City Steading drinking game: drink when Brian makes a pun about terrible/tearable packets. Drink when he says That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Drink when he talks about the calculator his teacher said he'd never have. Drink when he looks confused when Derica makes a joke or quotes a movie.
You forgot shaking the bejeezus out of it. Should have seen my husbands face when he asked what I was doing and I said I was shaking the bejeezus out of it 😂
I cant thank you two enough for all the effort you put into each recipe you demonstrate for the channel. It gave me a lot of confidence to start my own batch of brew. Seeing the visual of how the brew looks as the weeks move along help me know what to expect at each stage of fermenting/conditioning. I know I would have been more inclined to fuss and fuss and fuss when patience seems to be the operative word in this hobby. Thank you again.
My wife and our family live in north Idaho now after relocating from Kodiak, Alaska. We watched your videos for 2.5-3 years before we made our first mead 2 months ago. We started with the Spicy Metheglin 2.0 because if you're gonna go for it. Go for it. You said if it was your first Mead, maybe dont do this one. However, we did everything you did exactly, with 2 or tree beers involved, and we had 1.140 OG which I know is high. After 6 weeks its 18.9% and I feel you would give it between a 6-8 on clarity. I think your videos are a testament to how, not easy, but manageable the home fermentation process can be. It was so much fun for my wife and I. We currently have Vikings Blood 2.0 going on the dried cherry phase, Meadowsweet almost 3 weeks in and we did a HUCKLEBERRY mead following the blueberry mead recipe. Thank you both for everything you do and giving couples something new to do together! Skoll!!
Hey guys, what a great learning experience and man I laughed a lot. I was a chef for 25 years and I asked what is now a stupid question about your baster. I only asked because I’ve never used one before. I did things old school. This was a great eye opener video. Again I learnt a lot. We have a four day weekend for Easter this week so it’s go time for me. I’m going to make cider and mead. I couldn’t be happier and because of the way you guys make your videos it’s made things much easier. Nice one. Cheers guys 🇦🇺
And you’re back!! Thanks so much for the return of the longer video format. This is probably not a brew that I’ll try BUT the information is there along with your personalities! Very entertaining and I look forward to the next one! 👍
Wow! I'm supper happy to see a brew that needs a lot of adjustments! It really puts forward a "if it ain't moldy, don't dump it out, you can make something out of this" mentality. Great learning experience!
I had a similar situation with a muscadine mead I am making. After second racking the sweetness wasn’t there so I added honey to sweeten. I let this sit for a week to clear up and to test to make sure fermentation was over when I noticed small patches of bubbles on top of it. Lo and behold it’s bubbling a little. Cant wait to take another reading when the bubbling stops to see what it picks up in the ABV.
I've been brewing for years. You guys are great! Truly beginner friendly. Literally the only brew supply not ordinarily found in the home is an airlock. But those are readily available anywhere (including Amazon), and usually cost less than a jug of juice. Great job friends!
I started using the fruit from the brews to make vinegar; in hopes to give to chickens. It turns out to make great combinations of vinegar; a few are wine vinegars that are amazing. I have yet to give it to chickens as I'm not sure if its alcoholic safe for them but it all composts. Strawberry banana vinegar is very yummy to cook with. Fyi. Mead vinegars might be more for cooking than cleaning. I only had a cherry Mead vinegar but found honey stayed sweeter in that vinegar.
ok thanks. my hubby Brian looked at your recipe and made it with fruit in first then he decided to sit down and watch the video and realized he should have watched first. So we made today with the fruit in. Wish us luck. We are newbies to this
i just made a blueberry banana mead and it was absolutely delicious. my next one was going to be strawnana now i dont have to make a recipie thank you very much guys!
Honestly, for people who want to throw things out, try blending it. Today I merged a funky mango cyser and a really tart really tannic blueberry mead and I found that the blueberry's intensity was mellowed by the cyser's low abv and the funk of the cyser was cancelled out by the tannins in the blueberry. I can finally taste both fruits and a lot of new flavor and, honestly, if I would have thrown either, I never would have discovered the flavors hidden in both and how well they combine.
DnD door jokes are the best! Our DM made a mistake once early in the game by saying the door opened without resistance, but later described it squeaking open. So, of course, every time a door has opened since, we ask, "Without resistance?" And everyone gives a long drawn out *creak*. We bust up laughing every time.
