Nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation. It's nice to aim for something specific too sometimes though, especially if you're cloning a commercial beer or have a beer style in mind - it's great when it works out (and sometimes when it doesn't ).
I did do an extract beer kit once, an 80- but I was aiming for 9% so threw in an extra 5Kg of sugar over the coarse of the ferment. The result was, interesting...
Oooff, 5Kg sugar? Lol, I'm sure it was interesting. Sugar gives you the ABV but too much will ruin the beer's body. Adding DME (dry malt extract) instead of sugar will get you the ABV without thinning the beer out. With my all grain brews, I control the ABV with the amount of base malt (grain) I use (there are other factors too, such as mash temperature & duration, but in essence, more grain = higher ABV). The brew software is great at working all that out, and takes mash temp & duration into consideration too (it also calculates bitterness from the hop schedule (IBUs) and colour (EBC/SRM) from the grains). It can also work with other fermentables other than grain in its calculations, such as malt extract and various sugars which is very handy for extract brews or combining extract and/or sugar with grain. (I try and use all grain where I can and don't tend to add sugar or DME unless it's a very "big" (i.e. strong) beer and my equipment simply can't accommodate all the grain required.)
I see, cheers. Will you top it up with more water once the vigorous early fermentation is done, as you would with a fruit wine?
Oh you also put Rasins in as a yeast food. and from what I have seen and read on the internet, I shouldnt have to add more water after the initial stages of the fermentation. but I shall see when I get that far
What I meant by the "top up" was that when brewing fruit/fruit juice wine, people often deliberately leave a bit of space at the top of the demijohn to allow room for the krausen (frothy head) that builds up during the early stages of fermentation. If they don't leave room, it can froth-over and make a proper mess. Once the early stages of fermentation are over and the risk of it "climbing out of the demijohn" are over though, they top it up to full. I was wondering if it was the same with mead.
From what I have seen in that case then it shouldnt be the case i need to do that. most people seem to have it filled quite high. doesnt seem to froth much maybe
Fair enough, it might be just a fruit thing (I don't know much about wine/mead making). It's looking good anyway.
Be sure not to sit it on carpet, or if so in a bucket or something - it might not foam, but if it does it can make an unappreciated mess...
Its in a tray for plants bout an inch deep. Learnt that lesson the hard way, made a 60L tub of cider a few years ago and it erupted like a foamy volcano all over the kitchen.
Spotted a sale at Idle Valley Brewing. Lots of stuff for both kit and all grain brewers - they're doing 25Kg sacks of Maris Otter for just over £19 (+ £6 delivery)!! That's enough to make 200-240 pints of "regular" strength beer. It'd be rude not to. http://www.idlevalleybrewing.com/shop/ (I hope it's OK to put the link here. I'm not affiliated to them in any way.)
I want to grab a few bits and bobs so that sale might help Current plan, is in 3 months or so if the Mead looks like it is working I will get another 2 batches on in time for march next year. One batch of Orange and Clove. One batch of Raspberry. Im currently curious as to the effect of adding food colourings at the end of the process as I had an idea of making a series of flavours to make a set of certain colours for a theme
Its behaving well, Bubbling away quite rapidly but no sign of escape, Not much foam at all just layer about 3mm that has been pretty static,
This reminds me that I've still got to transfer some of last years wine into bottles, I suspect it's ready by now seeing as we did it in October last year. The wine we made from the year before (blackberry) knocked me off my ass !
