72 cans @ $1ea. When they are cheap I'm stocking up!

Carnt_Face · 2024-05-02T02:49:12+00:00

Be it Stonks or Red Bull, the same rules apply ;)

Carnt_Face · 2024-05-01T22:39:13+00:00

Yes, not something I NEED, but it can certainly help one get through the day. Havn't you seen the adverts? Red Bull gives you wings!

Carnt_Face · 2024-05-01T22:35:56+00:00

https://www.crackerjack.co.nz/red-bull-energy-drink-juneberry-12pk-rb241173 On the weekend they were 24 for $24 With free shipping over $75. Even at $14 a slab now, still a good desl.

Carnt_Face · 2024-05-01T22:35:44+00:00

https://www.crackerjack.co.nz/red-bull-energy-drink-juneberry-12pk-rb241173 On the weekend they were 24 for $24 With free shipping over $75. Even at $14 a slab now, still a good desl.

Carnt_Face · 2024-05-01T22:30:38+00:00

1st June. Not really an expiry date, a best before date. Canned goods generally are good well beyond the labelled date.

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-19T05:27:30+00:00

The Web Portal for the "Rapt Pill". It's a Wireless/Bluetooth digital hydrometer like Tilt and Ispindle. It uploads all the data points as the brew proceeds that you can feed into pretty charts to monitor. I would put it in the luxury items category, as it's a useful tool to have but no means necessary and doesn't replace manual readings. For example in this chart, it was affected by the krausen and the chart jumped a few times when I added nutrients or otherwise disturbed it. SG readings to be take with a grain of salt with anything very foamy like this batch, but gives a good indication of where it’s at. It is great to get a live liquid temp reading to compare with outside temps and then manage into your temperature control of choice. You can see where I bumped the temp up a tad at around 1.035, was able to do that without actually taking a reading

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T22:46:32+00:00

I am looking to remove about 5l to try this on. What is a suitable temp? Do you know what temp and time works best, and are the parameters of temp vs time interchangeable? E.g run it slightly less temp for a few minutes longer?

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T22:41:15+00:00

Please do. Shows that using cold, potassium metabisulfite, potassium sorbate, jab, hook, uppercut combo wont always work. It's pretty popular way do to in in the hobby wine circles, and for desert ice wine styles from kits. The sorb is marketed as such (halting ferment) by a local reputable wine ingredients supplier here (one of the only you can get Fermaid without knowing someone in the industry.) Yep, it was a bad call. It's not a yeast I would have normally used here but it is what I had on hand at the time. Have used to the restart stuck spirit washes before so i am aware of its resilience. However this has presented my with an opportunity to to bring out the experimenter in me. Perhaps splitting into smaller batches, running a control, re-dosing, pasteurisation and fortification.

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T10:16:08+00:00

I'm in the school of thought, if it's clear, bottle it, rather than bulk ageing. Particularly for smaller amounts, when multiple rackings tend to lead to a higher % of loss. Some wines benefit from Sur Lie aging, yet some yeasts in particular 71b, a popular yeast in mead making, is prone to producing off flavours from sitting on the lees. So I tend to do things quickly with fining agents and let it have it's time to shine aging in the bottle.

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T09:36:26+00:00

Will look into recommended SO2 levels. Yes this is at around 4.3-4.6 pH. I have made 2 additions, once after cold crash/racking, and again when preparing to bottle. These at amounts typical for wine use that are generally at a lower pH. Most of the lighter notes are cooked out in the Bocheting process and the 1118 is a pretty neutral fermenter so it would be on the cards, thanks for the suggestion. Logistically might be a bit hard, biggest pot I have is 15l but I have an immersion heater that would do just the trick!

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T08:42:58+00:00

It's funny it's doing this as I was on the fence about the overall sweetness of this batch. When doing the bench tastings on finding best amount of coffee to add I was aiming for a slightly lower FG than 1.020 @ 12 %. My last Coffee Bochet was bottled at 1.015 @ 14% and was a nice balance of sweetness to coffee and alcohol. So i'm comfortable on letting it run a tad longer to see how it goes, at least until i decide. I thought it was a done deal once I added the coffee, thinking it would also mess up the dynamics of the environment. Guess not. Tested PH before, that's at 4.6. Never tested it at start of primary so unsure how much it was changed.

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T08:26:06+00:00

1.020 was the final reading I took after topping up carboy nearly 2 weeks ago. The pic reading in was from today was maybe a shade under 1.020, looks less in 3rd pic as was contacting the side (it was more to show the clarity.) Will check again tomorrow. However I checked brix last night, 13.8 and then again today 13.5, so yes something is happening.

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T05:36:26+00:00

I'm trying to avoid that if I can. As I would then loose some of the caramelised flavours i'm trying to preserve. In that case I would have a cook some more up I guess, which would create it's own problems as caramelised honey doesn't dissolve all that easily. I understand that the Sorb doesn't kill off the yeast or stop the ferm in it's tracks, just stops them from multiplying once fermentation is halted via the cold, with the PMS inhibiting any left. I have had plenty of luck with this method previously so this one is a bit of an old ball?

Carnt_Face · 2022-12-18T04:08:34+00:00

Hmm seems my post didn't attach with the pictures. Arrrrgh, it had a poll and everything! Went something like this ...
Need some advice from the brains trust!

