Hey did i tell y'all im making some alcohol?

[SwimModSponges]

Mom came and gor her bottle today, said it was really good and the blueberry flavor came through strongly. 

She tried my other one and wanted to know why i wasn't bottling it right now.

Because its not done yet.

[SwimModSponges]

My next mead. Is going to be peach, honeydew, and watermelon. 

Gonna call it "two huge melons and a juicy peach".

[SwimModSponges]

"I should be able to just leave this sanitizer solution in a bucket with a lid on it for a while, right? I mean its literally made to kill microbes."

Nope. 

Well that's ok.

Few days past 2 months on my cranapple acerglyn. Gonna measure it today, i can't imagine its not done yet.

Prolly rack today too if it looks good. 

[SwimModSponges]

She stayed about steady, right around that 10.5 mark.

Racked out into a pair of gallon carboys, wasn't quite two gallons in the fermentation bucket but i tossed more tea in there to make up the volume. More maple syrup too, because the syrup flavor barely came through at all. Same with the cranberry. 

Flavor #1 is definitely apple. Might actually add some cranberry juice to give it more of a kick, but i didn't have any on me when i racked. Still enough headspace to add some without being too much space to worry about. 

Offgassing pretty nice too so im sure i got plenty of back pressure inside the airlock.

Still cloudy but its only 2 months old so i'm sure it'll clear up a lot before I bottle. 

 

[SwimModSponges]

One of them is clarifying really well, the other started fermenting again. 

Both are great outcomes. 

[SwimModSponges]

This lees looks like mars.

[SwimModSponges]

So i'd say we're damn near ready to bottle up the clear one, probably the other one within the next couple weeks. 

Gonna be an excellent autumn beverage. 

The peach/honeydew one i want to make will be perfect for summer, but i got winter and spring to brew first. 

Spring i'm thinking straight up rosemary, and i wanted to do a coffee/clove brew for winter but from what I've seen coffee brews take a lot longer so i'd be missing my target. 

[SwimModSponges]

Came up with this name last night- "Honeysapple".

You got the honey, you got the sap, you got the apple. 

Now i just need a logo.

[SwimModSponges]

also i'd say for sure the one bottle started fermentation again. 

 

[SwimModSponges]

BAM.

[SwimModSponges]

https://craftabrew.com/products/the-catalyst-fermentation-system
 

#wishlist

[SwimModSponges]

Just shy of 3 months, take a sample. 

Definitely still fermenting, what with watering it down with tea and adding more maple syrup i got no idea what my hydrometer is telling me. 

The cinnamon flavor that was taking over the brew before really mellowed out, so did most of the flavors though.

Alcohol is taste #1 right now for sure.

Added more maple syrup, hopefully my yeast will finish eating it soon and i can get more sweetness going.

[SwimModSponges]

I've been considering fortifying it, pushing the alcohol up past the yeast tolerance so they knock it the fuck off already.

Maybe adding some cranberry juice to pump some sharpness into it.

More syrup too, once I know my yeast ain't gonna eat it.

[wacky1980]

brewed a batch of a black ipa last night. it's still one of my favorite styles, even though it fell out of popularity a few years back. i say it's making a comeback, just you wait and see...

anyways, we took the whole process another couple steps closer to viable commercial brewing. i picked up a grain mill and some water treatment chemicals. the mill means we can buy malted barley from anywhere, and process it right before we mash in, rather than having to buy it already milled. opens the door to cheaper/more variety of grains. the chemicals can be used to correct water imbalances to create the most favorable environment for the enzymes to do their starch conversion during the mash. and i have everyone else on board with helping me build out my HERMS brewhouse this winter. 

feels good to be back at it, after nearly 2 years of backing off for various reasons.

[SwimModSponges]

I've got my friend at work interested in brewing some mead himself.

He tried it a while ago but from what I understand it didn't go well.

[wacky1980]

so i'm back on the task of building out the electric brewery. spent a couple evenings this week sourcing parts for the control panel. allllmost done with that phase. if all goes well, i'll be finishing the build on the panel by winter. it's modeled on this beast from theelectricbrewery.com and it's gonna be glorious.

i already have most of the parts for the brewing vessels. that will consist of three 16-gallon tanks with electric heating elements, pumps and hoses, a re-circulation system, and filtration. it's basically a nano-brewery that runs on a 220v oven plug. we'll be able to turn out 10 gallons of beer in a 4-hour brew session. only thing left after that is proper fermentation control, and we're all set.

[SwimModSponges]

Motherfuckers still going at it.

No bottling today. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by SwimModSponges

[SwimModSponges]

Hot damn that's some fancy equipment. 

