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wattershed posted:I bring this up every so often in this thread and I don't want to stuff it up beyond this unless anyone's got specific questions, but for NEED TOILET PAPER or anyone who's curious about my process and equipment, feel free to PM me. I don't have PMs, so really the only way to answer my own questions is to stuff up this thread. Here's one to start with: I did some poking around on the Internet and one site said that it would be a good idea to put some sort of false bottom or something in the brewpot while the bag was in it to protect it from burning or melting from the heat. I figure that a muslin bag can take that kind of heat, but since you know much more about this than I do, do you think that protecting the bag is a necessity, or can they hold up well enough on their own? I also read that BIAB is by nature less efficient than all-grain, and that the BIAB brewer usually compensates by adding extra grain. Do you do this, and if so, how much more grain do you add?
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Aug 14, 2013 12:58
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RagingBoner posted:I don't say this lightly: I don't know how it could be any better. It's already better than any commercial cider I've ever bought, and I've tried EVERYTHING. Woodchuck, Hornsby's, Angry Orchard, Ace, Fox Barrel, Red's, all sorts of dry English imports... The only thing that is even close is J.K.'s Scrumpy and J.K.'s Solstice, and those tend to be WAY too sweet for me (but it varies from bottle to bottle, since it's unfiltered and organic). what was your basis for adding lime / tea bag ,etc ? I suffer from a distinct lack of flavor in my ciders, and would love to get it right
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Aug 14, 2013 13:46
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Is there any way to convert a BeerXML file to BSM? It seems Beersmith 2 is (still) incompatible with BeerXML.
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Aug 14, 2013 13:49
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NEED TOILET PAPER posted:I don't have PMs, so really the only way to answer my own questions is to stuff up this thread. Here's one to start with: I did some poking around on the Internet and one site said that it would be a good idea to put some sort of false bottom or something in the brewpot while the bag was in it to protect it from burning or melting from the heat. I figure that a muslin bag can take that kind of heat, but since you know much more about this than I do, do you think that protecting the bag is a necessity, or can they hold up well enough on their own? My last BIAB batch, my brewpot lost a bit of heat during mashing so I had to turn my burner back on a couple of times. I managed to burn two holes in my bag doing this, though I think my bag might be made of nylon. I'm definitely going to get some kind of metal colander or other thing to put on the bottom of my brewpot to keep some separation from the bottom so it won't happen again.
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Aug 14, 2013 14:03
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Roundboy posted:what was your basis for adding lime / tea bag ,etc ? I suffer from a distinct lack of flavor in my ciders, and would love to get it right Basically, reading and trial and error. True cider apples are not apples you would really want to eat, because they have naturally high levels of tannins and acidity. Dessert apples (aka supermarket juice apples) are sweet and delicious, but lack flavor complexity otherwise. Lime juice and black tea help to offset the difference. Apparently most major American cider producers don't press apples on site, and just use commercial apple juice and additives to get the flavors they want. I will be honest, though: before sweetening with concentrate at the end of the process, the cider is VERY dry and not very flavorful. Fermentation tends to destroy subtle fruit flavors, so sweetening with plain sugar leads to mediocre cider. The apple juice concentrate re-infuses some much needed fruit flavor back into the mix. I think next time I might try back sweetening with a different kind of apple juice concentrate, like a fruit blend, just to see how it turns out.
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Aug 14, 2013 14:09
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I;m all for backsweetening with concentrate, etc , but I bottle carb, so this puts a time limit on my drinkable range unless i realyl fine tune the yeast i use. I was going to give up on cider until i had a keg system in place, but this inspired me to pick up a gallon, and use my repurposed 1 gal jugs as a test bed of flavors. I red star yeast as well ?
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Aug 14, 2013 15:26
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NEED TOILET PAPER posted:I don't have PMs, so really the only way to answer my own questions is to stuff up this thread. Here's one to start with: I did some poking around on the Internet and one site said that it would be a good idea to put some sort of false bottom or something in the brewpot while the bag was in it to protect it from burning or melting from the heat. I figure that a muslin bag can take that kind of heat, but since you know much more about this than I do, do you think that protecting the bag is a necessity, or can they hold up well enough on their own? You should be able to find a round cake cooling rack that fits your kettle well enough for  or less.
