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NicodArleone
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Registered: 12/31/19
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My brews
#26438613 - 01/17/20 01:37 PM (4 years, 12 days ago) |
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I began brewing a mead about six weeks ago.
Added six pounds of honey to five gallons of water to get a starting gravity of 1.040. Boiled honey water for thirty minutes in ten gallon kettle.


Let cool to room temperature and added to primary fermenter and pitched one packet wyeast 4766 mead/cider yeast with complementary nutrients.
Waited six weeks and gravity has been at 1.020 for some time now(not sure why? is this stuck fermentation? but still tasty).
Bottled 24 12.8 fluid ounce bottles to age for several months.

I tried it green and very sweet(too sweet), but let it age for only a few days and is already very tasty(mellowed the sweetness).
I am now planning to ferment six pounds pale malt extract in three gallons of water(waiting for warmer weather), with lots of hops.
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NicodArleone
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My next batch is a pale ale.
Added six pounds liquid pale malt extract to three gallons waters to bring the OG to 1.072(theoretical because there wasn't enough liquid for my hydrometer) and began boil in kettle.
Added one ounce cascade whole cone hops add beginning of boil. Half ounce at forty-five minutes and another half ounce at ten minutes.
Let cool and topped off to three gallons and pitched british ale yeast.
Fermented for several days and got stuck fermentation. So I racked to ten one liter bottles.
(Theoretical FG is 1.018)
Tasted it and it is very sweet and bitter. Let age for a day in bottle and already sweetness mellowed and the hops began coming out. After several more days the hops has also mellowed and very delicious, sadly though the bottles and pressurized and nearly impossible to open without loosing the brew.
Very tasty though.
Next I will begin experimenting with all grain brews.
Edited by NicodArleone (01/31/20 09:58 AM)
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flugelizor
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Registered: 11/16/08
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That is strange. I have brewed hundreds of batches of beer, Several mead, and never had stuck fermentation. Was your temperature above 60F ? Was it a local honey or from a reputable source?
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NicodArleone
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I was wondering if it was not hundred percent fermentable sugars.
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flugelizor
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Registered: 11/16/08
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Real honey will ferment from 1.040 to about 1.000 specific gravity
But I saw some documentary that some Asian countries are flooding the market with cheap fake honey. Not sure what sugars they use for that.
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NicodArleone
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Yeah I thought it might be something weird like that.
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NicodArleone
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As previously stated my next brew would be an all grain brew with two-row malt. I took fifteen pounds of two-row malt in a ten gallon water cooler and added five gallons of water at 165 degrees. I let this soak for an hour and a half then drained and readded wort to soak again. Drained and set aside wort. Boiled additional five gallons of water and added to mash in water cooler. Let sit for fifteen minutes and drained until no longer sweet. Compliled wort was approximately eight gallons total. Poured in ten gallon kettle and boiled till reduced to five gallons. Added one ounce of cascade whole cone hops let boil for forty-five minutes then added half ounce of same hops then with ten minutes left in the boil added another half ounce. Refilled wort to five gallon mark after boil. Let cool to around seventy degrees Fahrenheit and added one pack smack pack british ale yeast. Let ferment for a while and strained hops and dead yeast then bottled. Very tasty, mild hops flavor, a little too sweet due to unfermentable sugars.
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NicodArleone
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In the meantime I have also had a batch of mead fermenting.
Added six pounds of honey to five gallons of water and boiled in ten gallon kettle for approximately thirty minutes. The gravity is 1.040
Let cool and added cider/mead smack pack.
I had let it ferment for several weeks but the fermentation is inconsistent and when finally the gravity reached 1.010 I decided to bottle. It still could ferment for several more weeks to reach no sugar but I'm impatient. It's still semi-sweet and tastes of honey but is delicious.
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NicodArleone
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Update on my latest brews.
Over the last several months I have drinking some delicious meads, ciders and beers.
My latest brew is a dopplebock from Germany.


 Here are some pics of my mash tun with the wort being sparged.
I will then boil it for an hour while adding hops sporadically then let cool and pitch yeast.
Hopefully it will be tasty.
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GreenHorns
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Meads can be tricky. Having an ability to bump them with oxygen will help a lot. Especially if your using DAP as a nutrient.
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NicodArleone
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Quote:
GreenHorns said: Meads can be tricky. Having an ability to bump them with oxygen will help a lot. Especially if your using DAP as a nutrient.
A smack pack comes with all necessary nutrients so dap is not needed.
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GreenHorns
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Registered: 10/03/12
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Right on. I would still advise o2 bumps to keep the yeast happy and push out the gas from fermentation.
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LookingForward



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Very cool! I've been meaning to get back into brewing. I have a big cooler mash tun like you NicodArleone. I have mostly brewed ales, but I have once brewed up an Orange Mead a while ago. It was pretty good to start with, but after about a year in storage it was amazing! I might try and brew up a pumpkin ale soon if I can get my self in gear quick enough.
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pugster
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when making very sweet brews (like mead) often the fermentation is not stuck but finished for the particular strain of yeast thats been used. i.e most wine yeasts will ferment to about 14% - once this is reached the yeast gets killed off by the alcohol which in turn stops fermentation.
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