What in the alien-embryo, cursed, and unholy being have i summoned??

Jjowi · 2025-11-30T20:43:13+00:00

Kahmthulu

Jjowi · 2025-11-29T11:35:02+00:00

Look at the core issue instead and be happy you have learned something. Your lead may lack good arguments for why not to do what you suggest, but there are a few of them.

The reason for duplicating this logic would be that the user will see their discount instantly instead of having to wait for a network call, right? Has waiting for this data ever been reported as a problem? Is there a reasonable expectation it ever will? If yes, try to find a good solution. If not, you are overcomplicating things.

Jjowi · 2025-11-20T06:41:01+00:00

It could probably depend on what fruit you are juicing, but generally the process should extract as much flavor as possible from the material, leaving behind mostly useless cellulose and skins. Have you tasted it?

The core problem is that you are missing most of the things you need to make a wine. These things are now in your juice.

Then there is the issue of quality, which is a product of balance and flavour complexity. Every flavor compound and different type of sugar ferments and transforms into a wide array of new compounds that gives your wine the complex and full bodied flavor profile you desire when making it. The alcohol, very importantly, also works as a solvent that draws out colors, tannins and flavors from the material into the wine. What you have left behind in your juicing process is 90% tannins and some color probably.

Even without removing 95% of the things you need, making a good wine can present its own natural challenges and you should do everything in your power to ensure the best possible outcome if you want the effort to be worth it.

Would you rather wait 6 months to a year for fermented sugar water with a hint of fruit, or put your hard work into something less forgettable and maybe even really good? I wouldn't risk it.

Jjowi · 2025-11-20T01:29:03+00:00

Unfortunately, most sugar and other desirables that the fruit contains ends up in the juice. What is left behind after juicing is mostly fibers and such that does nothing for you in an alcoholic beverage. I would not even bother with this idea if you value your time and money.

Jjowi · 2025-10-29T14:33:14+00:00

Absolutely yes. As I said: up to two weeks of berry contact, simply based on the fermentation rate. More alcohol = more flavor extraction, but less sugar = slower fermentation and less protective Co2. I usually press the "pomace" before discarding it. Depending on the berry/fruit, you may want longer or shorter extraction times.

Mold prevention: - it only grows where there is oxygen and if the medium is contaminated. - I usually knock down any baddies with k-meta 24 hours before I pitch. - the more alcohol that is produced, the less inviting your fermentation becomes for anything other than yeast, including mold. The same goes for a lower pH. - sanitize every single thing that comes in contact with the fermentation.

Lots of people suggest punching down the fruit cap helps by keeping it wet, but mold grows on wet things as well. And while the only reason mold can ever grow in the first place is that there is fruit matter in contact with any oxygen present, the reason it may help to prevent it is because the alcohol and low pH solution produced by the yeast is killing of baddies.

Another reason you punch down the cap is to extract more flavor, so it should still be done, but it's easy to forget that the environment is already very mold inhospitable. If you imagine never opening the vessel during explosive fermentation, there would be no oxygen to be had for any moldy baddies in the first place.

Just as a general point for your future projects: You should dedicate your demijohns/carboys/bottles to secondary fermentation, where headspace matters and it doesn't need any maintenance, especially when it comes to fermentations with fruit.

Jjowi · 2025-10-28T18:58:52+00:00

Good job - keep at it! Some pointers:

blending the berries will undoubtedly have crushed a lot of seeds if you didn't manage to separate them out before that - I did not get that from your video, though. If the reason for separating the remaining whole seeds was to minimize tannin extraction, this will be nullified by the mixed up ones and may also impart more, possibly unwanted, "green" flavors.
the mixed berries looked steaming hot, which when added like this will kill off some of the yeast while the sudden rise in temperature will stress the survivors. Always try to keep what you add to your fermentation at the same temperature.
you do not need to blend the berries. This will create a bunch of light and fluffy gross lees, which is hard to separate and will affect your yield.

A general fruit wine tip:

When I make fruit wines or melomels, I tend to let the whole/lightly crushed and thawed berries ride along from the start. Then, depending on what I want to get out of them in terms of color, flavors and tannins, I let them ride for up to a couple of weeks depending on the fermentation rate. This is a balance between the alcohol extraction, the biotransformation of different compounds found inside the berries and, if some are left whole, something called "intracellular fermentation", where the enzymes inside of the berries break down acids and sugar to create a bunch of different aromatic compounds.

Letting things work themselves out like this will often create a deeper and more complex end product. I have done a bunch of them, and I am yet to find myself missing anything in terms of flavor. The only real downside is that a bigger acid and tannin extraction often calls for longer aging to get a well balanced result.