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Aug 14, 2013 17:14
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Docjowles posted:
Since the beginning of June (our 1 year First Brew anniversary) we've brewed 6 five-gallon batches, 4 ten-gallon batches, and 3 one-gallon experiments/meads. Don't be mad because our unchecked alcoholism somehow makes us extremely productive.  Also we just used all of a 55lb bag of 2-row in 8 days (there are 4 of us brewing). e: I should note we've been brewing more than usual since it's been competition season here. We've given away probably 4-5 cases of beer since the summer started, either at festivals or donations for things. fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 17:27
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Though to be fair you may actually accomplish this since you have a bunch of roommates and appear to brew like 5 times a week.
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I haven't made anything for a while and that's sad. The main problem is my HBS is at least a half hour away and it's an ugly, backroad surburbia drive. What's the best place online to order all the consumables (milled grain, hops, extracts, yeast)?
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Aug 14, 2013 17:37
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Cpt.Wacky posted:You should be able to find a round cake cooling rack that fits your kettle well enough for I use a metal fan-shaped vegetable steamer gizmo like this that opens up to fill whatever size pot you need: http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-175-Stainless-Vegetable-Steamer/dp/B001FBCP7O As a bonus, it is also useful for steaming vegetables.
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Aug 14, 2013 17:55
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Dead Inside Darwin posted:I haven't made anything for a while and that's sad. The main problem is my HBS is at least a half hour away and it's an ugly, backroad surburbia drive. What's the best place online to order all the consumables (milled grain, hops, extracts, yeast)? There's several good options. Austin Homebrew, MoreBeer, Northern Brewer are some of the big names.
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Aug 14, 2013 17:57
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withak posted:I use a metal fan-shaped vegetable steamer gizmo like this that opens up to fill whatever size pot you need:
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Aug 14, 2013 17:59
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NEED TOILET PAPER posted:I assume pine needles would give the beer a pine taste, right? Because if so, I think I just found a new additive for my holiday season homebrew. Also, that beer looks amazing.
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Aug 14, 2013 18:15
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How boring is this going to be? I just want to bang out something clean and drinkable since right now I'm still working through my spicy red http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/boring-pale-1?new_recipe=true
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Aug 14, 2013 18:23
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Roundboy posted:I;m all for backsweetening with concentrate, etc , but I bottle carb, so this puts a time limit on my drinkable range unless i realyl fine tune the yeast i use. Bottle carbing will be temperamental with a sweet cider. The only way I know to do one is to sweeten your batch to taste, bottle it, cap it, and also bottle and cap a 20 oz soda bottle. When the plastic bottle is rock hard from internal pressure, you know your batch is ready to pasteurize. So you take you bottles and submerge them in 180* F water for 15 minutes to kill the yeast. I've never done this, as the idea of purposefully making bottle bombs scares the bejesus out of me, but I know people on homebrewtalk have done it to great success. Some even recommend loading your bottles into your automatic dishwasher and using the hottest setting to pasteurize, which seems even more iffy. I just don't like having to do things on the yeast's time tables, so I force carb. Some days after work I just don't feel like doing anything, ya know?
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Aug 14, 2013 19:14
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Any thoughts on this (hoppy imperial) amber ale I'm planning on using my Simcoe wet hops for when they come in next week? Grist is basically just Jamil's Red Rocket, but I changed up the hop additions to play well with the wet hops. http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/wet-hop-american-fall
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Aug 14, 2013 19:15
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Mikey Purp posted:Any thoughts on this (hoppy imperial) amber ale I'm planning on using my Simcoe wet hops for when they come in next week? Grist is basically just Jamil's Red Rocket, but I changed up the hop additions to play well with the wet hops. Amarillo for bittering is kind of a waste IMO but other than that it looks like the kind of red ale I like.
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Aug 14, 2013 19:33
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RagingBoner posted:Bottle carbing will be temperamental with a sweet cider. The only way I know to do one is to sweeten your batch to taste, bottle it, cap it, and also bottle and cap a 20 oz soda bottle. When the plastic bottle is rock hard from internal pressure, you know your batch is ready to pasteurize. So you take you bottles and submerge them in 180* F water for 15 minutes to kill the yeast. Raising the pressure on possibly already highly pressurized bottles by heating them is a rather terrifying prospect.