This is an incredibly instructive video. You probably could not have scripted this better. What you demonstrated is that the recipe is essentially a starting point. You have an outcome in mind but at many points in the process adjustments will be needed. We're not talking about disasters - that's another video/series! But it's kind of like painting a car. Once the paint is dry, the work begins: fine sanding, smoothing and polishing. And the nice thing here is that you kind of went off the board into a less traditional batch. You showed various options and your deliberation over which direction you were going to go was very interesting. I guess it's just like cooking, you make the recipe, adjust to taste and make notes for the next time. It's a real blend of science and creative art. I really can only speak for myself but I'm going to go ahead and assume that the home brewing community thanks you!! But as to this specific recipe, I really like the idea of adding the fruit and then pasteurizing. I'm finding that fruit taste gets lost when the fruit is allowed to ferment. I'm keeping notes on the recipes of yours that I want to make. And to steal a line from "Jaws", "It looks like I'm going to need a bigger notebook!!"
I just took my second gravity reading, and my 5 gallon batch finished in eight days! I’m about to rack it over today once I get my carboys in the mail, and sanitize yes haha. I used QA23 if curious. I just wanna say thanks to you guys for making all these videos that help with mead making. I reference all your videos since they’re so scientific. Keep up the great content and can’t wait to watch all the mead you two make!
What a fantastic video. Seeing the changes and changing with them. I’m going to watch this again when I try this. Congrats on your success. Really enjoyed this. 🇦🇺
I just got some really good orange hydromel sweetened and in the final stage before bottling. I fermented it with wild flower honey and fresh orange zest from our tree. Back sweetened it with orange blossom honey.
Yes! I've been told that you pasteurize and THEN backsweeten with mead. It didn't make sense to me because of the wild yeast in honey. This video is my validation!
On one of you clips you talked about bottles and what to look out for, well I went to olive garden and asked them for any wine bottles that they had, and they were more then happy to give me what they had (and even sanitized them for me) so if anyone is looking for bottles this is a good place to go ( I even got a dozen corks also) and everything is free
Amazing, I've been making hydromel All along. Most of my fermentations are controlled to be around 7-8 abv. I don't care for that "alcohol burn". Geez, I thought I was making cider 😅❤. Love you guys 👍
Beautiful hydromel guys, Just a tip from a bichemist, once you pasteuriseded your pectic enzyme, you probabely debaturated it (unfolded the enzyme), rendering it useles, so next time, try pasteurizing first and adding the enzyme latter. Keep it up the good work
Love you guys, I use most of your recommendations, recipes, everything. I've got questions but I don't want to be freebie greedy. Think I'll join the patreon, you've already helped me a bunch
One of the best meads I've had was a carbonated strawberry and banana mead. There needs to be a little extra sweetness to balance with the bitterness of the carbonation but it was very good.
We have an imperial Berkey in our kitchen, and a small one in master bath. Just be aware the company closed last month. So filters and other accessories may be hard to get.
You two compliment each other very well. I caught this one episode due to being interested in making mead and yall blew me away. Two people I can tell I'd have a blast hanging with. Your interests from mead to D&D fascinated me. Congratulations and keep each other above the other as well as live and love life . I'll be a faithful follower. Thank you
About the glasses btw, beer taster glasses have roughly the same shape and is available as 30cl glasses. I usually use my slightly larger 47cl taster glasses from Orrefors and they are great for experiencing the brew.
Haha I just did this same pasteurizing step and realized I have not backsweeetened it yet... so a Racking I will go, then re pasteurizing it haha. so dont feel bad we all make ooopsy things happen. mine is a 6gallon batch too so my carboy is heavy af. I could just sweeten it and filter it to a sterile filter( I do have an absolute sterile filter so it would get the yeast no problem) or not. I have an electric transfer pump so I dont even have to move it from the pasteurizer setup thank goodness. yeah I thought about it yesterday and went oh well haha. the funny part is I do not remember why I pasteurized it this early... derp lol Cheers you guys.
Love watching and learning....just ordered my first starter kit and hoping to be working on my first batch soon. So much knowledge should make it easier.......keep it up.
You two are awesome. I have made some of your recipes with success. I am making a 5 gallon batch for mid summer. Hopefully it will age well in a few months…. Hopefully, I don’t drink it all before summer comes.😂 keep up the amazing brews!
