September 1, 2018 Before I left for vacation, I noticed some weird floaties on both my meads. It didn’t look like a full-on infection like I’ve seen in some of the forum posts, but it didn’t look completely normal either. Since it was in both meads which were in different parts of their lives but…
Racked Coffee Bochet
August 31, 2018 Because I’m leaving for two weeks tomorrow, and because I’m just an impatient SOB, I decided to rack my Coffee Bochet. Annnnd, also I just had to get a taste of the stuff. Opening the fermentation bucket, it looks like sewage. It’s doo doo brown, with a creepy looking vanilla bean husk…
Blueberry Lavender Melomel Update
August 29, 2018 Today I re-racked my blueberry lavender melomel, measured the SG, and took a taste test. I pulled the top off and got a nice whiff of lavender. I had remarked that this mead has looked cloudy, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was quite clear when I siphoned the sample….
Coffee Bochet Update
August 29, 2018 Today I degassed my coffee bochet and measured the specific gravity. There is still absolutely no activity in the airlock. However, when I popped the top off my fermenting bucket, there were visible bubbles in the mead. It smells really boozy and you still get a light coffee aroma. The vanilla bean…
Advanced Mead Making Tips and Info
August 29, 2018 I stumbled onto this yesterday. It’s the Mead Exam Study Guide, intended for people who want to become judges in mead making competitions. Becoming a mead competition judge may not be of interest to you – it’s certainly not an ambition of mine – but I found that it contains a lot…
1st and 2nd Batch Updates
August 25, 2018 Gave the Blueberry Lavender a shake/stir. It’s still making CO2 bubbles but no airlock activity. Smells great! Still really cloudy. Measured the SG of the Coffee Bochet – 1.034. Clearer than the other mead, but not totally clear. Added the 3rd installment of energizer and nutrient. The energizer really created a reaction…
Homebrew Kit vs. Buy Individual Items
When I started my mead making journey, I impulsively bought the Homebrew Ohio One Gallon Mead Starter Kit, which I got for $50.38 on Amazon. Today I was thinking about comparing this to a DIY mead making kit based on my experience. I only want to include the minimum components needed for a first mead…
It’s Fermenting!
Today I opened the bochet and it gloriously smells like coffee and BOOZE! I take the SG: 1.070. It’s fermenting, baby! Thank the gods. I give it a good degassing and re-cover. Tomorrow is more nutrient. Should i do a third nutrient? I’m not sure. But this is all a good sign.
Still no airlock activity…
THE MEAD MUST FLOW! No bubbles from the bochet after the second yeast pitch!!! What is going on? I check obsessively every few hours. I sniff over the airlock and it smells like it should. But no action. I decide to crack it open tomorrow for an SG and a stir.
THE MEAD MUST FLOW!
THE MEAD MUST FLOW! I took an SG reading on my coffee bochet and it showed as 1.10. WTF. NOTHING! Same as the original gravity (OG). I decide to pitch more yeast. This time I decide not to be cute and stick to the original method. I put hot water from the faucet into the…
themeadmustflow 