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Aug 14, 2013 19:36
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Mikey Purp posted:Any thoughts on this (hoppy imperial) amber ale I'm planning on using my Simcoe wet hops for when they come in next week? Grist is basically just Jamil's Red Rocket, but I changed up the hop additions to play well with the wet hops. Have you had simcoe-hopped beers before? The only reason I ask is because that while most people love the profile of simcoe hops a small minority (like myself) have some sort of rogue taste receptor and think they taste like cat piss. There seems to be some sort of sensitivity to something in that hop, much like how some people can't handle even small amounts of cilantro without their palate being blown out. I will say I'm a huge fan of the amarillo you're using though. If you haven't used simcoe before, wet hopping with it will greatly exaggerate that cat piss taste if you're one of the unlucky few to have that taste receptor. The only other suggestion I might add is to use the 120L with discretion. while 8oz isn't an unreasonable amount, coupled with a lb of 40L you're going to get a lot of residual body and unfermentables. Looks like you've got enough hops to push this more towards an IPA than an amber, as well. It's going to be a pretty hoppy beer and the key to a good IPA is to have enough of a malt backbone to let you hang those high quantities of hops off it without it tasting like a soapy tin can. Whether it's an imperial amber or an IPA is moot, though, as long as you like the results the name doesn't matter. For what it's worth, every Jamil recipe I've ever brewed has been delicious. All in all, it looks like it will turn out to be a pretty hoppy beer with a fairly hefty body. Probably a really good beer for the fall, so that might be exactly what you're going for. Pellethead fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 19:36
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Dead Inside Darwin posted:How boring is this going to be? I just want to bang out something clean and drinkable since right now I'm still working through my spicy red Looks like its up your alley in the quick and easy department, but with a grain of salt you wonder how well tested some of these brewtoaders are. "Partial mash recipe" with extract and steeping grains. He also hasn't logged it yet, so you are the test dummy.
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Aug 14, 2013 19:51
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Looks like its up your alley in the quick and easy department, but with a grain of salt you wonder how well tested some of these brewtoaders are. "Partial mash recipe" with extract and steeping grains. He also hasn't logged it yet, so you are the test dummy. This is my recipe so yes, I am the guinea pig  I literally just clicked a bunch of random things to try to get the values to conform to the "style" along with the urge to use some coriander seeds. edit: Threw in 50% more LME, threw in some more hops, doubled the aroma time, doubled the Caramalt Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 20:38
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I've been following the thread for a while and don't recall seeing this ladder trick. Please continue stuffing up the thread with these ideas. A picture would be swell too. NEED TOILET PAPER posted:I don't have PMs, so really the only way to answer my own questions is to stuff up this thread. Here's one to start with: I did some poking around on the Internet and one site said that it would be a good idea to put some sort of false bottom or something in the brewpot while the bag was in it to protect it from burning or melting from the heat. I figure that a muslin bag can take that kind of heat, but since you know much more about this than I do, do you think that protecting the bag is a necessity, or can they hold up well enough on their own? So in this image:  ...You see the ladder, which has a hole in the top of the top step (as I think many ladders do by default). From that hole, I suspend this:  ...then run the 4 handles on the bag through the hook and pull it up. Everything's strong & stable enough to where I can move the ladder underneath the pot, pull the bag out, then move the ladder away from the pot and let the bag drip out into a spare bucket. Give it a few hearty squeezes, then when I'm getting the wort up to boiling I'll toss in whatever's accumulated in the bucket in the meantime back into the pot. As for the spacer in the bottom of the pot, I have this. It allows me to keep the bag in the pot while raising the volume up to mashing temps without risking a burn. Also, if I'm doing a large grain bill, I'm pushing around a large amount of grain in that pot and I want to be able to go down to the bottom on the pot, stir it up, kill the dough balls, etc. I'd be slightly concerned if I were pushing down on the bottom of the bag, resting directly on the bottom of the pot, that's got a banjo burner flame hitting it 5" below that. I'll take it out at some point prior to the boil, or as it's getting up to boiling. In regards to efficiency, for the RIS I do with the 24.25lb grain bill, I get around 65% efficiency. First time I think it was 61%, but the last two times I cut the mash into two and did the process twice, adding the first half of the wort volume back into the pot prior to boiling. Got 66% and 64% on those, as I found it easier to squeeze a ~18lb bag twice and get everything out of it