rideincircles
Well-Known Member
Scale up the campden and sorbate. That is what I did for my 6 gallon batch.
Hello, I made this before and it was awesome. What do you think about adding a little yeast nutrient and a little priming sugar at the beginning to boost it a little? I know what you are thinking, if it was good, why mess with it. I just wanted to try something different. Also, Welches came out with a new brand of Juice that is Called Farmers Juice or something. It is real juice that has no preservatives or nothing, completely natural, I think this will be a plus. Also, they have a Blackberry now! I love Blackberry wine, so I will be using this one today. Please respond quickly so I can get the party started
I still put the required amount of top-of-the-line honey in it; not the store-bought stuff. I made 4 Gals and it ought to be good for the Christmas Season!!! Oh, the Farmers Juice I was talking about, I didn't use it cause it didn't have Absorbic Acid in it, or Vitamin CGo for it. Nothing wrong with adding either, but I would go with honey myself. Apfelwein uses sugar for the boost. Either one would work, but honey has more depth. It already finishes pretty strong, so I wouldn't think the sugar is needed unless you are replacing honey which would lead to a lack of depth. The stronger it is, the more time it takes to mellow out.
I could be wrong, but you could be looking at a longer ferment time and perhaps that is fine with you. I think the 113 is used for it's agressivenessI am thinking about trying this with a sweet mead yeast instead of the dryer yeasts. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.
Also curious if anyone has experience using White Grape Juice in a mead?
Also curious if anyone has experience using White Grape Juice in a mead?
I did a gallon each of concord and white grape juice. It's still aging in the bottle - the white appears to have had more sugar in it so it's potent stuff!
The white grape juice had sulfites added (bottled Welch's) while the concord did not, but I just opened the bottle and aerated it by shaking for a day or so. The yeast got off to a shaky (stinky) start, farted around for a few days before really getting going, but then went just fine.
Please let me know how they both turn out! I am going to put this on hold and do the "Not so ancient Orange Mead" tomorrow.
well just put one in a 1 gallon fermenter and that thing took off like a rocket, after 3hours I had to put on a blow off tube
I made a couple more batches of this recently using Ec-1118, but for some reason, it did not ferment like it should all the way. My first batch stopped at 1.013, and the second at 1.024. No clue why they didn't ferment all the way, but I backsweetened the first batch to 1.026 with the added sorbate, and I may just add sorbate/sulfite to the other one to stop it where its at since it is at the target sweetness.
Either way, I still keep this on tap at home most of the time. Just need to brew my next batch since the 2 recent ones are for this weekend. I usually try to give it a few months, but am rushing this one. Still surprised it didn't ferment further. I did add nutrients and oxygen, but I may just pitch 2 yeast packs whenever making 5 gallons next time.
Maybe so. I'm guessing though that the mix version taste better, if only because Welch's pure concorde grape juice tastes very concord grape (nearly Popsicle grape), if you know what I mean.That's too subjective. Some one who doesn't like grape will pick the other, if they don't like blueberry they'll pick the plain grape.
I just made a 3g batch of this but used the white grape and cherry juice instead. After primary, racked to a 3/4 liter of black cherry juice. Looking forward to it.
I followed the recipe in the OP, and the result was, at least for me, more of a starting point. The wine the recipe produced had an almost astringent taste to it. Backsweetening with a lot more additional honey helped considerably. I think supplementing with oak tannins will help add some character to it.
I added 1/2 tsp of wine tannins and 1 ounce of glycerin. That fixed it and made it drinkable, although presently it tastes more like a wine than a mead. That would be a failure by my reckoning, because I can buy good wine for less than the cost of the ingredients (not to mention time) that I put into this. Therefore, I want it to taste first and foremost like a mead. Maybe if I add more honey, the mead aspect will outdominate the wine aspect? Or, do I have to blend it with enough pure traditional mead to make the mead flavor dominate that way? I'm guessing the latter.
Any input appreciated.
It's a UK 1 gallon (4.5 litre) carboy. I think you may be right about the mixing - I remember there being separation in the carboy shortly after taking the reading. Dammit. Lesson learned!How many gallons? If you do the 1 gallon recipe from the original post, you should be over 1.10 for sure. Maybe you didn't mix well before taking the reading?
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