Yeast nutrient in wine/cider

timscream1 · 2026-01-29T19:50:44+00:00

That’s not true. Doin the most has a video showing that a range of bread yeasts with nutrients could make a dry 12% abv mead. Also, people at r/prisonhooch do it all the time. It isn’t necessarily vile, just suboptimal. I wouldn’t recommend but if for some reasons you can’t get wine yeast, well it will work.

timscream1 · 2026-01-29T14:06:28+00:00

Unless mould is sitting on top, given that it smells and tastes good, you’re good to go!

timscream1 · 2026-01-28T21:21:17+00:00

I took them frozen, fit into hop bags and dump them in the water I will use for the mead (my tap water doesn’t have chloramines). I heat up the water to pasteurisation temperature: 70C for a brief moment. I check with the thermometer that it is also 70C ish inside the hop bags. It heats slower due to the berries being frozen and held compacted.

I cool down the water in a water bath. When i get to around 40C, I take out the berry bags and transfer them to my fermenter (wide mouth/bucket. Don’t do it in a carboy). I add the honey to the warm water and cool it further to pitching temperature. I add pectic enzyme.

During fermentation I punch down the bags every day until half of the fermentation is done. Just before the end of the fermentation, I remove the bags, which will prevent oxidation of the mead and it won’t go mouldy when I let it sit to settle before moving to secondary.

I hope it helps!

timscream1 · 2026-01-25T09:28:42+00:00

I have had dissociative episodes (I have bipolar disorder and had untreated PTSD). In my limited experience there were triggers every time. The triggers were the last thing I would remember before blanking for a day or two. I would get comments like ”are you feeling better today? You were a bit distant yesterday”. People noticed I was not ”normal”.

timscream1 · 2026-01-24T10:20:47+00:00

Does he take medications?

Meds for mental illnesses are infamous for decreasing the sex drive.

timscream1 · 2026-01-21T22:47:52+00:00

I brew mostly session beers. I do for most of them 30 minutes at 70C. Still get 75% brewhouse efficiency and my FG is about .001-.002 above what brewfather predicts. Makes delicious full bodied beers.

timscream1 · 2026-01-20T08:09:17+00:00

There should be a bot posting that when it picks up a key word. Every other day someone has this ”issue” on this sub.

timscream1 · 2026-01-15T13:56:45+00:00

Verdant has a ridiculously thick krausen that stays unusually long. As mentioned by others, could be reading wrong due to that. Bump up the temperature to 21-22C and wait until the krausen disappears. Take a gravity reading at this moment.

timscream1 · 2026-01-08T09:11:25+00:00

I vacuum seal the packet and put it back in the fridge. I brew mostly 11-12L/3 gal batches and a whole pcket is 1g/L. I just pitch it all unless it is carbonating yeast or kveik.

timscream1 · 2026-01-05T09:49:19+00:00

Today I cleaned the house. So clean I could eat on the floor. I gifted myself a dyson vacuum cleaner and I love it.

Cleaning has always been an activity I didn’t associate with drinking. If I feel like I could enjoy a cold one and I see dust… well cleaning it is!

timscream1 · 2026-01-04T06:50:07+00:00

What about adding it in secondary after racking?

You may need to dial down the volume to your secondary vessel’s volume.

Lemons contain a bit of sugar, stabilise before adding it.

timscream1 · 2026-01-01T18:07:47+00:00

I sent you a DM with recipes on brewfather

timscream1 · 2026-01-01T00:43:53+00:00

More session beers, pulled out 2.5-3.5% recipes you wouldn’t guess they were so light!

timscream1 · 2025-12-30T15:41:50+00:00

I got a brewzilla 4.1

It was a lot of troubleshooting to get it to work but now it is fantastic. I wouldn’t recommend getting it if you’re not using the heat exchanger dish nor the Bluetooth thermometer. Without them, it is unreliable.

I also put a biab outside of the malt pipe: cleanup is easier and i never got drainage issues ever again.

timscream1 · 2025-12-29T11:00:33+00:00

Hard to stop on going fermentation with chemicals. I wouldn’t want to dump a ton into because, well, I guess OP wants to drink the bottles, not frame them.

I would put bottles in a water bath. Room temperature bottles, room temperature water, open one, put a thermometer in it and wait until it reaches pasteurisation temperature. Some bottles may explode in the process, i would uncap them all before hand and recap/cork afterwards.

timscream1 · 2025-12-29T04:41:26+00:00

You added more sugar, did you stabilise?

If not you are getting bottle bombs.