than to squeeze a ~35lb bag once and never really get a good squeeze on all the grains. I believe the OG on this is usually 1.093? I think? Just for point of reference. For beers in the 1.080 and below range, I get around 75%. There was a BIAB calculator I found online, but the site seems to have redone itself and the link no longer works, though as part of my own brewday worksheet I saved off the calculations. Find them at this link, enter the grain bill in lbs, your boil time, and your target final volume. I enter my mash temp here as well but that doesn't really do anything for you for this situation. If you use this and find the numbers are off, then make a copy of this for yourself and modify the math done in cells B7 & B8. The math done in my copy there is what the original calculator defaulted to and while there's been a bit of variation up and down from those numbers I'm finding it's close to the median. To be honest, I don't really have a scale to shoot for the efficiency to be the same from beer to beer; I've accepted that I'll get lower numbers for higher gravity beers. If you're more concerned with efficiency than target volume on big beers, you may want to make two separate batches with larger mash volumes and combine them as I've begun to do with my RIS, though really crank out a long boil duration, maybe 2+ hours. Also, remember you can cheat a bit and sparging the mash back over the grains or withholding some of that mash water to sparge with isn't against the rules. And while I'm thinking about other BIAB tricks & tips, have your grains either double milled or get a mill and do it yourself extra-fine. I have my mill set to credit card thickness and do a once-through with them. One of these days I'll make it slightly tighter and see if the efficiency goes up or if I'm already getting max returns given the rest of my process.
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Aug 14, 2013 20:44
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Dead Inside Darwin posted:This is my recipe so yes, I am the guinea pig Ok that makes greatly much more sense. I've never brewed anyone elses recipe in my life so I was a little confused as to why you would go with an untested one. But yeah I think you can just steep those CaraMalt. Or I'm stupid.
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Aug 14, 2013 21:25
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RagingBoner posted:I've never done this, as the idea of purposefully making bottle bombs scares the bejesus out of me, but I know people on homebrewtalk have done it to great success. Some even recommend loading your bottles into your automatic dishwasher and using the hottest setting to pasteurize, which seems even more iffy. I think it's a bad idea. It's probably subjecting the bottles to stress well in excess what they're designed to handle. Given that we're talking about glass, that's a bad idea even if you're careful. This was my reaction to issues I had with the HBT thread specifically. e:I shouldn't be so negative; it's quite possible that a process like this could work great and be really convenient. eviltastic fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 22:04
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Regarding the pine/spruce stuff earlier, I don't even know where one would get spruce tips this time of year. They only are harvestable in spring as far as I know.
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Aug 14, 2013 22:47
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Yesterday I told the LHBS guy that I was looking for something to cover my flask for doing starters and wanted to bring it in so that he could size up a foam stopper for me and he told "NO! Don't!" and he proceeded to tell me why. I learned something that was kind of a mind blowing thing for me yesterday. I learned that the ownership of glass flasks in the large state bordering New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana is ILLEGAL!?!?! But a large online retailer that has a name similar to a large rain forest in South America still ships to said state. Whoa! Science is officially illegal now.
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Aug 14, 2013 22:50
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wattershed posted:In regards to efficiency, for the RIS I do with the 24.25lb grain bill, I get around 65% efficiency. First time I think it was 61%, but the last two times I cut the mash into two and did the process twice, adding the first half of the wort volume back into the pot prior to boiling. Got 66% and 64% on those, as I found it easier to squeeze a ~18lb bag twice and get everything out of it than to squeeze a ~35lb bag once and never really get a good squeeze on all the grains. I believe the OG on this is usually 1.093? I think? Just for point of reference. Thanks for all of that. I vaguely remember the ladder/tie-down thing now. I think it just didn't make sense at the time as I hadn't actually tried to lift and squeeze the grain bag yet. My bag doesn't have the handles but I should be able to right something up with just rope and ladder if I brew tonight. When you guys are talking efficiency, what are you measuring, how and when? I've read some different articles about it and they all talk about the math and difference between brewhouse and mash efficiency, but not how to collect the data. Also, what are reliable ways to measure volume besides a sight-gauge? Calculate the kettle volume and measure the liquid level with something?