Fantastic content. We've went on a (homemade) Sangria kick this summer and then a (homemade) mulled wine (glögg, glühwein) this winter. After drinking these concoctions all commercial wine tastes blah. You've got me temped to make your strawberry banana mead. I previously made a delicious banana wine that was excellent for weekend breakfasts. Gasp ! So many great home fermented beverages, so little time/appropriate occasions to drink them. BTW, did you know the Spanish drink wine with Coke ? It's called Kalimotxo. Not my favorite but it tastes better than it sounds.
I rehydrated my yeast (red star premier blanc) with a heaping half tsp of Fermaid-O to great success (about 3/4 cup warm water) I'd love to hear about rehydrating in nutrient and it's downsides. I love y'all's content
I found your channel about a month ago, and now I find out you play D&D too!? I speak for all of us when I say we NEED to see a session streamed somewhere xD Love the videos, you've taught me so much already and my first ever mead is nearly ready for racking out of Primary :O
@@CitySteadingBrews Completely understandable, I feel the same with my games! Amazing video and can't wait to try making something similar in the future :)
I know what you guys mean when you say "bitterness" as a good thing. It's that "bite" or "kick" you get from a mead that you just don't get from a wine. The word "bitter" is often the first thing that comes to mind, because despite the sugary taste, it's a reversing shock you get that mutes your taste bud's sugar expectations and hits your palate like like a freight train of power that is both engaging and sometimes overwhelming, but mutes during the aftertaste into calming warmness. I honestly thing it's the main reason why many of us prefer mead over wine, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Once you get used to it, you start to miss it if you go back to wine or other smoother beverages.
I'm soooo glad you uploadet that today. I was about to do the same thing with pastorisation and backsweetening with honey😂. Just with the differenz that i'm using strawberrys and some berrymix. Love your channel btw🫶
Another fantastic video and yet another one to add to my "To-Try" list. Ive just started a Banana wine again for the first time in 20+ years. One thing that got me thinking however was after watching a well known TV program. Given the amount of starch in some fruits such as banana (even more so if not very ripe) would the addition of something like alpha or beta amylase be beneficial to breakdown the starch compounds into additional fermentable sugers? would be interesting hear your thoughts and even possibly an experiment to see just how much of a difference it can make. Keep up the great work
Amylase would certainly break down more starches to sugars. We didn't because.... the flavors will come out, and the sugars weren't crucial, but ripe bananas have a lot of sugar anyway.
Had a cider go dorment this fall, probably because I waited too long for it to clear (41 days), carefully poured them all out, mixed with some yeast and rebottled. Thankfully it worked, and no oxidation yet.
@@CitySteadingBrews yeah, was thinking about doing that at first, but I had another 5 liter batch to bottle at the same time from the same apple trees. Bottled a experimental pineapple-passionfruit hard seltzer this weekend and to be sure of carbonation i used some fresh yeast when i primed the batch.
You guys have my mouth watering 🤤 I'm sorry I don't call mental and every one of your videos. I think I told you that I watch all CZcams and everything else on my TV through my Roku, so in order to comment I have to get my phone, open up youtube, go to my library, then click on it and then comment, so, know that I love you guys ❤❤❤❤
What s the issue with carbonating a higher ABV brew? I noticed you changed your mind there at the end and I was wondering why. Thanks for all you two do. I started brewing in October and your videos have taught me all I know and it shows in the delicious beverages I have made. You two are phenomenal!
22:10 I've made bread with the lees a few times, and when I did it with the ones from mead and plain cider it turned out great. Beer and hoppy cider lees turned out too bitter.
I actually found a site where I can get Monarch's choice wildflower honey for $142.49 for 60 lbs. After it's gone I have another fermenter. The bucket is food grade. It adds up to $2.37 a pound
Boiling point of alcohols: Ethanol (C2H5OH)… 78.37 C or 173.1 F Methanol (CH3OH)… 66°C or 151°F Isopropyl (C3H7OH)… 80.3°C or 177°F Why can't you cook the alcohol out of food? The reason is that alcohol and water bind to each other, forming an azeotrope. The components of the mixture can't be easily separated using heat. This is also why distillation isn't sufficient to get 100 percent or absolute alcohol. The only way to completely remove alcohol from a liquid is to boil it away completely or allow it to evaporate until it's dry.
@@CitySteadingBrews I didn't realise it had crossed the Atlantic other than in "American reacts to weird British food" videos. What do you cook with it, and have you tried it very lightly spread on toast with salty butter?
