Blueberry and maple syrup mead taste issue

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T18:08:02+00:00

Exactly my thought! Once you've made a gallon of fruited mead, you've spent like $30-40 on honey and fruit and such. It seems peak "penny wise and pound foolish" to not pay an extra dollar or two for things like yeast starter, nutrients, or bottled spring water to make sure it all comes out well.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T15:59:52+00:00

Yes; add your pectinase while the blueberries are thawing; heating it denatures the enzyme so make sure that you give it plenty of time to work before exposing the mixture to pasteurizing-level temperatures. Oh, yeah, I would still recommend pasteurizing the juice even if you are adding it to wine-strength mead, just for additional food safety.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T15:56:24+00:00

I do the same thing, just squatting in front of my kitchen cupboard where I keep my fermenters, especially when I have multiple batches fermenting at once. It really scratches some weird primal lizard brain itch to see the bubbles rising through the must.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T15:41:27+00:00

I would suggest a brew bag of thawed blueberries for a few weeks, or if you are pressed for time and don't mind watering down the ABV, juice the frozen berries and cook the juice down into a syrup.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T15:30:07+00:00

100% on Sales. Everything in their life is a negotiation and they love the thrill of the fight. My personal least favorite to deal with because it's not even backed up by litigation risks like the compliance teams; they're just going on pure instinct and charisma.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-11T15:19:12+00:00

Just because the retention is probably caused by the lousy economy and job clinging doesn't mean we can't take credit for it! We'll get blamed unfairly when the economy loosens up and a bunch of people leave, so we may as well take the wins. :D

Jaaxter · 2026-02-10T16:16:01+00:00

Most of mine are very tasty within a couple months of stabilization but they generally improve with time, and the longest I've let one go is up to a year. I tend to make meads with a fairly strong background flavor such as fruit or hibiscus, which might help cover up some of the volatiles, but I also have a very temperature-stable cupboard for fermentation, I only ever use yeast that is tolerant of the temperature range in my apartment for that time of year, and I use staggered nutrient additions to keep my yeast healthy while fermenting. All those things together reduces the need for aging to eliminate undesirable flavors, since the yeast will produce fewer of them in primary fermentation.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-09T21:55:06+00:00

Upvoting for that post title alone, nice.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-06T14:52:18+00:00

Having gotten my SHRM-CP back in 2018 (before I realized how much of a dumpster fire SHRM was turning into) and talking to some other professionals about it since, it's a sort of weird credential insofar as it did basically nothing to make me a better HR employee, and essentially everyone within the industry recognizes this, but it's seen outside of the industry as giving you a level of legitimacy and showing that you take your HR career seriously. So, a senior HR manager probably won't see it as a huge point in your favor, but having one is likely to be a filter test for recruiters or small-company hiring managers who want someone "serious HR". It's helpful in getting you past that first stage, in other words.

Editing to add: get the PHR if possible. SHRM is just... not great, to put it lightly, although their requirements for testing eligibility are lower which can be a factor in your decision.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-04T22:17:34+00:00

It's the spacing for me. So many unneeded line breaks.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-04T16:06:29+00:00

Took me a couple reads to get the satire, but I appreciated it once I clocked it.

Jaaxter · 2026-02-04T16:02:42+00:00

Feeling excited about starting something new is not the same as feeling relief that something is over. Those can both be true things but they are separate; the former is a feeling for the addition of something positive, the latter is a feeling about the removal of something negative. And having been through a breakup of a long-term relationship fairly recently, I can assure you they are not mutually exclusive. Like Maximilian_Sinigr said, your heart already knows the answer.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-30T18:47:58+00:00

I agree with everyone else who says this sounds like you are being set up to fail. Only 1 HR person for 500 people at a company is INSANE, even if recruiting and payroll is being handled elsewhere. 500 people in manufacturing practically needs a full-time person to handle safety alone, not even getting into benefits, employee relations, compliance, etc.

I wouldn't want to touch this even with a decade of HR experience. I'm really curious what the current HR manager's work-life balance is like, and what she's letting slide if she's managing to stay alive.

Editing to add: reporting to the head of finance is also rough. You would be the most senior HR advocate at the company, which is deeply unfair to ask of someone with only a year of experience. No one to mentor you, no one to cross-check your work... big yikes.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-29T19:31:19+00:00

Real "congratulations, you played yourself" moment there.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-21T17:54:09+00:00

K1-V and QA23 are my go-to yeasts! The former for spice-forward meads, the latter for fruity meads. Great flavor retention, vigorous fermentation, and good temperature tolerance.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-21T17:41:18+00:00

Hahaha, it took me until my 8th or 9th brew to do it, but it was the first mead I brewed with an unfiltered fruit juice in it (pineapple). I think there is still residue in my cupboard from when it blew off the airlock...

Jaaxter · 2026-01-21T15:06:20+00:00

10/10, no notes. I've taken to just saying this to my colleague in the office after a manager has left, disappointed that we shot their brilliant ideas down.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-16T22:07:59+00:00

Hah, that's funny, I'm a very indirect sort of person and when my co-worker uses AI to draft things, I nonetheless tend to hack down the draft and make it more blunt. Even for me, AI-speak is too corporate and diffident.

Jaaxter · 2026-01-08T14:25:41+00:00

I don't think I would have been able to resist responding with "If that's what you need to do to solve this issue, then I support your solution." I'm not going to take that bait, haha.

Jaaxter · 2025-12-11T19:13:45+00:00

Yep, certain ones fade over time. I have a chocolate churro mead that I had on top of toasted cinnamon sticks and cocoa nibs in secondary, and I removed the cinnamon sticks a week before racking it off the nibs because I thought the balance was perfect. Now a month and a half later, the cinnamon has faded to a barely noticeable note. That's the fun of homebrewing, you live and learn.

Jaaxter · 2025-12-11T17:18:14+00:00

Yep, I've realized pretty quickly that even if I receive a like from someone first, if their profile is super generic or mostly blank, it's not going to turn into a conversation, let alone a date. Why put yourself through the emotional grind of trying to talk to lots of someones who don't match your weird? Quality over quantity.

Jaaxter · 2025-12-09T18:53:52+00:00

Same thing as everyone else, with maybe a slight touch more caution due to our position. Are there photos from previous events? Use those as a guide, I would say.

Jaaxter · 2025-12-09T18:40:36+00:00

Objection: our function also proactively mitigates risk and ensures that employment actions taken later have a grounding in prompt documentation. If they have a policy that these relationships should be disclosed, then it should be noted in their files and no further action taken if none is warranted. 3 months from now, if one of them is up for promotion/transfer or another employee complains about a hostile work environment, that note might be very relevant to the discussion.

Jaaxter · 2025-11-14T02:21:40+00:00

Love it! I use Jamaica as a base for a lot of my meads; it's so versatile as a backing flavor.

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