Jump to content
UnevenEdge

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


Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

I've been thinking of taking a swing at making whiskey. I spent the last couple days toasting some oak for a beer project, but now I'm thinking it might be more fun to distill some liquor and then age it on the toasted oak. God damnit, just what I need...another distraction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So we had an assessor come by today to take pictures of the house for refinancing, he comes up from the basement and tells me i've got a delicious smelling brew going, then starts talking shop about how he did a blackberry one, and also- adding onion to apple improves it apparently? 

That's crazy but i could see it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Well, today's the one month mark.

Testing day.

I'm guessing based on my last few brews it probably went dry at around 11%, maybe a bit more given the  bit of extra sugars from the syrup.

Still have a jar each of honey and syrup for step feed/back sweetening, but maybe I'll keep this recipe dry- last time I kept it dry and it came out pretty good, and my other recipe came out really sweet so...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow... Only got down to 1.044. 

4%.

Well, the good news is it's still bubbling fairly actively, but still...

After a month, that's sorta concerning.+

I don't think it's stalled, just really slow...

I mean the taste is for sure there...

Wondering if the preservatives in the cranberry juice fucked me over.

Think what I'll do is try pitching more yeast.

Hmmmm.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

i'd swap you a bottle for a bottle sometime, sure. i don't have much available right now besides a hoppy stout that may or may not be worth consuming. we're gonna try making a couple seltzers maybe this week for kicks. and i have ingredients on the way to brew a witbier, an ipa, and a shandy. but those last 3 have to wait until i get the brewery built out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weekly check on the Honeysapple-

Went mostly dry at 9% or so, added 3 more pounds of honey.

I hope that's enough, I've got additional maple syrup to add but I was hoping to get up to my yeast tolerance to just use the syrup as flavoring.

I like to finish around a 1.2 specific gravity, that's about the exact right sweetness in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Soooo... today i met my wife's friend who brews and is starting his own meadery, really cool dude.

Did a tasting of our brews, he had a straight honey and a blackberry, i brought my ginger peach Mellowmellon.

Its good to taste other people's works, get an idea of what's what.

Personally i like a complex flavor and mine really shows that. His was very alcohol forward.

...

I think mine are better. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dinner with the folks tonight, dad grilled steak.

Brought mom a big bottle of the mellomellon to share with grandma and one of  my aunts who also makes wine.

I brought a sample bottle of honeysapple 2 to split. 

The mellomellon is for sharing with family.

Not to drink tonight.

Yeah. We had it darn near polished off by desert.

Re-filled the empty sampler bottle for them and just drank the rest.

Shits good man, shits goddamn good.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All right, fermentation on this batch seems to have stopped- only at about 10% though.

I used a different yeast so that may have something to do with it, also I'm not sure I got an accurate gravity reading when I step-fed it on account of it not being as well mixed as I wanted.

Seems like fermentation stopped at a 1.010, dryer than the mellomellon (I'm ok with that because while the mellomellon is absolutely delicious it is also pretty dang sweet). Also I still need to back sweeten with maple syrup and I don't want all the flavor to ferment out right away.

Adding vanilla to smooth it out too.

Thinking that's going to be an ingredient I use in (maybe) all of my recipes-

Vanilla for smoothness, tea for mouth-feel, ginger for tang and to carry flavors (the tingle seems to make the flavors linger like that song from the cranberries), raisins for body and depth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whipped together this winter  recipe- flavor profile I'm going for is something like a chocolate orange.

    Winter- Spiced Coffemel Bouchet
2 gallons cold-brew coffee
1 gallon spiced orange tea (constant comment)
5 Jars of honey
1 jar caramelized honey
1 ginger root
1/2 bag raisins
2 packs yeast
1.5+ gallons water
5 teaspoons vanilla extract (in secondary)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

hoo boy...

Went to pop open a bottle of the second bottling of the mellomellon (the remaining less than 2 gallons that sat on lees and got super neglected until I got around to it, so it's just for me, not worth giving to guests)  and it fizzed over like nothing else.

Went a lot drier too, of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

1 month on the coffee mead.

Didn't end up bochet-ing it in the primary fermentation, just coffee, tea, ginger, clove, allspice, orange zest, and raisin.

Went dry at 1.0000. Cloudier than nothing else but I mean that's to be expected since it's still in primary.

Taste is pretty much exactly where I wanted it to be at  this point in the process. The acidic flavor from the orange blend into the acidic flavor in the coffee so you've got  this one acidic flavor that mingles between fruitiness and bitterness.

Next step now that the coffee is done- add the creamer.

I really want to bochet this. Buy a little thing of  honey at the grocery store and cook it up in the crock pot, then  when it's nice and carnalized I'mma dissolve it in some more coffee along with cocoa and vanilla. More cloves too.

Gotta say I was really worried about how this one would turn out- when I try to capture the flavor of orange and coffee together in my head toothpaste always wants to join in because my brain thinks breakfast. 

But no, exactly where I wanted it to land  before I planned  to hit  it   with backsweetening in the secondary.

Gonna be real goddamn good this  december.

Next mead is going to be a recreation of the peach honeydew brew with dandelions added.

The one after that though?

Plum, currant, hibiscus, ginger.

Mmmmmmm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...