This was a great video. I never thought honey would restart that brew like that. Will definitely take that into account next time. This was a very good video well done
My 160 fluid oz Imperial gallon jugs enter the room. (4.5L). I scratched my head a good while trying to figure why my starting gravities where always low. I was converting us recipes to metric using imperal measurments. 1 imp gallon = 1.2 us gallon
As expected, this was a great, fun video with plenty of info. Have you ever tried the method of staggering the addition of your yeast nutrients? I've heard that some brewers consider it a mortal sin to NOT do that.
We don't ever bother. In fact, we omit nutrients a lot of the time for brews like this. No matter how you do it, someone will tell you you're wrong. IMO, those saying it can't be done just need to get out of the way of those actually doing it 😉
My first mead I made is a banana strawberry and it tastes more like hard cider banana lol it's still aging so I'm hoping the strawberry comes out more over time
I love your videos and they have helped me a lot as a beginner, so i wanted to say thank you! I have fig trees in my yard, so if you are looking for more videos maybe you can do some recipes with figs?
Figs make excellent wine and mead. I use dried Turkish figs that have a flavor reminiscent of Fig Newton cookies. I've used fresh figs as well. Give it a go, you won't be disappointed.
@@francisvalone6422 figs are one of my favorite additions. When I use dried figs I like to put them on a low boil for about an hour and then strain out the solids. I'll throw a handful or so into the fermenter as well. If you just add them to the ferment you won't have as much wine or mead because they soak up a surprising amount of liquid. I have fig trees as well. I've found if you use fresh ones they work best if a little over ripe. You can collect them over a period of days/ a week and toss them in the freezer until you think you have enough. Good luck!
Two questions. 1) I think I just answered my own question, but anyway, If you want a hydromel, why not simply dilute with water? Answer?: you'd have to readjust for taste? But #2 remains, 2) Could you have pasteurized the honey before you back-sweetened?
Hey Brian seeing you had so much "fun" with this one I was wondering if you could pasteurize after first fermentation then add the fruit let sit back sweeten and do the other adds then pasteurize again to prevent refermentation?
Hey guys I have a question about backsweetening. Since essentially all you did was kill the yeast off when you pasteurized, if you add unfiltered unpasteurized honey, aren't you adding yeast from the honey back into the brew? What is stopping that yeast from starting up the process again since this is such a low abv mead?
This video is why I stopped watching other brew channels! You're funny with the puns and movie references, you're descriptive in both the "hows and whys" of creating the brew, AND the tastings with what to expect and what you shouldn't be tasting! On a side note, not that I'm promoting Kirkland honey, but that's good honey! Yeast cells are about 3-4 microns. Pollen grains average 10-70 microns, but do get down to 2.5-5 microns. Certain "entities" will filter their honey to remove the pollen grains so that the country of origin cannot be determined. The restart of fermentation tells me its probably good RAW honey! Thank you for all you do to bring us these great videos!
The trick, I have found, for not needing a rubber band to hold your bung down, is to dry it and the inside of the carboy neck. A paper towel works well. Then, the bung stays where you put it. Especially if you twist as you insert. Twist the bung, not do the stupid dance from the 1970s.
Exactly a year ago I made a Hibiscus/Hopps Mead. It fermented in 7 days to 10% ABV. I racked it, and thru in a charred oak spiral, (that I sanitized by steaming) . I opened it 7 days later, it smelled looked like a swamp. I was soo depressed. Before the oak, it was a wonderful dry Mead. So I dumped 6 gallon of the Bayou. My Lesson; Forgo the oak and just use the Black Tea.
City Steading drinking game: drink when Brian makes a pun about terrible/tearable packets. Drink when he says That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Drink when he talks about the calculator his teacher said he'd never have. Drink when he looks confused when Derica makes a joke or quotes a movie.
we would all be drunk halfway threw the video hahaha
So, essentially drink for between 8-75 minutes straight? Sounds like a challenge. A tricky one but a challenge!
You forgot shaking the bejeezus out of it. Should have seen my husbands face when he asked what I was doing and I said I was shaking the bejeezus out of it 😂
This game should be called "how to become an alcoholic in a single video" 🤣
Can we make this for the next VIP hangout? Asking for a friend
Kind of want to see a strawberry lemonade mead/wine for summertime.
We can work on something like that.
