Mead “Brewday”: Meadmaking & Bottling & So On…

Last night, I bottled my “Belgian Pale Ale”. It feels a bit weird to call anything that utterly hoppy by the name, though: it’s definitely out of style, even though the IBUs and the yeast and all are right. The magic of late additions gave this beer a really over-the-top hop flavor (tons of lemon and tropical frut) and a hoppier aroma than other beers I’ve made. (The aroma is not quite so overwhelming as I expected, but it’s certainly present, and I’m a bad judge of aroma to begin with…) I will be kegging my American Pale Ale tonight, …

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No Boil Bokbunja Melomel

UPDATE (17 Dec. 2010): I wrote this up on Tuesday but forgot to post it. Therefore, it refers to a future act which actually happened on Wednesday. Just so you know. The melomel, incidentally, is in a bucket right by my desk, bubbling away happily. Must remember to do a DAP addition this evening. And by the way, I haven’t racked the Golden Strong to clear, but I should be doing that soon. (As soon as I can rack my Persimmoned Wheat off the fruit and put it in a closet on my balcony to clear.) ORIGINAL POST (written 14 …

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Wow, JAO Now…

Well, today’s a bit day for brewing stuff, as I have a few things to get done/out of the way before the weekend arrives, and because I decided to give myself a little fun to make up for the frustration I’m having with Emart’s website. (I’ve been ordering groceries online without real problems for over a year, but suddenly nothing is working again. Well, no, that’s not quite right. Rather, when I select my address for shipping, the dialog tells me I haven’t selected an address and can I please input one again?) It seems something has been changed in …

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The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm

Those who know me personally know that my passions tend to kind of take over. When I am interested in something, it begins to occupy a big part of my mind. I think about it a lot. I talk about it a lot. Those who know me are used to it, I suspect. Hanging out with a homebrewer can be something like hanging out with a writer of the talky kind. I have friends who are writers of the non-talky kind, the sort who seem to feel that talking about their current projects is a way of abandoning the project …

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Melomel, or Hot Pepper Pilsner? Why Not Both?

So, I just finished racking my chocolate stout over a good 3.5 kilos of bing cherries in syrup and about 2/3rds of a bottle of cacao liqueur, plus some dried cocoa powder. It’s going to start fermenting again, which is going to be interesting since the carboy is almost full. I need to check the blowoff tube every few hours once the fermentation restarts, because if enough cherry bits get into the tube to block it, then the carboy could explode and even if it didn’t kill me, it’d mean a humungous mess. Anyway, no worries to be had — …

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