Begin Brewing!

The finished acerglyn I've never encountered an acerglyn at local bars, beer stores, or anywhere else.  After reading about this style of mead, I decided I would like to try making some.  I looked at a few recipes and built my own based on them. Ingredients 7 ounces of Grade B Dark Maple Syrup 2 pounds of Wildflower Honey 1 packet of Lalvin 1116 yeast 1/2 tsp. Fermaid K Enough bottled spring water to reach 1.75 gallons of volume Original Gravity: 1.082 SG actual Final Gravity: 0.995 SG estimated (0.994 actual) ABV: 12% estimated (12.1% actual) Bottling Wand:   Stainless #1 Combined some water, the honey, the maple syrup, and Fermaid into a 2-gallon fermenter. Using a drill and a wine degasser, combined the ingredients and aerated the wort. Dropped in a sanitized Tilt Hydrometer which read the gravity at 1.082 SG.  Pitched the yeast, sealed the fermenter, and added a sanitized airlock. Placed the fermenter in the coolest corner of the basement. Notes and O

With the Brewie+ down for the count again, this weekend I decided to do a couple of mead-based beverages.  First up is a Cyser, which is a combination of apple cider and mead. Ingredients 64 ounces Honeycrisp Apple Juice 64 ounces of a generic Organic Apple Juice 4 ounces Orange Blossom honey 2 pounds Wildflower honey (plus enough to reach 1.089 gravity) 1 packet Lalvin K1V 1116 yeast 1/2 tsp. Fermaid K 1/4 tsp. DAP Enough spring water to reach 1.75 gallons after addition of the above Original Gravity: 1.089 SG Batch Volume: 1.75 gallons Final Gravity: 0.995 SG estimated (1.000 actual) ABV: 12% estimated (12.4% actual) Bottling Wand:   Stainless #2 Mixed apple juice, honey, and nutrients in a 2 gallon bucket fermenter until well blended using a drill and wine degasser. Dropped in a Tilt Hydrometer to measure gravity and track throughout fermentation.  Gravity registered 1.089 SG and temperature registered 70F.  Sprinkled on the yeast, sealed the fermenter, insert

Alton Brown's "Good Eats" series is my favorite cooking show.  I love the way he explains the "why" and "how" of a recipe in detail, which helps you understand (if things don't go right) where you may have gone wrong.  In his episode on immersion cooking (also known as sous vide), he shows you how to make a cordial in an hour using an immersion cooker. It took me a while to locate all the ingredients here in Columbus.  I ended up getting the fennel and vodka at Giant Eagle. The cardamom seeds, pods, and anise stars came from Amazon.  The Fennel fronds and bulb came from Trader Joe's at Easton. Ingredients 32 ounces of 80-proof vodka 2 cups of fennel fronds 10 green cardamom pods 3 ounces granulated sugar 1 tablespoon fennel seeds 1 teaspoon black cardamom seeds 1 whole star anise Begin by loading your sous vide vessel with hot water and set your immersion cooker to 140F. While the cooker is getting up to that temperature, meas