2nd that fo sho
As a new-ish home brewer gotta say this is 💯 gold to a new-ish home brewer. So many lessons learned...its worth every extra second
Thank you.
"Let me show you its features" made me smile. I love Joerg Sprave.
I cant thank you two enough for all the effort you put into each recipe you demonstrate for the channel. It gave me a lot of confidence to start my own batch of brew. Seeing the visual of how the brew looks as the weeks move along help me know what to expect at each stage of fermenting/conditioning. I know I would have been more inclined to fuss and fuss and fuss when patience seems to be the operative word in this hobby. Thank you again.
Our pleasure!
I M Having So Much Fun Too😊 i have a friend Supplying me with his used Wine bottles. And I m Fillin Em UP!😂
Thanks you very much.!!! Good to learn from you..more.frienfly!!!❤❤🎉🎉🎉
If you liked this video, you might also like this one, How to make a PEACH MEAD: czcams.com/video/5qA9W_6CS7c/video.html
My wife and our family live in north Idaho now after relocating from Kodiak, Alaska. We watched your videos for 2.5-3 years before we made our first mead 2 months ago. We started with the Spicy Metheglin 2.0 because if you're gonna go for it. Go for it. You said if it was your first Mead, maybe dont do this one. However, we did everything you did exactly, with 2 or tree beers involved, and we had 1.140 OG which I know is high. After 6 weeks its 18.9% and I feel you would give it between a 6-8 on clarity. I think your videos are a testament to how, not easy, but manageable the home fermentation process can be. It was so much fun for my wife and I. We currently have Vikings Blood 2.0 going on the dried cherry phase, Meadowsweet almost 3 weeks in and we did a HUCKLEBERRY mead following the blueberry mead recipe. Thank you both for everything you do and giving couples something new to do together! Skoll!!
That's really cool!
"The day you stop learning is the day they're throwing dirt on you." Is one of my dad's sayings. Little grim, but it brings the point across.
Hey guys, what a great learning experience and man I laughed a lot. I was a chef for 25 years and I asked what is now a stupid question about your baster. I only asked because I’ve never used one before. I did things old school. This was a great eye opener video. Again I learnt a lot. We have a four day weekend for Easter this week so it’s go time for me. I’m going to make cider and mead. I couldn’t be happier and because of the way you guys make your videos it’s made things much easier. Nice one. Cheers guys 🇦🇺
Happy to help 👍
And you’re back!! Thanks so much for the return of the longer video format. This is probably not a brew that I’ll try BUT the information is there along with your personalities! Very entertaining and I look forward to the next one! 👍
I love the beginning not found wanting reference that is my favorite movie 😂
Out of all the Mead channels ive found, I love this one. You guys are so awesome!!! Keep me learning!
Thanks!
I love the quick Derica "jazz-hands chair dance" reaction. Great way to see how good the brew is.
Wow! I'm supper happy to see a brew that needs a lot of adjustments!
It really puts forward a "if it ain't moldy, don't dump it out, you can make something out of this" mentality.
Great learning experience!
I had a similar situation with a muscadine mead I am making. After second racking the sweetness wasn’t there so I added honey to sweeten. I let this sit for a week to clear up and to test to make sure fermentation was over when I noticed small patches of bubbles on top of it. Lo and behold it’s bubbling a little. Cant wait to take another reading when the bubbling stops to see what it picks up in the ABV.
I've been brewing for years. You guys are great! Truly beginner friendly. Literally the only brew supply not ordinarily found in the home is an airlock. But those are readily available anywhere (including Amazon), and usually cost less than a jug of juice. Great job friends!
Thanks! Happy to help!
I started using the fruit from the brews to make vinegar; in hopes to give to chickens. It turns out to make great combinations of vinegar; a few are wine vinegars that are amazing.
I have yet to give it to chickens as I'm not sure if its alcoholic safe for them but it all composts.
Strawberry banana vinegar is very yummy to cook with. Fyi. Mead vinegars might be more for cooking than cleaning. I only had a cherry Mead vinegar but found honey stayed sweeter in that vinegar.
FYI, pectinase denatures (becomes inactive) at pasteurization temps so it probably didn’t have enough time to work on your fruit.
ok thanks. my hubby Brian looked at your recipe and made it with fruit in first then he decided to sit down and watch the video and realized he should have watched first. So we made today with the fruit in. Wish us luck. We are newbies to this
i just made a blueberry banana mead and it was absolutely delicious. my next one was going to be strawnana now i dont have to make a recipie thank you very much guys!