[wacky1980]

you can buy a control panel new from that site, starting at $2300 (up to $2900 for the 50-gallon version). or you can buy the kit for $1500. or you can source your own parts for probably around $700. i ain't skeered to do it myself, and that's a big difference in price, so why not.

the inside of the panel is a little intimidating though, ngl.

[SwimModSponges]

Boy howdy and I thought a $200 fermenter was pricey.

Syrup flavor is finally coming through a bit stronger though, apple is still good. Slight bitter aftertaste though, but that should age out.

[wacky1980]

when are you unleashing this beast on the world? ready by halloween?

[SwimModSponges]

Fuck man idk.

So i got it split into the two carboys, i'm going to let one ride because it has to be done sooner or later, the other one i'mma just fortify and backsweeten a bit.

[wacky1980]

are you still seeing active fermentation? that's some baller yeast.

[SwimModSponges]

Literally just bread yeast.

Its honestly just because I keep fucking around with it, adding tea which dilutes the abv then tossing more sugars in there to boost it back up again. 

I'd figured it was mostly just bubbling due to offgassing but my hydrometer is still sinking a bit between each measurement. 

Like i said, think i'll just finish the one up with a neutral spirit, backsweeten it, then manually offgas. Let the other one just go until it stops. 

[SwimModSponges]

[SwimModSponges]

Yep dropped another .0002 on the hydrometer.

Well hey we'll see what next week brings. 

Tried the fortified one too, its in the same boat.

Still barely getting any cranberry out of it. Pretty sweet, a lot of tannins in both of them, maybe not enough acids?

Sitting here thinking about adding more cranberry juice.

Gotta knock that shit off.

Stop fucking with it.

Let it finish.

[wacky1980]

those things are never gonna stop bubbling if you keep adding sugar. 

my black ipa went into bottles last night. it was a week later than planned, but it picked up a weird astringency so i left it in secondary for an extra week with some gelatin to try pulling some of that flavor out. it improved a little, but it's not really back to where it needs to be yet. hopefully after a couple weeks of bottle conditioning and a month in the fridge, it will find its way back. i tracked the problem back to the new grain mill. when you mill the grain, you're supposed to crack the hull open to expose the kernel, but not actually break the hull into pieces. i think the width on the rollers was set a little too small, and it actually crushed the hulls instead of just breaking them open. that released too much tannin into the mash, and the astringency off-flavor blossomed during fermentation. it's correctable, to an extent. i can taste a good beer underneath that flavor, so hopefully it continues to fade in the cooler. we'll try a bottle on halloween and maybe every couple weeks after that until it's good to go.

[SwimModSponges]

I've held off on it so far.

Checking again on Wednesday. 

Here's hoping i can just off gas it and throw it in some bottles here. I'd like to have it done before Halloween but honestly if she's still giving me guff i might just hold her out until my birthday. 

[SwimModSponges]

THEY'RE BOTH DONE!

 

[wacky1980]

keeping them still, or carbonating?

[SwimModSponges]

Keeping still. 

I bottled the fortified one and got 8 12 oz bottles. It also tasted a lot better than the "original recipe" so I added more cranberry juice to that one too. Put the last of the syrup in the first one though, so it probably won't be quite as good.

Planning on making gift baskets for our folks like we were supposed to have for our wedding.

[SwimModSponges]

Gave a bottle to my friend at work, said i wouldn't tell anybody if he had a sip or two during lunch just to give me a bit of a review. 

He said it was excellent. Lot of apple flavor but he didn't get cranberry at all.

Think i might just pull out a bottle from the gallon i still got sitting, replace the volume with more cranberry juice and syrup...

[wacky1980]

you keep adding cranberry, all you're gonna be left with is diluted cranberry drink. it's good now. enjoy it as-is!

my brewing comrade cracked a bottle of our black ipa tonight. he says it's drinkable, even with the astringency. i really hope aging it in the fridge for a couple weeks draws that flavor down, because we might have a good one on our hands. v.2 of that recipe is ready for the brewhouse. might try to brew it again in the next week or so.

[SwimModSponges]

I can't stop monkeying with things. 

Just gotta keep fucking with it.

But you're right i'll just bottle what I got.

Say here's a question for you... how much do you think i could get away with charging for a 12 oz bottle of home-made craft mead?

[wacky1980]

if the lawman gets an opinion, nothing 😒

commercially-produced mead ranges from average craft beer prices ($1-2/bottle) to well upwards of $10/bottle for premium craft. price can go way up from there as well, but this is a common range. selling your homebrew is generally looked down upon, but if someone offers you cash for your mead, i don't see the harm in taking whatever they offer. you might have a better time trading bottle-for-bottle with other homebrewers in your area.