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Aug 14, 2013 22:50
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LaserWash posted:Yesterday I told the LHBS guy that I was looking for something to cover my flask for doing starters and wanted to bring it in so that he could size up a foam stopper for me and he told "NO! Don't!" and he proceeded to tell me why. Cpt.Wacky posted:Thanks for all of that. I vaguely remember the ladder/tie-down thing now. I think it just didn't make sense at the time as I hadn't actually tried to lift and squeeze the grain bag yet. My bag doesn't have the handles but I should be able to right something up with just rope and ladder if I brew tonight. I imagine the easiest way would be to just set your efficiency to 100% in Beersmith and write down what that gravity number is, and then just use a calculator to figure out what percentage your actual figure is of the 100% figure. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 22:53
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LaserWash posted:Yesterday I told the LHBS guy that I was looking for something to cover my flask for doing starters and wanted to bring it in so that he could size up a foam stopper for me and he told "NO! Don't!" and he proceeded to tell me why. That sounds like a hot load of bullshit I bet he misunderstood something... Oh 
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Aug 14, 2013 23:00
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This might clarify a little bit. http://reason.com/blog/2007/10/03/beakers-and-tweakers
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Aug 14, 2013 23:01
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Angry Grimace posted:Regarding the pine/spruce stuff earlier, I don't even know where one would get spruce tips this time of year. They only are harvestable in spring as far as I know. Yup. Williams Bros in Scotland just did a spruce-tips beer this late spring, it was bizarre stuff. Tasted exactly like French's Yellow Mustard.
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Aug 14, 2013 23:55
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Thanks for all of that. I vaguely remember the ladder/tie-down thing now. I think it just didn't make sense at the time as I hadn't actually tried to lift and squeeze the grain bag yet. My bag doesn't have the handles but I should be able to right something up with just rope and ladder if I brew tonight. Yeah when I used the voile curtain sheet thingy, I tied the ends together at the short corners (so two knots opposite one another) and ran the hook through the knots. Shouldn't be too hard without using a hook. Do the math given your fermentables to figure out the potential OG and do basic division against the actual OG to give you the percentage. Easier than that, throw your fermentables into a computer program (beersmith, brewtoad, whatever) and let it do the math for you. For measuring, if you want to be really lazy, get a long stick and add 1 quart of water into your pot at a time and mark the stick at each point going up. The only other way I do it (clearly this isn't a gigantic priority in my life) is if I'm fermenting in a bucket, to use a bucket that's got gallon markings on the side, and ballpark my output from there. Super high tech stuff.
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Aug 15, 2013 00:09
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so i am getting started late, and my yeast comes tomorrow. So for my blueberry mead which i have never attempted before : 1) pour the 12lbs ju of honey into a big pot and heat it slightly, just to make it a bit easier to mix (NOT a boil, just ease of pour) 2) boil up some water to flush the last of the honey out of the 12lbs jug 3) throw water / honey / more water to top off 5gal in my carboy 4) add the required bit of yeast nutrient (1tbsp? ), an mix the crap out of it all (and airate too!) 5) ---take a brix reading --- 6) pitch 2 packets of red star. ---wait -- (see below) 10 ) After i see stable readings, thaw and toss in my metric rear end ton of blueberries and a few vanilla beans (hold off on vanilla if im letting it sit months?) 11) wait some more...until ? 12) ... maybe a slight amount of oak a couple weeks before 'finish' ? now what is my schedule of adding more nutrient and assuring nothing is stalled? the next day? 3 days ? is it worth it to activate this yeast for a bit before i pitch? Can twist off wine bottles take a cork ? I really dont want to cock this up
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Aug 15, 2013 00:29
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Angry Grimace posted:Regarding the pine/spruce stuff earlier, I don't even know where one would get spruce tips this time of year. They only are harvestable in spring as far as I know. I was planning on grabbing 2-3 ounces of pine needles. People make tea out of them so it should be good for brewing.
