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u/ttyrondonlongjohn

r/mead r/Hawaii r/HololiveTCG
Excited to start a batch with this local Hawaiian honey
▲ 25 r/mead

Excited to start a batch with this local Hawaiian honey

While living in Hawaii can have it's downsides when it comes to getting equipment shipped in. We've got the upside of some more unique local and fresh ingredients. I bought 3 pounds of this Lehua honey. It's supposed to have butterscotch, tropical, and floral notes. It was a little pricey but it is very exciting. This is going into a traditional on Wednesday. Planning on using hornindal kveik yeast.

u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 2 days ago
▲ 5 r/mead

Is it possible for my mead to have run dry in only 12 days?

Hello everyone, I've been doing my first batch these last couple weeks. I started on the 20th with two 1 gallon batches, both having 3 lbs of honey and then filling with water to the one gallon mark.

Today I took a reading, after about 12 days it is already reading 0.994 for both gallons. I was under the impression it would take longer to run a batch dry, is this unusual and am I possibly reading things incorrectly?

For some added clarity I used D47 yeast, with 3 nutrient additions on pitch day, day 2, and day 5. I've been fermenting at my ambient house temperature (72F).

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u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 3 days ago
▲ 3 r/mead

On punching down fruit and using a brew bag

Hello everybody,

On the 20th I started my first home ferment. I am doing two batches, both having 3 gallons of honey and then I filled to the one gallon mark with water. I initially planned to start with my fruit additions immediately as well, but the brew bags I ordered were a few days behind delivery schedule so I chose instead to add the fruit about a week later instead. On the 26th I sanitized the bags and let them dry, added in raspberries in one and tart cherries in the other and placed them inside and allowed fermentation to continue.

It's been about two days so heeding the advice I read here I went ahead and sanitized a cooking spoon and used it to punch down the bags back into the liquid, making sure everything got wet again. These brew bags are quite a bit larger than the amount of fruit I needed to put into them for these one gallon batches. Which leads me to my question.

With the amount of extra space in the bags, the fruit is completely submerged at all times, the only thing resting above the liquid right now is the extra fabric of the bag crumpled up on itself. Considering no actual fruit material is above the liquid, how necessary is it to continue punching down the bag to protect against things like mold? I assume that because the bag itself got wet that it will be susceptible to mold as well and I should continue to wet the parts that may dry up, but I was wondering if anyone else had some experience with this they could share with me.

As a quick aside I plan on adding a vanilla bean pod to the raspberry in second stage, I've never even cooked with a bean pod before so is it going to sink or float and should it be contained for easy removal?

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u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 7 days ago
▲ 7 r/Hawaii

Any homebrewing stores open on Oahu?

I've been trying to start making a few meads at home with my spouse and we looked on google and the only places that popped up were Homebrew in Paradise which seems to have closed up shop. Anywhere else I can try and get equipment? Specifically a hydrometer, I did order one but it shattered in the mail and I would prefer to be able to just go pick one up in person.

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u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 15 days ago
▲ 16 r/mead

So dissapointing, everything came in today in great condition except...

The hydrometer shattered during shipping. Every other piece of glass came in just fine. Honestly more dissapointed than upset. Maybe I won't have exact abv numbers but i should have a new one in a few days (given it doesn't get ruined as well).

u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 15 days ago
▲ 0 r/mead

Doing my first batch this Saturday and would like someone to double check my recipe

Hello everyone, over this week I've made the decision to purchase the equipment necessary and have been spending a good amount of my free time reading up and preparing to start my first two batches of mead this Saturday.

I plan on making two melomels, one at my wife's behest and another I personally want to make. She requested I make a raspberry mead and I want to give a go at making a cherry mead.

I've been looking at the numbers over at meadtools.com and here is what I have come up with, but I do want a set of eyes with some experience to see if there is any adjustments I should be making.

First, I am using Lavlin D47 yeast, it is coming in the 'starter kit' package I have ordered alongside day 1, 2, and 5 nutrient packets. I was able to acquire local raw and unfiltered honey, and for the fruits I have flash frozen Raspberries and canned tart cherries. As for the cherries, I am unfortunately unable to find tart cherries fresh or frozen, only sweet cherries. I had read tart are preferred. That being said, the canned cherries have only water and cherries as listed ingredients and they have been pasteurized, so I am not very worried about their inclusion.

I have also ordered fruit pectin enzyme which I plan to use in the primary, as well as campden tablets to protect the brew during second stage.

Raspberry recipe
- 3lbs of Raw Unfiltered Honey
- 36oz of Raspberry
- fill with water up to the 4500ml mark (1.2 gallons of total volume), est to be 0.7~ gallons
This is estimated to come out to an OG of 1.092
After fermentation is complete, I plan on transferring as much as possible to a 1 gallon carboy, topping off the remaining headspace with a mixture of water and honey for some back sweetening. Additionally I will add 2 vanilla bean pods, split down the middle.

Cherry recipe
- 3lbs of Raw Unfiltered Honey
- 29oz of Tart Cherry
- fill with water up to the 4500ml mark (1.2 gallons of total volume), est to be 0.7~ gallons
This is estimated to come out to an OG of 1.094
After fermentation is complete, I plan on transferring as much as possible to a 1 gallon carboy, topping off the remaining headspace with a mixture of water and honey for some back sweetening.

meadtools estimates this to come out to above 12% if run completely dry, however I'm hoping to hit around 10-11% to account for whatever amount I need to top up when transferring over to the 1 gallon carboys.

And of course I will have sanitizer prepared for cleaning all equipment and tools used during this process. I have purchased the equipment to create blow off tubes in the event I may need them as well just in case. I'm very much looking forward to this project and I can't wait to provide updates as well as share the final product with a few friends in the coming months. Any feedback is appreciated!

u/ttyrondonlongjohn — 17 days ago