Begin Brewing!

In October 2019, I made an Acerglyn that I was fairly happy with.  I decided to revisit that recipe, but to dial up the percentage of maple syrup in the must and increase the volume so that I could split off a gallon or two and add toasted oak to that. Last time around, I used 7 ounces of syrup and 2 pounds of honey.  That's around 18% of the fermentables as maple syrup.  This time around, I'm aiming for a higher percentage of maple syrup. Ingredients 5 pounds of Wildflower Honey 2 pounds Grade A Dark Maple Syrup (formerly Grade B) 1 tsp. Fermaid K 1 tsp. DAP 1 packet  Lalvin K1V 1116 yeast Filtered tap water to the 3 gallon mark in the fermenter Characteristics of the brew: Batch Volume: 3.0 gallons Original Gravity: 1.085 SG estimated, 1.095 SG actual Final Gravity: 0.992 SG estimated (1.004 SG actual) ABV: 11.4% estimated, 12.1% actual Fermenter Used:   Lister Bottling Wand Used:   n/a Carbonation Method Used:   n/a ...

Yesterday, I brewed a Passion Fruit Milkshake IPA.  In the process of doing so, I opened a container of natural passion fruit flavoring I had purchased.  Since I didn't want that to go to waste, and I had been wanting to make a Passion Fruit flavored mead anyway, I decided to put that together while I was in the brewing area working on something else. Ingredients 5 pounds of Wildflower Honey 2.9 ounces of Amoretti Natural Passion Fruit Flavoring 0.5 tsp. Fermaid K 0.5 tsp. DAP 1 packet Lalvin K1V 1116 dry yeast Spring water to the 2-gallon level in the fermenter This should yield a melomel with the following qualities: Batch Size: 2.0 gallons (1.87 gallons, approximately, in fermenter) Original Gravity: 1.075 SG estimated (1.108 SG actual) Final Gravity: 0.984 SG estimated ABV: 12.3% Fermenter:   Yoda Bottling Wand: Stainless 2 Carbonation Method:  none for part of the batch, 4 Brewer's Best conditioning tablets (medium carbonation) for ...

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....

Way back when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were married, I read that their wedding cake was going to be a lemon and elderflower flavored one.  Having not tasted elderflower infused foods before, I wondered how that flavor might work in a beer or mead.  A good friend picked up two containers of Ikea's elderflower drink concentrate for me, so I would be able to try the flavor in both a mead and a beer.  With the Brewie+ still down for repair (almost 6 weeks now), I decided to create an elderflower mead first. Ingredients 6 pounds of Wildflower honey 1 bottle of Ikea Elderflower drink concentrate 1 gallon bottled spring water (see note below) 1 packet Lalvin K1V 1116 wine yeast (plus yeast nutrient mix, described next) Note: Enough bottled spring water was added so that after the honey was dissolved and the drink concentrate added, the total volume of liquid was 1.5 gallons in the fermenter.  When this resulted in too high a starting gravity, additional wat...

You'll notice that I'm doing meads this summer, though it might not be for the reason you'd expect.  It's not because the warm weather impacts my fermentations or that I'm trying to avoid raising the temperature and humidity in the house.  Bottom line... my Brewie+ stopped working in July and I am (still) waiting for a repair part to arrive from... somewhere. The inspiration for this mead was a trip to Ikea some months ago. I saw Lingonberry drink mix for sale and thought this might be interesting in a beer or mead, so I bought a bottle.  With the Brewie+ down for the count, I decided to try it in a mead. Ingredients 40 ounces of Wildflower honey, plus enough more to raise gravity to 1.127 SG 1 bottle of Ikea Lingonberry Juice Concentrate (16.9 ounces) 4 grams Fermaid O 3 grams DAP 1 packet of Lalvin 71B yeast Bottled spring water Original Gravity: 1.127 SG actual Final Gravity:   TBD (expected around 1.020 SG) Batch Size:   Approx 1.6 gallons ...

A friend is currently attempting to motorize my grain mill, which rules out brewing any beer this weekend.  I decided to do another mead instead, to keep in practice. Being a fan of Indian food, when I ran across a recipe for a Rooibos Chai Metheglin (metheglin is mead that includes spices) I decided it sounded like a good option.  While that recipe used plain Rooibos tea and spices, I'm going to use Rooibos tea bags which already contain a blend of Chai spices.  Will it make as good a mead?  We'll find out. Ingredients 2.5 pounds Clover Honey 3/4 teaspoon Yeast Nutrient 1/4 teaspoon Yeast Energizer 4 teabags of Rooibos Chai Tea 1 packet Montrachet Wine Yeast 1 gallon of water Brewing Place one gallon of water in a stock pot and bring to a boil.  Boil for 10 minutes to sterilize and remove chlorine. Steep the tea bags in the water while adding the honey, yeast nutrient, and yeast energizer.   Meanwhile, rehydrate the w...

Yesterday I toured local meadery Brothers Drak e and got to try several of their products. It got me to thinking about how I might try to put a spin on the drink. What I decided was to try mixing the idea of a Mead and a margarita into one beverage. I'd use orange blossom honey as the base, and combine it with dark agave nectar to get a tequila like flavor, adding lime juice to introduce tartness, and sweet orange peel to simulate triple sec.  The honey would provide additional orange notes and hopefully a base sweetness. Ingredients 1 pound Orange Blossom Honey 1 pound 3 ounces Dark Agave nectar 0.75 ounces sweet orange peel 1 ounce by weight lime juice 0.25 teaspoons yeast nutrient 1 packet champagne yeast Brewing Boil three quarts of water for ten minutes with the lime juice, yeast nutrient, and orange peel in it. Remove from heat and add the agave nectar and honey. Allow it to cool to around 80F and pitch the yeast into it. Fermenting I p...