Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Troonos said:
They have different contributions to the gravity of the mash/must. A pound of honey raises the gravity of a gallon of water by 35 points (0.035). Sucrose and dextrose are 46 points. Corn syrup is 37, but watch out for added vanilla, which most brands add to soften the flavor. Most fruits have a very small impact, like raspberries add about 2 points (0.002) per gallon.
Click to expand...
The source could also have an effect on the secondary taste/aftertaste of the brew. If you use fully-processed, refined white sugar, then sure you won't have any secondary taste.
But if you use raw brown sugar, then you would see a slight difference between cane sugarcane and beet sugar. Similar thing with honey, where the source of the nectar has a difference in flavor. Darker honeys generally make heavier/richer meads as compared to lighter ones.
 
My coffee mead is coming along, it's not great yet but after letting it mellow out a bit the coffee flavors and the honey are going well together. I'm thinking of infusing some vanilla pods and cacao nibs or maybe even fortifying with some type of coffee liquor, I made a good amount so I could run some experiments.
I threw out my rose petal fruit cocktail wine, it wasn't bad but it just wasn't working for me. I'm not sad, it was an experiment with things I got for free so whatever. My pandan cider also got tossed, I need to rework the recipe and probably use actual pandan instead of extract. It was also a cheap experiment.
I also started a six gallon batch of perry, made from asian pears grown on our own tree. I used honey, I'm aiming for a roughly 10% wine, and I'm teaching my dad about homebrewing so we're working on it together. Lot's of fun.
 
VeteranOfTheRetardWars said:
My coffee mead is coming along, it's not great yet but after letting it mellow out a bit the coffee flavors and the honey are going well together. I'm thinking of infusing some vanilla pods and cacao nibs or maybe even fortifying with some type of coffee liquor, I made a good amount so I could run some experiments.
I threw out my rose petal fruit cocktail wine, it wasn't bad but it just wasn't working for me. I'm not sad, it was an experiment with things I got for free so whatever. My pandan cider also got tossed, I need to rework the recipe and probably use actual pandan instead of extract. It was also a cheap experiment.
I also started a six gallon batch of perry, made from asian pears grown on our own tree. I used honey, I'm aiming for a roughly 10% wine, and I'm teaching my dad about homebrewing so we're working on it together. Lot's of fun.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to brew with coffee anymore. It goes stale so easily just like freshly brewed coffee no matter how much you sulfate it and avoid oxygen exposure, so coffee meads don't really get better with time. Mine was great a month after racking, but it's pretty flat now.

I may dump it. I've dumped 5 of my 6 batches sitting in secondaries. I got to sit down with the head brewer of Schramm's Mead (Ken Schramm is considered the godfather of American meadmaking) and he taught me their entire process and gave all their little tricks to ensure quality, so I changed my entire brewing strategy. Tasting the results has spoiled me and made me hate my old batches, so I didn't feel bad just pouring them down the sink.
 
Troonos said:
I'm not going to brew with coffee anymore. It goes stale so easily just like freshly brewed coffee no matter how much you sulfate it and avoid oxygen exposure, so coffee meads don't really get better with time. Mine was great a month after racking, but it's pretty flat now.
Click to expand...
Interesting.
I've got a bunch and I would hate to waste all that honey, so I'll run some experiments and see what I could do.
 
My dad and I started a big batch of apple cider. Our trees gave a lot this year so there’s plenty of fresh apples for projects. With this one I just made cider by stewing the apples as that method works well without a press, added in some store bought apple juice for extra sugar, some apple juice with stevia for sweetness that won’t ferment, and cranberry juice because I find just a little cranberry good well in apple cider.
This time I used a cider yeast and I expect a nice light 3% beverage. This time I will try to carbonate it, it tastes like a very good fresh cider right now and my hopes are high.
Our Asian pear wine is at 6.5% ABV, the sweetness is just right and the honey, pears, and hint of vanilla play very well together so I’m confident this will go well.
And we have so many apples I’m thinking to make an apple mead/wine and fortify it like I did my cherries because that was a great success. Maybe an apple mead fortified with some rum or whiskey could be interesting, but we’ll figure it out when we get there.
 
So I recently bottled the newest mead; had tried a simple lemon/lime mead this time after my last attempt at what was effectively a JAOM was mediocre. Had added zest and about 20ml of lime juice to a gallon batch.
I found that even though I aged the primary for a month like I usually do, this time, the mead was much sweeter than before. Have to order a new hydrometer before I can try for a density check; but is it possible that the lime juice added lowered the pH enough that the yeast didn't ferment the honey as much as it usually does?
How much would the taste change if I'd added the lime juice in secondary instead of primary?
 
Absolutely pH can have an effect on fermentation, but there's no way to know for sure without measuring the gravity. If you don't have a "before" measurement, though, your ABV will be guesswork at best. In rare cases I will pitch an additive to correct the pH before fermentation (citric acid to lower it, potassium carbonate to raise it), but a large amount of citrus would only go in secondary after fermentation is done.
 