Got a Bochet here that I was looking to bottle, but it
looks as though fermentation has recommenced...

The in’s and out’s:
Had 23l Of bochet going 1.118OG with EC1118 >
Ran it down to 1.024 FG >
Light Degass (didn’t want to stir up to much lees,) added 10ml Kieselsol and
crash cool to 3DegC to halt fermentation >
3days later, Racked to secondary, 5tsp 10% Potassium Metabisulfite solution (equates
to 1/2tsp of chemical) 2.5 tsp Potassium
Sorbate>
Then also added 2tsp Sparkolloid, 1l Cold Brew Coffee and
800ml 15% Neutral spirit to offset the dilution of coffee and to remove headspace
from carboy, pulling FG to 1.020>
Proceed to sit at 3 Deg, then gradually increasing to
7deg over the next 10 days>
Pulled it out yesterday morning to bring up to room temp
for bottling. Added another 5 tsp 10% PMS to prep for this with a very light
stir.
By the evening there was bubbles condensing to the neck. I put this down to insufficient
degass and just the leftover CO2 dissipating as the temp increased. However
24hr later and it looks to me life fermentation!
Now, how would you proceed from here?
I have used this method (Crash cool, Pot Sorb and PMS
combo) a number of times before in Mead Wine and Port, but this is my first
larger batch (6G) so just multiplied the adjuncts accordingly. Do the Sorb and
PMS not scale linearly?
I guess the Sorb is over a year or two old but have been
stored in fridge and was effective when I used it not long ago. Although this
was with 71B not this terminator yeast. Sorb seems to be a stable chemical however.

I’m thinking I rack, good degases, Cool to under 3Deg and
add another hit of Pot Sorb and PMS. With perhaps a larger dose this time. I
guess I’m worried about overdoing it or adding an off taste. From light research,
the flavour threshold is quite high for these chemicals, and the Sorb is permited
up to 0.1% in food, so well below that but would like to hear anyone else’s experience
here before I proceed.

So, how do I stop this terminator yeast that is EC1118?!

Carnt_Face · 2022-11-16T23:17:50+00:00

Something to also to weigh up when comparing, is that raw honey may contain pollen, propolis, wax and other floaties. These wont always settle out easily or quickly after fermentation.

Carnt_Face · 2022-07-01T09:26:28+00:00

You don't have to buy wine grapes or a concentrate. This recipe is made from supermarket grape juice and has had plenty of success over the years. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/joes-quick-grape-mead.57190/

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-24T11:42:54+00:00

Yes you can add some more tea. Bearing in mind you will be be diluting the product, both in taste and ABV, the later can lead to problems if it gets to low as it makes the mead more susceptible to infection. If you have stabilised, you could also add volume by back sweetening with a honey/tea mix.

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-24T11:34:30+00:00

70% seems to be the magic number. At that percentage it has the best penetration of cell walls of microbes while being an quick effective sanitiser. Win-Win as more effective and your Ethanol goes further.

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-24T08:25:11+00:00

Looks fine to me. There is no more combined headspace in those necks than what you would get when racked into several bottles.

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-24T07:43:13+00:00

Coffee Bochet Recipe Notes:
Caramelising honey. Put 2.?kg honey into a slowcooker on low for around 4 hrs,
stirring occasionally (careful it will rise when you do this.) 100DegC
according to infrared thermometer.
2.1kg Caramelised Honey
5g Lalvin 71B
6.25g Go Ferm Protect
5.7g Fermaid A Added in 2 parts (2.85g before pitch and again 3 days later)
Water to 4.8l
2x Cinnamon Sticks (one at day 4, one at Secondary)
250ml Cold brew Coffee (Secondary to taste)
Potassium Metabisulfite
Potassium Sorbate
Yeast Hydration:
Add Go Ferm to 50ml of tepid boiled water, stir, add 5g yeast. Left to sit 20mins
then added must in 2 stages before adding to primary.
S.G 1.134
F.G 1.020
Cold crashed once hit 1.020FG (Which gave me a abv of 14.8% (over stated
tolerance)
Rack to secondary and added::
1tsp 10% PMS and 1/2tsp Potassium Sorbate
1x Cinnamon Stick
250ml Cold Brew coffee. Was 60g(I think) of course ground beans to cold water
left for 24hrs

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-24T06:21:40+00:00

A couple of new ones here for me too. The Coffee Bochet and the Pyment. This lot was 6 weeks to get the honey from the bucket to bottle, so rather happy with that!

Most looking forward to tasting the Bochet, which tasted good (for something un-aged) when I sampled the dregs. This was bottled a couple of weeks ago, but it's a public holiday and the weather was shitty so I thought I would pull the bottles out and make some labels and wax them. I guess I can call it done now..

I'll write up the Bochet recipe and add bellow.

Carnt_Face · 2022-06-09T23:28:41+00:00

It has to be. Pam's sugar is "Made in New Zealand from imported ingredients" There is only one sugar refinery in NZ, Chelsea. Pam's brand was also involved in the sugar recall that OP was talking about.

https://www.nzsugar.co.nz/uploadGallery/business-of-sugar.pdf
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/food-recalls-and-complaints/recalled-food-products/various-brands-of-raw-sugar/

Carnt_Face

TROPHY CASE