[SwimModSponges]

I need to get a side-hustle going here. And i've been running the numbers on how much i'd have to sell it for to profit in a meaningful way...

I should probably just start my own meadery. Like as an actual business. 

That could be fun.

[wacky1980]

in all honesty, trying to sell your illegal booze on any scale is a very bad idea. if there's anything the gov't takes seriously, it's the regulation of heavily-taxed products.

i can't say you'd be better off investing $100-250k into your own meadery right now, because that hole is a tough one to climb out of. if you're still making mead in 5 years, and have saved up a down payment on a commercial space, maybe then.

[SwimModSponges]

Guess I'll just stick to selling crack then.

[wacky1980]

i'm definitely not trying to deter you, but there's a big reality check in store for people who want to explore entering the market. the most successful startups build their own cult following well before they open their doors. they do it by brewing a_lot in their spare time, and giving it away to friends/family, whoring it around at homebrew competitions, and working industry contacts to get their products into the hands of as many buyers and beer influencers as possible. and/or bringing in someone at the ground level with industry cred to build hype. if you time everything right and have a product people like enough that they'll buy it over the other guy, at the same time that you get your meadery built out and through all the federal / state certification and licensing hoops, you can launch a meadery and be relatively successful (as in: not profusely bleeding capital) from day 1. sounds easy enough right? obv, many places don't open with that kind of instant success, and it takes them several years to build their brand and customer base.

i've been dabbling on this timeline for the last maybe 3 years, and i'm still only about 15% of the way there. granted, it's not ever been our main focus, but it's on the 5 and 10 year plans. this year really fucked that timeline, but we're still moving forward. the outdoor venue will transition to a beer garden for the brewhouse/taproom once it launches. we're waiting for an adjacent property to hit the market, and so far none are officially for sale, but a couple viable spaces are potentially moving into the market soon. we have to amp up the brewing schedule again, and the electric brewhouse i've been working on in my spare time for almost a year is finally starting to come together. if everything went just right, if covid ended in the winter/spring, and i left the bank in the next year to do this full-time, we could have a brewery/taproom running as early as maybe 3 years out. possibly less, with the right enthusiasm and funding. and i could probably pull all of that off with $200k of funding...probably. but i'm in a good position of already having several years of industry experience, two successful establishments to help push out my products, and a complete absence of competition within 40 miles. if your market is already somewhat mature, it could be tough to break in.

again, not trying to deter you. it's definitely a challenge...but it's not impossible.

[SwimModSponges]

Yeah, its a pipe dream. Ah well.

[wacky1980]

19 minutes ago, SwimModSponges said:

Yeah, its a pipe dream. Ah well.

not at all. look at like you're preparing early to deal with a mid-life crisis in 10 years. if funding is the biggest hurdle, there are always investors who can be wooed with the prospect of an endless supply of their favorite mead...

[SwimModSponges]

Well... i've already got a name for it in mind, so that part is done at least...

[wacky1980]

1 hour ago, SwimModSponges said:

Well... i've already got a name for it in mind, so that part is done at least...

branding is stressful. i still don't have a name picked out for the brewery, but we've kicked around candidates for over a year.

[SwimModSponges]

Good names usually come to me in the moment; "honeysapple" just sort of popped  into my head one day and I was super happy with it.

The name of my meadery is sort of a play on my first and middle names that evokes thoughts of a crisp autumn wind.

[SwimModSponges]

decided   to bust into a bottle tonight.

a  12 oz    bottle has about 4 good sized  glasses in it.

And god damn I did a  good job on this  one.

[SwimModSponges]

Mead has ruined me.

For the past several years i've enjoyed all sorts of craft beers.

None of them hold a candle to the sweet nectar i've created. 

[SwimModSponges]

Ok, bottled that last gallon the other day.

This one's much less sweet than the first one, which makes sense as I didn't add more syrup, just cranberry juice. I definitely taste that in this one.

This one has a lot more alcohol in it too for sure.

[SwimModSponges]

Everybody got together and got me that sweet fermenter for my birthday. 

So it looks like i'mma be making massive amounts of alcohol. 

[wacky1980]

what fermenter did you get?

a nice fermenter is the last big purchase i have left before i fire up my brew schedule. carboys are ok and they're dirt cheap by comparison, but they're a pain in the ass for transfers and cleaning.

[SwimModSponges]

On 9/25/2020 at 2:58 PM, SwimModSponges said:

https://craftabrew.com/products/the-catalyst-fermentation-system
 

#wishlist

This puppy.

Edited November 17, 2020 by SwimModSponges