I just make recipes, take measurements the first or second time i make it and then don't stray
That said, making improvements on your craft is just part of the game, there is no perfection regardless of how hard you try, but that doesn't stop you from trying, that's the beauty of it
I enjoy digging through my chest and trying projects from 3-5 years ago, if nothing else, they're a marker of how far Ive come since then
I wouldn't dump any of it unless it was undrinkable. Maybe I would consider wasting resources if I believed my own hype enough to destroy anything less than perfection out of my sheer hubris
but I don't, and there's some peace to be found there
Hantavirus said:
but a large amount of citrus would only go in secondary after fermentation is done.
Click to expand...
very true, Ive had maybe half a dozen experimental batches stall on fermentation because i was trying to be cheeky with adding the citrus in primary out of laziness
an entire Buddhas hand, wasted
 
Hantavirus said:
Absolutely pH can have an effect on fermentation, but there's no way to know for sure without measuring the gravity. If you don't have a "before" measurement, though, your ABV will be guesswork at best. In rare cases I will pitch an additive to correct the pH before fermentation (citric acid to lower it, potassium carbonate to raise it), but a large amount of citrus would only go in secondary after fermentation is done.
Click to expand...
You sound experienced enough to be careful about this, but people should be cautious about raising the pH of a must, as the C. botulinum that's present in all honey and the surface of some fruit tends to thrive and reproduce quickly when the honey becomes more alkaline. Many batches need to be more acidic, but it's very rare that it's necessary to increase the pH. The notable exception is when you're treating your water to use in a beer.
 
So I've slowly gathered up quite a bit of: plum, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, peach, nectarine, strawberry, cherry, and I'm currently harvesting elderberries. Now I've made some basic wines from these already(except for the elderberry). Does anyone have any interesting recipes they'd be willing to share for one gallon batches?
 
Dad and I bottled our apple cider (3%) and pear mead (10%). Both turned out good, the cider being light a refreshing and the mead being crisp and reminding me of a white wine. Dad doesn’t believe it got to 10% but the math checks out, it’s just smooth.
We have a batch of apple/brown sugar wine going that I plan to fortify into a strong holiday cider type situation, so I’ll have to run some experiments to see what flavors and what liquors would get what I want.
 
Nice, have you posted your recipe/brew log ITT? It's a rare mead that tastes smooth right out of secondary in my experience, so I am always interested to see what people do. I highly encourage you to hold on to a few bottles and see what it is like a few years from now as I have had great luck aging meads that were mediocre or even borderline undrinkable at bottling.

My pears are coming in right now, and the apples are not far behind. The apples are not having a very good year, but the pears are plentiful, so I shall make perry. Will post a bit more info when I get it going.
 
Started a wheat beer today using Thai sweet rice as half my grain bill, it's purple. I hope I gelatinized it enough. Wort tastes good.
 
I wrapped up my apple pie liquor and it’s very nice.
First I made a wine from our apples and brown sugar, when that was done I fortified with fireball, triple sec, and brandy to get to 18%abv, and then infused with spices and sweetened with brown sugar. I was left with a very large amount of product, about seven gallons.
It tastes exactly how I wanted it. Strong, sweet, smooth, spiced, literally like drinking an apple pie. Fantastic over ice, mixed with regular cider, or in other mixed drinks.
I enjoy making fortified wines, they are great for fancy gifts and you can really micromanage what exactly you want from them. People also think you’re a fucking wizard when you hand them a bottle of a completely unique beverage, especially if it tastes good.
 
VeteranOfTheRetardWars said:
I wrapped up my apple pie liquor and it’s very nice.
First I made a wine from our apples and brown sugar, when that was done I fortified with fireball, triple sec, and brandy to get to 18%abv, and then infused with spices and sweetened with brown sugar. I was left with a very large amount of product, about seven gallons.
It tastes exactly how I wanted it. Strong, sweet, smooth, spiced, literally like drinking an apple pie. Fantastic over ice, mixed with regular cider, or in other mixed drinks.
I enjoy making fortified wines, they are great for fancy gifts and you can really micromanage what exactly you want from them. People also think you’re a fucking wizard when you hand them a bottle of a completely unique beverage, especially if it tastes good.
Click to expand...
How is that a liquor?
 
An Indian friend of mine got a bunch of syrups and crushes and gave me a couple; I got blueberry crush, grape syrup, and something specific to India called kokam syrup (something of the mangosteen family; the syrup mixed in water is a mix of sweet and sour tartness).
Figured I could test the three out when making my next batch this weekend. However, because all of them have class 2 preservatives (probably either sodium benzoate or something equivalent), I know I can't use it in primary; so I'd add it in secondary. Question is, how much should be a good amount to add? I'm assuming I'd take the gallon of simple mead in primary and split it into 3 batches of a litre each in secondary (plus 750 ml as a 'control'), so how much syrup would be good enough for a good flavor? Any idea on how to check?
 
Thinking about making mead again this year, the optimal temperature for fermentation is approaching soon...
I want to experiment with adding some fruit to it, what do you people recommend?
Should the fruit be used whole (sliced) or would juice be better?
I have easy access to lemons, kiwis (heh) and apples. None of these seem particularly good when paired with honey but I could be wrong... I can source other fruits from a local farmer's market. No berries though.
Another idea I had in mind is that I could experiment with spices, I tried vanilla a while back but it hardly made a difference. Any suggestions? I think that cinnamon could pair well... Though it is antifungal so I am not sure it is a good idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom