Recent content by Bernardsmit

Hi Myrmidon and welcome. I also think that you are learning to play tennis using a cricket bat. If you want to make a very simple wine go to your supermarket and buy a bottle of shelf stable fruit juice - mango, pineapple, cranberry, pomegranate - whatever fruit you like. The shelf stable kind...

Do you - or does anyone know why many of these recipes include the addition of vinegar? What is the upside of introducing aceto-bacter into my winery?

Sounds good. Can't speak to Sainsbury's or Tesco. I am in upstate NY and we don't have those stores here. But tart cherry juice sounds perfect.. But others with experience with cherry melomels in the UK might offer more relevant advice and information.

You need to think about cherry. Sweet cherry in a melomel can remind you of cough medicine. I would look for sour cherry and I would not aim for a high ABV. You want a low ABV, high acid (low pH, high TA) and a drier finish. Make sure also that you avoid any chlorine in water as you can produce...

You simply (he said) use the juice in place of water but you need to be cautious. Some juice - cranberry, for example, or orange juice can be very acidic and so very tart when all the sugars have been fermented brut dry . I might use 1/2 -1 L of cranberry juice to make a gallon (4 l) of...

I make wine and mead rather than beer but I find that if you buy some wheat berries - and this apparently works with barley too and other grains and take say, 100 g and allow the berries to sprout (about 3 days) and then soak the sprouted berries in say, a gallon of spring water that water is...

Not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but cough syrupy tasting wine is usually associated with four possible factors (often) in combination and these are (to the best of my knowldge) 1. The alcohol content is relatively high and 2. The acid level is relatively low while 3. The...

Thanks for what might be another excellent lead - I thought and I had written to Arran Brewery because the story says that the roll out of blaand was planned for 2013.. Today is 2018 , almost 2019 and I don't know that it has rolled anywhere, certainly not "out". But Arran Brewery have not...

Well, there is no answer to that.. OK , there is but it might be considered X-rated..

Thanks. It is interesting but it doesn't provide very much by way of authentic recipes... Sorry, but am still not satisfied

Thanks LED_ZEP, I am actually familiar with this video - In fact I posted a comment about his choice of using acidified rather than sweet whey - And THAT highlights the point that there appears to be no published recipes about this drink. Was it originally made with acidified whey (from cheese...

Sorry, Can't find anything about blaand on this forum but by all accounts blaand was a Norse & Scottish folk drink that made use of the whey from cheese making. Does anyone know anything about this drink. There seems to be no published recipes perhaps because those who made it simply used...

Apologies if I am resurrecting the dead but I agree - a starting gravity of 1.035 has a potential ABV of about 4.5% or about 1/3 of what the OP suggested. A "session wine" perhaps, and something that could be quaffed by the pint rather than sipped by the glass.

Hi NiamhManners - First , Congratulations on your upcoming wedding and marriage. A couple of quick thoughts: the yeast does not need the lemon juice and there is always a risk of a drop in pH so great that the yeast will simply be unable to continue to ferment. (A ph of 3.0 or lower is enough to...

I guess that is the question... Does the stabilizer (K-meta + K-sorbate) halt the fermentation dead in its tracks OR does the cold crashing halt the fermentation and make it seem like the stabilizer stops it so that when you remove the mead from the fridge, bottle it and allow it to quietly age...