Mead.. First Step

[Wade E]

Unless you drink a lot you better Plan on more then that judging by what I see happening already on the floor and on top of that cabinet and like me you are already itching to feed the monster! A very addicting hobby huh! Thats why i have 616 bottles in the cellar sleeping, 87 bottles in the wine making area waiting for labels and shrink wraps, a batch bulk aging, 2 kits and the makings of my infamous Black Currant on the way here! Good Lord, help me!

 

[RkyMtnWine]

Thats whats a little unusual about this hobby for me... I dont drink. Well, super cold beer in the dead heat of summer.. only one though. Causes a little difficulty when tasting to see how its going... I dont know good from bad... yet. Have to rely on wine drinking friends to come over and give me a thumbs up or down.Yeah... darn.Only being able to store 45 bottles in the cabinet.. right now I have enough for 60 bottles in thesecondaries. Now I am going to be making mead.. another 10 bottles. GeezeEdited by: RkyMtnWine

 

[Wade E]

You dont drink wine at all???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[RkyMtnWine]

communion at church.. Last time was 1967 Ft Devens, Ma. Got wasted on thunderbird .... but I will learn by association.Edited by: RkyMtnWine

 

[Wade E]

Get back on that horse with the broken leg!

 

[K&GB]

Rky,



Thanks for posting this thread. Between this, NW's Cyser,and Waldo's blueberry melomel from 2006, I'm learning a lot. Of course, being hard headed, I still insist on trial and error, heavy on the error part. Best of luck to you. I'm sure the church ladies will approve of the final result.
Ken

 

[RkyMtnWine]

Its amazing how helpful everyone is on this site... gotta tell ya, I am very concerned about the wines I have in the secondaries... ones I started before I found this site. Things like sanitation... I used bleach before.. although I did rinse quite well. My biggest concern is my Peach.. for the primary I use an antique crock.. that I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.. using soap..bleach and anything else I had under the sink. Filled it with warm water and let it sit for 2 days... no leaks. When my peach was in it for 3 days I noticed tons of tar like beads on the outside.. So, what do I do with that... The peach looks awesome in my 3 gallon secondary... but has it been contaminated? Do I just dump it and not take a chance?


Church ladies that come over are all retired... they demanded I call them whenever I start another wine... they are so much fun... and now they want to invitetheir friends over for a tasting party... Hmmmm should I have them taste the peach?Edited by: RkyMtnWine

 

[NorthernWinos]

Strange that something seeped through the crock....Maybe best use it for decoration.

If it tastes good it shouldn't be contaminated. Time will tell.

We are going to have to get you to at least taste your wines and enjoy them too....

We will do our best to corrupt you....

 

[RkyMtnWine]

I know... cannot rely on friends all the time for taste testing. Local liquor store has wine tasting every saturday afternoon... will have to check them out.

 

[gaudet]

Its amazing how helpful everyone is on this site... gotta tell ya, I am very concerned about the wines I have in the secondaries... ones I started before I found this site. Things like sanitation... I used bleach before.. although I did rinse quite well. My biggest concern is my Peach.. for the primary I use an antique crock.. that I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.. using soap..bleach and anything else I had under the sink. Filled it with warm water and let it sit for 2 days... no leaks. When my peach was in it for 3 days I noticed tons of tar like beads on the outside.. So, what do I do with that... The peach looks awesome in my 3 gallon secondary... but has it been contaminated? Do I just dump it and not take a chance?


Church ladies that come over are all retired... they demanded I call them whenever I start another wine... they are so much fun... and now they want to invitetheir friends over for a tasting party... Hmmmm should I have them taste the peach?

If you don't dare do it yourself........... Don't risk those poor little church ladies

My wife who knows a bit about ceramics thinks that your glaze may have worn off. But not sure what the tar like beads are.

 

[RkyMtnWine]

once I was done with the crock... I did a closer inspection and yes, some of the glaze was worn off. Imagine the pressure once completely filled and after three days it started the leaking... hopefully it was pushing all the nasties out and not allowing them in. Now the crock is just used for decoration

 

[Scott]

My 5 gallon crock has also developed a hairline crack and will seep, still have the 10 gal that doesn't leak........yet. I do like the crocks for additional primaries, told my wife we now have a crock for anything but liquids, I think she will find a use for it.

 

[RkyMtnWine]

believe I posted a thread a while back in the tips area about using crocks as a primary... think I should recant on that idea... unless the crock is new... but why buy a crock for the price they want for those when you can get stainless steel containers for less money. Also ceramicglaze would be more poress than stainless so would have to be extremely diligent on sanitizing.. Geeze.. I need to get a spell checker on my puter.