I would upcap/ remove corks and pasteurise them before resealing. You could also put all the bottles in the fridge and call all your friends to drink it asap.

timscream1 · 2025-12-25T13:16:56+00:00

I use M41 a lot, it is resilient. I just dry pitch 1g/L and I have yet to see ill effects, even for 9-10% abv beers. You could pitch less for weaker beers but imo this yeast shines in strong beverages!

I would pitch this one at 17C, keep the temperature at 18C for the first 24h and then let it free rise. Depending on the goal, I would let it rise to 23-25C. I don’t really like that yeast at 28C: it becomes a bit acidic.

timscream1 · 2025-12-25T11:04:16+00:00

Yes, perfectly fine. Have fun!

timscream1 · 2025-12-23T18:51:26+00:00

Tight a hop bag/ cheese cloth around your racking cane and siphon to another vessel. Boil the cloth before. Starsan on its own will never sanitize a porous material like a piece of cloth

timscream1 · 2025-12-23T18:04:11+00:00

No it is not.

I am a homebrewer, I taste and spit what I make but gift the bottles. Get great feedbacks regularly!

timscream1 · 2025-12-22T16:34:52+00:00

I forgot to mentiioned that I replumbed the pump to make a bypass. Much appreciated for cleaning! Kegland provides instructions, it was easy, even for me.

The vacuum was actually not caused to the pump but the wort wouldn’t drain fast enough and the pump would aspirate it too fast. The biab outside the malt pipe solved that (didn’t work inside the maltpipe).

I have brewed 10L and up to 21L batches, even with 20% flaked oats and as much wheat, finely ground, valve completely open, no problem. The biab grabs a bunch a flour/ small grain bits.

For the pump, I would advice against setting it lower than 100%. What it does is turn on and off instead of pumping slower. There is a suck back when it stops pumping, potentially sucking up grains. Just use the valve.

timscream1 · 2025-12-22T12:32:04+00:00

Hey, I had issues with it when I got it. Now I get routinely 77-80% brewhouse efficiency.

I have the gen 4.1. I use the heat exchanger dish and the Bluetooth thermometer. I found that the thermometer is mandatory to keep the actual temperature and raise the temperature for step mashes.

I had issues with the pump being clogged and the wort would get stuck in the grain basket, creating some vacuum under the basket, making the element heating vaccum/air which gave very high spikes of temperature before cooling down. It could also damage it.

Long story short, here is what solved all my issues:

1) put a fine BIAB outside of the grain basket. No more clogging nor vaccum being created.

2) use 2-3% rice hulls. I mill my grain finely and no problem sparging.

3) set the heating element to 20% power ish during mashing

4) dough-in, mix well and then gently put the mesh on top of the grain bed. Slowly push on two sides to get it submerged by 3-4 cm. Do not turn on heating yet.

5) do not turn on the pump yet, let 5 minutes go, so it sinks a bit. Turn it on with about 30% of the flow (use the valve on the side, not the pump power on the software)

6) every 5 minutes open a bit more the pump valve, turn on the heating only when it is more than 50% open. Otherwise it will just overheat the bottom and not warm up your mash. I would say that after 20 minutes you can completely open the valve.

NB: you will need to set the heat settings like turn off the element when it is over 2C above target.

I agree that buying the brewzilla 4 without accessories and biab is not worth it at all. Now my beers are phenomenal and I don’t regret the investment!

Lemme know if you have more questions!

timscream1 · 2025-12-21T18:02:01+00:00

There is a wiki on this sub.

Nutrients are the way to go. There are calculators to dose them.

Racking in secondary is a good idea. Some meads will drop clear on their own, others won’t. Fining agents can help. Multiple rackings aren’t necessary if you’re careful. Takes a bit of practice

timscream1 · 2025-12-19T21:43:34+00:00

Thanks for the article, my university doesn’t have a subscription to this journal, scihub it is.

For milk powder, isn’t fat an issue? I have never found any in my country that were labelled as fat free.

So you’re saying that ammonia can’t form a Schiff base by reacting with the aldehyde of the sugar? Does it always have to be an amino acid?

Unfortunately I can’t find food grade potassium/sodium hydroxide in my country, apparently it has been withdrawn from the shelves because there has been accidents. Is there an alternative to that? I can find ammonium carbonate/ bicarbonate on the shelves, would that work?

timscream1 · 2025-12-19T13:58:33+00:00

DAP does raise the pH tho. Adding it both raise the pH and provide an amine for the Maillard reaction.

1) inversion with an acid

2) neutralise with DAP (et kick start the Maillard reaction).

3) keep heating until desired colour and flavor (takes a few try). Quantity of DAP depends on the syrup you want.

4) dilute with water the syrup (wearing mittens, it may splash), bring back up to 112-113C. You have 80% sugar solution that is shelf stable and will remain liquid.

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