can range from black peppery to barnyard to acidic to sweat/manure and more. There are potential spoilage bacteria out there as well but I'm no expert in all of this yet (I'll be...

I was trying to say do enough batches with purchased yeast to know you've got that down before doing a spontaneous batch so you control everything else. Now that I'm thinking about it though, you can pitch yeast and then leave it exposed for spontaneous bacteria too and this will let the pitched...

Man, a lot of negativity to spontaneous fermentation here. In short, yes, you can ferment with wild yeast/bacteria and they are going to be most prevalent on the skins of the grapes but you may not like what you get. Also, brettanomyces is generally considered negatively when talking about...

Warm it up to the low 70's for more attenuation. Also, you can try a strong starter of champagne yeast to try to complete attenuation. I've seen this happen in Ohio during the fall before when I lived there.

On the pomegranate note, has anyone used the POM brand pomegranate juices? How did it turn out? Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

Freeze juicing this time?

Anyone using this for mead recipes? I'm in the planning stages of an apricot mead right now. Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

I did that and ended up with a coder that is just shy of 5% ABV. Not bad at all

It's 5 gallons of juice plus a ton of sugar. I would assume the final volume would be 5.5 to 6 gallons but haven't made it myself. Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

As far as the lacing goes, adding chocolate will definitely kill head retention on any beer. On this beer you don't really have much in the way of head building agents. I wouldn't expect any head and would be happy with good carbonation at baseline. On that note, these small batches like this...

Have you tried the Omission line from Widmer Brothers? They use the clarity Fern product white labs recently went into contact to package for retail (my LHBS carries it) so it is theoretically less than 5ppm gluten but made with barley. The international standards for gluten free is less than...

Just be careful with the sorghum extract. It will leave a sour green apple aftertaste for some reason. The whole foods in my area carry a brown rice syrup I've been thinking of trying out. You can also add amylase enzyme to quinoa or other glitter free products as needed.

I had to think on this one a little bit. You could do a hop tea in a sanitized French press where you steep between 150-180f. I would target 170f for up to 30 minutes. However, you will still get bitterness out of this. I don't know how it would balance with a sweet mead, but it would be...

I've not made it myself, but the local meadery makes a really nice one where they dry hop with Chinook and cascade, which are very common hops for beers. I am primarily a beer brewer though. The are many great hops that would work well for this, so I would start experimenting with split batches...

Beer comps do have this. BJCP category 23. Also a mead category in 24 is traditional, 25 is melomel, and 26 is other mead. A bit lacking in mead styles if you ask me, but they are there.

Okay, the point I was trying to make was that the area the OP was trying to create has few commercial examples and that I like styles such as this because it's really your own, not just a clone of an existing product. I like working in styles like that without many examples.

I like the idea of not really having a framework. It allows for creativity and experimentation. It also removed the "X meadery's is better" issue when people are tasting it.

Why not add the yeast nutrient and acid to the boiling sugar water ??? Then you would add a layer of sanitation to it all

Have you ever just used blueberry juice without added sugar? Also, how much sugar would you estimate you use per pound on average in these recipes? Have some blueberries crushed and on campden tablets waiting for a mead or wine tomorrow :mug:

I am about to start a batch of either peach wine or melomel and was wondering what the best yeast for this would be. I have used the red star premier cuvee before with decent success. thx