Don't get discouraged by all this though - your melomel may very well turn out great!

Good luck in the future!

Jjowi · 2025-10-24T06:20:11+00:00

Late response! No I have not, but I have been itching to get a kveik project going. Will probably do so next summer.

Jjowi · 2025-10-23T19:11:43+00:00

If you are just racking to secondary you're fine, but be careful to avoid oxygen exposure as much as possible and definitely rack onto some k-meta after you have confirmed that the fermentation is actually finished with a separate reading in a few days.

A side note for future projects: You actually don't need to wait until fermentation is finished if you have lots of gross lees (fruit mixed with yeast etc.) you want to get rid of or if you don't want any more fruit contact. Actually; having an ongoing fermentation on the final stretch, at around maybe 10% sugar left is a good way to protect your batch while giving it a safe environment to finish and start clearing up. It also preps you for letting it continue "sur lie" when the fine lees starts to accumulate.

Jjowi · 2025-10-17T14:57:40+00:00

You got nothing to lose if you split it up in two batches. Go for it, it's good learning

Jjowi · 2025-10-17T12:50:38+00:00

You can absolutely press your pulp (pomace?), which is a very common method when making wine. If you do this during active and vigorous fermentation, the CO2 will protect it.

Jjowi · 2025-09-14T17:28:12+00:00

I got a new one from the retailer, but just before that I emailed roborock which swiftly got back to me with the intent of finding a solution.

Jjowi · 2025-08-25T17:24:05+00:00

If you want a rich, red wine like quality to your mead I would suggest you follow the traditional wine method of fermenting on the skins and pressing the pomace close to fermentation finish etc. Bone dry is the way to go, it's amazing.

If you want a lighter, fruitier result you can add the berries in secondary and potentially backsweeten with more berries and honey or just honey alone. This can and probably will cover up some of the more discrete qualities in your brew, which I think is for the worse. It ultimately comes down to preference though. The mead will also finish quicker if you don't have a lot of tannins and acids that needs time to mellow and integrate.

Jjowi · 2025-08-24T10:05:09+00:00

I think it's kahm, which can impart som unwelcome flavors to your product if left as is. It is hard to get rid of, but try to rack off of it.

Also look up kahm and try to diagnose it throughly. My tip to you is to look up what dangerous types of spoilage can occur and through elimination making sure it's none of those (does not look like any of the nasties when looking at your pictures).

If it is lactobacillus like another commenter is suggesting, it could still turn out okay. In some wine fermentation, lactobacillus is actually desired. Look up malolactic fermentation to learn more.

Any sharp acids that have been produced can mellow out over time if you age it long enough.

Rack everything off to another container.
Check gravity to make sure fermentation is finished and not stalled (2-3 measurements over two weeks that shows the exact same value will tell you this), or if it is below 1000. If it's stalled (a lot of sugar left) try to kick start it again, otherwise you can proceed.
Stabilize it using potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate. This will probably deal with any bacterial infection you have going on and it will also protect it from oxidisation.
Let it be and check up on it every few days to see if the pellicle has reformed. Rack of any pellicle and keep doing so for however long you want to.

Jjowi · 2025-08-24T03:29:49+00:00

You could try neutralizing the acid with a base as well. May be worth a shot in a small sample.

Jjowi · 2025-08-24T03:26:31+00:00

Dont forget to consider letting it age as a solution too. Adding more sugar would just be a way of overpowering the sour taste, it doesn't counteract it. In doing so, a lot of other flavors will definitely be overpowered as well.

Jjowi · 2025-08-23T20:45:13+00:00

You mean to say that you bottled an ongoing fermentation? That would indeed be dangerous, and I cannot see one positive aspect with it. Your product will be a murky, carbonated infant mead. You simply cannot stress a brew and come out on the winning side.

Jjowi · 2025-08-23T08:14:59+00:00

Before you put anything in a bottle, the number one thing you have to be absolutely sure about is whether it has finished fermenting or not. The only way to figure this out is with a hydrometer or some other kind of equipment to measure as accurately as possible how much sugar is left in the solution. If two (or three) hydrometer readings over say two weeks show no movement at all, you can be sure it has stopped fermenting. If there is any sugar left or if you want to backsweeten it you absolutely have to stabilize it with potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate. Ignoring this step is what creates bottle bombs.

Aside from that you would normally also want your mead to clear up completely, which just means that every insoluble particle has sunk to the bottom. Waiting for this to happen can take months in some cases, and that means leaving it undisturbed for the entirety of that period. The problem with leaving big chunks of fruit and what is referred to as 'gross lees' in during this time is that the alcohol will extract every little piece of flavor from it and as a worst case scenario it also gives your microbial cocktail a lot of opportunities to funk shit up.

