So black teas are a very common thing to add to meads as they contribute tannins which can help with mouthfeel and balancing acidity of the final beverage. This tea in particular (Lapsang Souchong) is a smoked tea and so as well as adding tannins to the mead, also contributes as wonderful smokey flavour. My inspiration for this mead several years ago was to make something that had a similar flavour profile to a nice peated scotch. The maple syrup was allowed to fully ferment out to leave just a subtle woody-ness and it works in conjunction with the tea and oak spirals I aged the mead on to provide a pseudo-barrel aged taste to the final product.

I usually use 88% Lactic Acid. As a second choice I would pick Phosphoric Acid (usually comes as 10%). If you can find a stronger phosphoric acid then it’s probably the better choice as I think it has a lower taste threshold than lactic but it’s really fairly negligible between the 2. Citric acid has an extremely noticeable taste (think sour candy like warheads) and carbonic acid is a weak acid which is usually found in beer as the result of dissolved CO2.

How does she feel about “The return of the son of monster magnet”

I’ve seen people degas wine in a glass carboy using VacuVin style pumps before so I’m sure you could Jerry-rig something up for a bucket. See here for an example of what I’m talking about.

Yes. You can mash (as in enzymatically convert starches to sugars, not as in mashed-potatoes) any gourd (think pumpkin, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes). They tend not to add too much noticeable flavor to a beer (just a general earthiness and some color contribution) so it’s often recommended to oven roast them a little first to get some caramelization. Here is a recipe that uses sweet potatoes.

Such a great album opener. I love when people are hearing it for the first time and turn up the volume to hear the intro better and then, well, you know…

So I have previously posted about the two (!) brewdays I had for my entry (a 10+% A.B.V. Oat-Wine) to my Homebrew Club’s annual fundraising event, Brewminaries Present: Cornucopia. Batch 1 accidentally shot up to 89°F overnight but instead of just dumping it, I decided to let it ride to see if it was salvageable and brewed again (batch 2) with a different yeast and an insulated jacket I could add ice packs to. Well batch 1 was still tasting super hot a few weeks into “conditioning” so I decided to throw in a pack of Omega Yeast Brett Blend 3 and just see what happened whilst I added some Biofine to batch 2 and let it cold condition in the keg. The event is still a few weeks away so hopefully batch 1 develops some funk before then and I can serve it alongside batch 2 which I’m actually happy with how it turned out. Regardless, If you are around in NYC on October 14th and want to try this beer (and many many more) come buy tickets to the event!

I’ll make another post in the community for more visibility, but here is the ticket link for the event. It’s going to be on Saturday, October 14th from 1-5PM at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 77.

I would say the reason something like TOSNA goes against the manufacturer’s directions is because the manufacturer just provide a “generic” usage recommendation (e.g. 1.5g per gallon or 1/2 tsp per gallon) when they amount you use should absolutely be customized to the batch you are making. I would argue that the most important part of TOSNA isn’t the fact that the nitrogen sources are “Organic” (although I do firmly believe that organic nitrogen sources (i.e from dead yeast cells) that do not contain DAP lead to fewer temperature spikes from rapid fermentation and therefore produce far fewer fusel alcohols and therefore require less aging time to “mellow”), but that it is the fact that it is a “Tailored” protocol, taking into consideration not only the total volume of must, but the gravity of that must, the nitrogen requirements of the yeast being used for the fermentation, whether there is fruit being added which would reduce the extraneous nitrogen required to be added for healthy fermentation etc.

I would guess YAN is more important because what’s the point of having free nitrogen if the yeast can’t actually utilise it.

I’ve never done experiments between SNA and front loading all the nutrients. I don’t find the staggered additions difficult to do or a burden and I’m typically degassing/oxygenating anyway for the first few days. Plus it gives me an opportunity to take samples and see how fermentation is progressing.

Sure it’s technically more work than the one and done method of front loading but not enough of an added burden that it’s too much effort to bother.

I don’t often use nutrients when I’m brewing beer unless I’m making a big beer (>8% A.B.V.) and I want to ensure a nice healthy fermentation. I do however use nutrients every single time I make cider/wine/mead since the fermentables here do not provide enough FAN (Free Amino Nitrogen) and so without them fermentation is sluggish, throws off a ton of sulfur and often requires a long conditioning/aging time to get to a point where I would want to drink it.

As for the actual nutrients I use, for beers I will use Wyeast Beer Nutrient Blend and for mead I rehydrate dry yeast with Go-Ferm and do a Staggered Nutrient Addition of Fermaid O over the first 4 days of fermentation along with oxygenating/degassing with pure O2 through a sintered stone.

Baconeater eat bacon. Bacon tasty!

They look like Yorkshire Puddings so I would guess they taste pretty similar. They are savoury and don’t taste of too much by themselves (but are fantastic smothered in gravy)

Yup that’s a wheat beer all right! As a matter of habit I always use a blow off tube for the first few days of fermenting a wheat heavy beer.

I don’t notice anything super out of the ordinary. The poppet does appear to be more depressed than usual (they usually sit flush with the top of the post) but if anything I would think that it would be more likely to flow normally in this state (rather than not pour properly). I’m glad the new post seems to be working at least!

I mean you could remove the dip tube but then you are opening up the beer to oxygen and potential contamination. Blasting gas through the liquid post can help clear clogs without opening up the keg. You can check for leaks by spraying the posts and the lid with either starsan or just soapy water.

Hmm. I would personally try blasting some CO₂ through the liquid post to clear out any blockages.

You basically don’t need any real pressure in order to force liquid out of the keg it’s just that if the pressure in the headspace is lower than the equilibrium pressure of the carbonation, then gas will come out of solution in the beer as it pours and it will go flat. If you pull the manual pressure relief and hear gas escaping then the beer should absolutely pour which again seems to suggest that something on the liquid side is clogged. Did you dry hop the beer in the keg?

Yeah that sounds a lot like a clogged dip tube or poppet. My bet is on the poppet. You can clear a blockage fairly easily (at the downside of stirring up all the trub at the bottom of the keg) by switching the quick disconnects on your gas line to be liquid quick connects and blasting some CO₂ down the liquid dip tube.

To get the poppets out just takes a bit of force. I usually use a screwdriver from on top to direct the force and hit it gently with a mallet. The poppet comes right out.

Out of interest what temperature is the beer at? Also is this keg the only one you have trouble with? i.e. are you able to carb other beers fine in a different keg?

Regardless, changing the keg posts will probably do the trick.