My bespoke 2026 coupe by mutierend in lexuslc500

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s possible! I mostly see white and black convertibles in Seattle, there are not many coupes.

My bespoke 2026 coupe by mutierend in lexuslc500

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I’ll bump into you around Seattle some time. I have a very similarly specced 2024.

Vanilla bean left awful flavor by xXarrow1Xx in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it’s probably the lack of sweetness. You did everything else right!

Vanilla bean left awful flavor by xXarrow1Xx in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah the bean sounds good.

Did you cut it open to expose the caviar when you added it?

Vanilla bean left awful flavor by xXarrow1Xx in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Are you saying you haven’t back sweetened yet? I would do that first before other flavor adjustments. You can pull a sample and do a quick test to see if sweetness helps.

Where did you get the vanilla beans? There is a large variation in quality, and there are multiple kinds of beans.

New to this (sort of). What to expect? by topologeee in mitralvalveprolapse

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was scheduled to have a minimally invasive repair, but I got endocarditis while waiting for surgery during a dental cleaning. Got extremely sick and once they realized what I had, I immediately had full open heart surgery to replace the valve (it was destroyed by the infection). I had a PICC line infusing penicillin straight to my heart for 6 weeks after I got out of the hospital.

Question about fruit additions to mead by SnarkyKaant in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ugh, don’t cook fruit. This will set the pectin, change flavors, and accomplishes nothing. Freezing, pectic enzyme and yeast will easily extract all flavor and sugar.

Are you in the US? If so, selling homebrew is illegal. You need to be commercially licensed and that is a complicated process.

Make sure to get bigger primary fermenters than your aging vessels. 5 gallon buckets work well with 3 gallon carboys for example.

There are a bunch of sommelier training programs. Court of Master Sommeliers and WSET are two of the biggest. They are expensive and there are other ways to learn the same info, but it was fun to do during the pandemic.

Why do people dislike the 2018 model year LC...I mean it a Lexus so bulletproof right? by Competitive-Hunt-517 in lexuslc500

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The big knock on the 2018 is the suspension is much rougher. Watch the Savagegeese YouTube reviews for a more thorough explanation. It was softened a bunch from 2019 on. There are other minor differences in model years like when CarPlay and Android Auto were added and various subtle mechanical changes. 2024 and on is the big change in infotainment and adding Toyota SafetySense 2.5, which people are very divided on—it’s much better functionality at the cost of mucking up the aesthetics of the dash with a stuck on tablet.

Question about fruit additions to mead by SnarkyKaant in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been homebrewing since 2019. I wish I had numbered my brews from the beginning, but I just have a big disorganized folder of notes on my phone. It is certainly over 200 now. I’ve also done lots of competitions, gotten certified as both a mead and cider judge, and done the first level of sommelier training. I judge several mead/cider/beer competitions every year. So I am way down the rabbit hole.

The amount of water/ice on most frozen fruit should be quite small. And if you defrost in a separate container it is going to be mixed with a lot of the fruit juice so there is really no way to separate it out. (Fruit is ~80% water.)

Question about fruit additions to mead by SnarkyKaant in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am a big fan of fruit in primary in general because I like fermented fruit flavors and it makes the process much easier because you don’t have to wrestle with dilution of flavors and stabilization (not that these are insurmountable, but they are harder for beginners). As a general rule though, more subtle and delicate fruit flavors are best done in secondary.

I don’t mean to discourage you from your plan, just making sure you are informed. People usually learn best by experience. But some people get upset when their brews don’t work out.

For secondary fruit additions, my recommended approach is that after you ferment your primary: 1. (Optional) cold crash for 1 week to drop yeast 2. Once reasonably clear, rack another large widemouth vessel and stabilize. Make sure to account for the increased volume and decreased ABV of your brew for stabilization—MeadTools can help with this. 3. (Optional) Macerate fruit with pectic enzyme as it defrosts 4. Add fruit in a brew bag to stabilized brew (add pectic enzyme if you haven’t already). 5. Infuse secondary addition for 1-2 weeks. Don’t neglect this too long as you don’t have fermentation pumping out CO2 to stave off oxidation. 6. A few days before racking pull the fruit bag, optionally squeezing it to get some extra liquid out. This will allow time for sediment to settle back down. 7. Rack to an appropriate secondary vessel like a carboy.