You are very welcome!
Honestly, for people who want to throw things out, try blending it. Today I merged a funky mango cyser and a really tart really tannic blueberry mead and I found that the blueberry's intensity was mellowed by the cyser's low abv and the funk of the cyser was cancelled out by the tannins in the blueberry. I can finally taste both fruits and a lot of new flavor and, honestly, if I would have thrown either, I never would have discovered the flavors hidden in both and how well they combine.
The joys of brewing. You never know what's gonna happen. Every brew is a surprise in the (literal) making.
Oh heck yeah, lol.
@@CitySteadingBrews every brew has the chance to suck OR it's (as maybe in this case) Holy Brew Meister, Meister Brew, Batman!!
DnD door jokes are the best! Our DM made a mistake once early in the game by saying the door opened without resistance, but later described it squeaking open. So, of course, every time a door has opened since, we ask, "Without resistance?" And everyone gives a long drawn out *creak*. We bust up laughing every time.
This is an incredibly instructive video. You probably could not have scripted this better. What you demonstrated is that the recipe is essentially a starting point. You have an outcome in mind but at many points in the process adjustments will be needed. We're not talking about disasters - that's another video/series! But it's kind of like painting a car. Once the paint is dry, the work begins: fine sanding, smoothing and polishing. And the nice thing here is that you kind of went off the board into a less traditional batch. You showed various options and your deliberation over which direction you were going to go was very interesting. I guess it's just like cooking, you make the recipe, adjust to taste and make notes for the next time. It's a real blend of science and creative art. I really can only speak for myself but I'm going to go ahead and assume that the home brewing community thanks you!! But as to this specific recipe, I really like the idea of adding the fruit and then pasteurizing. I'm finding that fruit taste gets lost when the fruit is allowed to ferment. I'm keeping notes on the recipes of yours that I want to make. And to steal a line from "Jaws", "It looks like I'm going to need a bigger notebook!!"
Thank you!
I just took my second gravity reading, and my 5 gallon batch finished in eight days! I’m about to rack it over today once I get my carboys in the mail, and sanitize yes haha. I used QA23 if curious. I just wanna say thanks to you guys for making all these videos that help with mead making. I reference all your videos since they’re so scientific. Keep up the great content and can’t wait to watch all the mead you two make!
Nice work, thank yoiu!
So you made a nice sweet, strong banana strawberry mead, without bubbles, she's right on that you know.
What a fantastic video. Seeing the changes and changing with them. I’m going to watch this again when I try this. Congrats on your success. Really enjoyed this. 🇦🇺
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
I just got some really good orange hydromel sweetened and in the final stage before bottling. I fermented it with wild flower honey and fresh orange zest from our tree. Back sweetened it with orange blossom honey.
This is such a great channel. Half for the great home brew advice, and the other half for the cutest couple on CZcams!
D'aww
Yes! I've been told that you pasteurize and THEN backsweeten with mead. It didn't make sense to me because of the wild yeast in honey. This video is my validation!
On one of you clips you talked about bottles and what to look out for, well I went to olive garden and asked them for any wine bottles that they had, and they were more then happy to give me what they had (and even sanitized them for me) so if anyone is looking for bottles this is a good place to go ( I even got a dozen corks also) and everything is free
Nice!
Looks great I'm going to make this but back sweeten with non fermentable and bottle condition.
I like your experiment mentality shows me how far I can safely color outside the lines
Hi Brian, It's in a bottle then open the bottle and drink. After all it's in a glass already so relax and enjoy!!!🤣🤣🤣
What?
Amazing, I've been making hydromel All along. Most of my fermentations are controlled to be around 7-8 abv. I don't care for that "alcohol burn". Geez, I thought I was making cider 😅❤.
Love you guys 👍
Beautiful hydromel guys,
Just a tip from a bichemist, once you pasteuriseded your pectic enzyme, you probabely debaturated it (unfolded the enzyme), rendering it useles, so next time, try pasteurizing first and adding the enzyme latter.
Keep it up the good work
Yup, realized that after.
Love you guys, I use most of your recommendations, recipes, everything. I've got questions but I don't want to be freebie greedy. Think I'll join the patreon, you've already helped me a bunch
Lol, you can ask here too.