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Aug 15, 2013 00:41
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wattershed posted:Do the math given your fermentables to figure out the potential OG and do basic division against the actual OG to give you the percentage. Easier than that, throw your fermentables into a computer program (beersmith, brewtoad, whatever) and let it do the math for you. I assume you mean the OG of what ends up in the fermenting bucket, and this would be the mash efficiency which everyone just calls efficiency? I manually put 1/2 gallon marks on one of my buckets and used that to measure starting water. I know where the 5 gallon mark is on my other buckets so I can ballpark off of that. Good enough for me right now. Roundboy posted:so i am getting started late, and my yeast comes tomorrow. So for my blueberry mead which i have never attempted before : Put the honey bottles in some warm water to loosen up the honey. It doesn't need to be very hot. I would start with a little water in the pot first, at least a gallon, and stir while pouring in. The water in the pot only needs to be about 10 F warmer than the honey for it to mix easily. You can easily heat the must up too much and then you have to wait for it to cool before pitching yeast, or break out the wort chiller. I just use hot tap water to rinse out the bottles but you can boil it if you want. Also consider adding a little bit of sulfites if you have chlorine or chloramine in your tap water. Or just use spring water (not distilled because it lacks minerals). The first nutrient should be added after the first signs of fermentation because you want to feed the yeast you pitched, not anything else that might be in there already. The recommended dose is 1 g Fermaid-K per gallon and 1-2 g DAP per gallon. It's also a good idea to add 0.45 g potassium carbonate per gallon as a pH buffer, because the pH can drop rapidly after fermentation starts and stall fermentation if it goes below about 3.2. 3.4 to 3.5 is ideal. The second round of nutrient should be at 1/3rd sugar depletion. I understand that as being if you start at 1.100 and expect to drop to 1.000 then 1/3rd is around 1.066, but anywhere from 1.080 to 1.050 is good enough. You should also be stirring up the lees and aerating with some splashing every day for the first week. Most of this is covered in the MoreFlavor guide to mead. Activating a smack pack is good idea just so the yeast is healthy and happy before it gets dropped into a really high-gravity solution. You will most likely seem some (potentially vigorous) fermentation after you add the fruit so I would strongly advise rigging up a blow-off tube at that point. Twist-off bottles will take corks just fine.
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Aug 15, 2013 01:07
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Thanks for that, hot water + honey THEN going to the carboy makes sense. I can use a small amount to get the remainder out of the bottle. im using this nutrient : http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/yeast-nutrient.html and im using 2 dry packs of red star yeast. my water is just tap water, but this time around im using an RV filter to remove any chlorine and whatever. I'll look at some Ph attenuation as well.
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Aug 15, 2013 01:18
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Roundboy posted:Thanks for that, hot water + honey THEN going to the carboy makes sense. I can use a small amount to get the remainder out of the bottle. That nutrient is DAP and Urea. Both sources of FAN (free amino nitrogen), which is important to yeast and very deficient in honey. The Fermaid-K has additional micronutrient that are good for yeast health. If you can get it then it's a good idea, but not strictly necessary. e: ladder and rope worked well, and it rained for the first time in over a month here 
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Aug 15, 2013 02:35
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Anyone looking for a 5 foot tall, 75 Gallon corny keg? http://www.ebay.com/itm/310719387600 
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Aug 15, 2013 04:41
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Is there any real reason to dry hop with half the hops for 3-4 days, then dry hop with the rest? Should I just put it all in 3-4 days before bottling?
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Aug 15, 2013 11:05
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Finally got around to making mead. Its been like 2 months! Made my planned strawberry Red Currant mead. Here's a shameless copy / paste for my blog. Strawberry Currant Hydromel Light mead using red currant jam and strawberries. Ingredients Units for 1 gallon: 1.35 pounds Orange Blossom Honey 20 ounces of Red Currant Jam Yeast : Red Star Pasteur Red Starting Gravity: Estimated 1.056 Secondary: Strawberry juice (backsweetening) Process I used the no heat method and added the jam with the honey. Then added water to have it dissolve, I incorporated everything as best I could but the Jam really enjoyed the bottom of the carboy. When i'm ready to rack into the secondary, I'll stabilize the mead, and backsweeten with as much strawberry juice as I need to top it up. I'll be starting my nutrient addition at the first signs of fermentation and front load the entire nutrient amount. (I don't stagger for hydromels since they are already low gravity and the yeast doesn't need too much special attention.) Wanna read more? Just google "Hive Mind mead", it'll come up 
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Aug 15, 2013 15:52
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