Elspeth Payne on…

Every homebrewer has days like this. I started out to make a perfectly reasonable porter recipe.  English chocolate malt, English dark crystal malt, English black malt, a little wheat malt, Chinook bittering hops and US Goldings. One packet of Lallemand ale yeast with starter.  I was going to add oak cubes and […]

I’m getting to brew a recipe from last year’s American Homebrewer Association’s national competiton – the Underwood’s “Blasphemy at GobblersRoost” (you’ll need an AHA login to view their Homebrewopedia); it’s a sack with buckwheat honey, raisins and oak aged with whiskey.  In getting ready, I’ve been mulling over yeast starters and […]

N.B. This is not my work, it is a file I have kept for several years.l  do not know to whom to accredit it.  If you recognize it, please send me the details so I can accredit this properly.  Fermentation reaction The fermentation reaction C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 […]

Honey contains small amounts of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, as well as anti-oxidants, but not enough to make sufficient nutrition for your yeast.  If there is lag time in getting yeast activity started in a mead must, it could be due to the lack of available nitrogen and nutrient compounds. Adding things […]

Sulfite: the goal is to neutralize wild yeasts in your mead must, so that they don’t give you awful off-flavors.  Brewing yeasts are carefully engineered for the way they process the honey and nutrients in your must, which is how you can get lovely citrusy overtones or floral aromas just from fermentation.  […]

Honey Handling and Mead Additives – another forum discussion  From http://byo.com/feature/875.html Your aim in preparing the must and in the fermentation of honey should be to retain as much of the natural flavor and aroma of the honey as possible. Honey is a dense and sticky product, which makes it […]