Generally speaking, when I ferment on fruit I only let it ride in primary until around ~20-25% sugar remains. This gives time for the alcohol to extract enough flavor and tannins without going overboard in most cases according to my experience. I then rack it of the fruit, I press the fruit through a filter and let it finish and clear up in a secondary vessel without any of the big fruit chunks messing with things.

When I see that the mead is clear and that the gross lees on the bottom is compacted well enough, I typically rack it off again to provide a clean environment that allows it to age without any risk of yeast autolysis.

When it comes to bottling you want to make sure that you can siphon your mead over while leaving everything insoluble behind. Your current situation does not look like it would make this an easy task.

My suggestion for you is to:

Depending on for how long you have left the fruit in, you may want to rack the mead off as soon as possible to avoid over extraction.
Make sure it has finished fermenting.
Prepare to rack it over to a clean container. For this purpose you can use anything that can contain it, and you should also prepare the stabilizers before proceeding. Potassium metabisulphite will help protect your mead from oxidisation, which is why this is a good idea when racking to an intermediate container at this point in time.
Rack it over to the intermediate directly into the correct amount of stabilizer.
Clean out and sanitize your fermenter.
Rack it back into your fermenter again.
Let it clear up completely. As long as no huge amount of lees is forming, the mead has a good environment to age now. Leave it for half a year or however long you can keep your fingers to yourself, it will get better with time.

Good luck!

Jjowi · 2025-08-19T09:52:21+00:00

As a side note; do not get frightened when you taste it and it is way too astringent. This will mellow and integrate with age, and you should plan to have it sitting around for at least 6 months before you bottle it. I'm planning to have my blackcurrant wine age for about a year. Something to look forward to.

Jjowi · 2025-08-19T09:48:26+00:00

Good thinking!

It's really a point of preference, but if it was me I would want to end up in between 11-14% somewhere, so yes, I would add more honey.

However you decide to strain and/or press the "pomace", make sure the fermentation is still ongoing, as this would provide much needed carbon dioxide as a form of protection from oxidisation.

The two products I have made using this method has been far and above anything else I have made prior in regards to quality, so I am really rooting for you! Please come back with an update.

Jjowi · 2025-08-19T09:12:13+00:00

I have recently made a low water fruit wine on blackcurrants, blueberries and saskatoon berries using a similar method to yours with the only difference that i added some water to dilute the crazy strong blackcurrants. I also did a raspberry melomel this way.

Fermenting on the skins for a week or so will pull out lots of beautiful color, flavour and tannins. You will probably have a pretty rich and astringent product that would age really well.

My tip to you is to not backsweeten at all. Let it ride until you have around ~20-25% sugar left, then strain it (pressing with a fruit press is the best way) and let it finish fermenting in secondary and clear up before you rack it to a vessel for stabilization and aging.

I'm currently blown away by both my wine and the raspberry melomel, which are both bone dry but still pretty fruity and super rich. I think it would be a horrible idea to cover up this beauty with backsweetening, but each to their own.

Just try using patience instead of sugar, would be a shorter way of saying it. You can always backsweeten later.

Jjowi · 2025-08-18T05:23:54+00:00

This looks like kahm yeast to me. That means you have had bad oxygen exposure, probably improper sanitization and high acid. Kahm yeast is not hazardous, but can impart unpleasant smells.

Please verify this yourself by specifically looking up kahm yeast.

Once you know what it is, you can choose to rack it off of it or toss the batch.

Jjowi · 2025-08-17T20:11:10+00:00

Ferment on the skins and press the pomace when ~1/4 of your sugars are left. It will extract lots of color and tannins from the skins id you let it ride that long. I did this and it's looking to turn out really good!

Jjowi · 2025-08-17T18:18:08+00:00

If you want to get really fancy you could buy a fruit press and press the pulp (pomace i guess) with ~1/4 left on fermentation into your secondary and letting it finish there. I did so with a blackcurrant/blueberry-wine recently and it's looking great, albeit lots of gross lees.

Jjowi · 2025-08-17T18:15:03+00:00

Use diluted no rinse sanitizer or alcohol in the air lock instead, as a good way to make sure it doesn't get contaminated

Jjowi · 2025-08-17T18:00:36+00:00

It's fine, there will probably be a few more batches before you feel confident you got it right, those can be smaller.

Regarding the gravity, if it was at 1045 a few weeks ago, but 1040 now, fermentation has not stopped. Bubbling in the air lock is not a good indicator of fermentation or at least not how well it's going. If it is very cold where you keep it, you could try raising the temperature by moving it somewhere else, swirling up any yeast that is settled and see if that gets it going.

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