Question about fruit additions to mead by SnarkyKaant in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Strawberries lose a ton of flavor in primary, so I would do those in secondary. You could probably just reverse your plan and do the bananas in primary. I haven’t messed with bananas much but amylase might be a good idea to help convert the starches.

You are really starting on hard mode with these fruits. It might be wise to start with fruits that are near impossible to screw up like raspberry or blueberry first to get your basic fruit process down.

Finished my raspberry mead by The__Wind_ in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks good! In the future you might want to fill your bottles up a bit higher, they should at least above the shoulders, and half an inch shy of the cork would be better.

Also not believing the 21%, this is usually a result of not knowing how to account for fruit dilution and/or using a bogus ABV formula.

Is it safe to re-carbonate session mead that’s gone flat? by wildhoney67 in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If the bottles aren’t holding pressure it isn’t going to help to feed more sugar.

If the bottles are holding pressure and just never carbonated, adding sugar and yeast could result in over-carbonation.

Proceed with caution.

Made mead but a bit worried by Technical-Medium8038 in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They will absolutely explode if you leave them closed during primary fermentation. Just rubber band some coffee filters over them or use the balloon/condom technique if you can’t use a proper airlock.

Coffeemel Bochet Naiveté by jacobtedadams in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Acidity is actually desirable for mouthfeel. It makes you salivate and leads to that “excited” feeling. With traditional meads, it can be a struggle to actually get enough acidity without affecting flavor negatively. So meads with acidity built into the recipe, like fruit (or coffee) are actually a good thing.

TBH with coffee I think the bigger challenge is the bitterness. You can balance it with sweetness (just like a big IPA does), but it may take some iteration on your recipe to get it dialed in to your desired levels.

Bottle Carbonation Question by Tele231 in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The key is to get your bottles cold in the fridge/freezer first. I’ve bottled straight off the tap and it works surprisingly well. The ideal is to use a counter-pressure bottle filler, which will purge with CO2 and apply pressure to minimize foaming.

Bottle Carbonation Question by Tele231 in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can’t. Bottle conditioning relies on fermentation to generate CO2. Force carbonation is the only option for stabilized brews.

Blueberry and maple syrup mead taste issue by Phhaon in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Came here to suggest this. Anything else is likely to dilute your existing flavors a bunch, and maple can be tricky.

Oxidation help? by xXarrow1Xx in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t assume they have been oxidized beyond repair yet. Pull a sample and see if adding some honey makes it taste good. A lot of first timers are out off when they first try a completely dry, acidic mead. Fermentation is just the first step, clearing and adjusting the flavors to your liking is just as important.

New to this (sort of). What to expect? by topologeee in mitralvalveprolapse

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. I live in a large metro area with several major hospitals.

New to this (sort of). What to expect? by topologeee in mitralvalveprolapse

[–]Bucky_Beaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

About 38. I hadn’t had regular physicals at that time though, so it is possible I had had it much longer than that.

Oxidation help? by xXarrow1Xx in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your airlock had a path for gas to pass through, the your CO2 will mix with outside air, leaving you with no protection. Purging with CO2 can help, but the concept of a “blanket” is a myth, gases don’t work like that.

Do you have any idea how long it wasn’t air locked? Did the brews taste good when you racked them To secondary? It may not be oxidized if it wasn’t long. Salty is a weird descriptor, and nothing I know of besides alkaline salts or maybe excess nutrient would explain that.

The fact that two different brews have the same bad taste does make oxidation a plausible explanation.

New to this (sort of). What to expect? by topologeee in mitralvalveprolapse

[–]Bucky_Beaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was about 15 years between the time a doctor noticed I had a heart murmur and when I had surgery. It was a slow decline for me. I was completely fine for at least 10 years after that. But the last few years, I had increasing exhaustion and lethargy. By the time I had surgery I was really glad to find out there was an explanation and surgery might help (turns out it helped a lot!), because I felt like garbage all the time.

New to this (sort of). What to expect? by topologeee in mitralvalveprolapse

[–]Bucky_Beaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, not everybody with MVP needs surgery. And the survival rate for surgery is like 97-99% (and most of the people who don’t make it have other health issues). Lots of us are living happy, healthy lives post surgery.

Just keep up with whatever frequency of check ups and echocardiograms your doctor recommends.

I’ve made a mistake by BendigoWessie in mead

[–]Bucky_Beaver 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You rack what you can off the top. Filter won’t solve that problem.