Every time he says something about sanitized it reminds me of a Red Dwarf bit
Red Dwarf! Ha😅 now I want a chicken vindaloo.
I just got my Mead making kit and can't wait to start brewing
One of the best meads I've had was a carbonated strawberry and banana mead. There needs to be a little extra sweetness to balance with the bitterness of the carbonation but it was very good.
We have an imperial Berkey in our kitchen, and a small one in master bath. Just be aware the company closed last month. So filters and other accessories may be hard to get.
Nope, just one supplier. Berkey is still in business.
You two compliment each other very well. I caught this one episode due to being interested in making mead and yall blew me away. Two people I can tell I'd have a blast hanging with. Your interests from mead to D&D fascinated me. Congratulations and keep each other above the other as well as live and love life . I'll be a faithful follower. Thank you
Thank you and welcome!
About the glasses btw, beer taster glasses have roughly the same shape and is available as 30cl glasses. I usually use my slightly larger 47cl taster glasses from Orrefors and they are great for experiencing the brew.
czcams.com/video/KlFoqycldmY/video.htmlsi=NWkBA8AmLvJT2AFX
I love the Knights Tale reference while weighing the honey.
A Knights Tale! Love the reference, love this channel!!
Thanks!
Weighed,measured and not found wanting. Love that movie. One of my favorites. Now hopefully this Meade won't have Brian trudging 😅
Haha I just did this same pasteurizing step and realized I have not backsweeetened it yet... so a Racking I will go, then re pasteurizing it haha. so dont feel bad we all make ooopsy things happen. mine is a 6gallon batch too so my carboy is heavy af. I could just sweeten it and filter it to a sterile filter( I do have an absolute sterile filter so it would get the yeast no problem) or not. I have an electric transfer pump so I dont even have to move it from the pasteurizer setup thank goodness. yeah I thought about it yesterday and went oh well haha. the funny part is I do not remember why I pasteurized it this early... derp lol
Cheers you guys.
I'm Glad it ended up being a mead which is what I wanted.. But I think a few less steps would be in order..LOL You two are GREAT!! Thank you.. ;}
CSB: Come for the mead, stay for the non worrisome wood pulling. 😂
The tshirt fit the scenario perfectly 😂😂😂
Love watching and learning....just ordered my first starter kit and hoping to be working on my first batch soon. So much knowledge should make it easier.......keep it up.
You two are awesome. I have made some of your recipes with success. I am making a 5 gallon batch for mid summer. Hopefully it will age well in a few months…. Hopefully, I don’t drink it all before summer comes.😂 keep up the amazing brews!
Our pleasure!
@@CitySteadingBrews got to keep the peeps happy, right! 🥂
Fantastic content.
We've went on a (homemade) Sangria kick this summer and then a (homemade) mulled wine (glögg, glühwein) this winter. After drinking these concoctions all commercial wine tastes blah.
You've got me temped to make your strawberry banana mead. I previously made a delicious banana wine that was excellent for weekend breakfasts. Gasp ! So many great home fermented beverages, so little time/appropriate occasions to drink them.
BTW, did you know the Spanish drink wine with Coke ? It's called Kalimotxo. Not my favorite but it tastes better than it sounds.
I rehydrated my yeast (red star premier blanc) with a heaping half tsp of Fermaid-O to great success (about 3/4 cup warm water) I'd love to hear about rehydrating in nutrient and it's downsides.
I love y'all's content
It's not always a good idea as too much nutrient will kill the yeast.
I found your channel about a month ago, and now I find out you play D&D too!? I speak for all of us when I say we NEED to see a session streamed somewhere xD
Love the videos, you've taught me so much already and my first ever mead is nearly ready for racking out of Primary :O
We play with friends and they would rather not be part of a recorded session... sorry.
@@CitySteadingBrews Completely understandable, I feel the same with my games!
Amazing video and can't wait to try making something similar in the future :)
I know what you guys mean when you say "bitterness" as a good thing. It's that "bite" or "kick" you get from a mead that you just don't get from a wine. The word "bitter" is often the first thing that comes to mind, because despite the sugary taste, it's a reversing shock you get that mutes your taste bud's sugar expectations and hits your palate like like a freight train of power that is both engaging and sometimes overwhelming, but mutes during the aftertaste into calming warmness. I honestly thing it's the main reason why many of us prefer mead over wine, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Once you get used to it, you start to miss it if you go back to wine or other smoother beverages.
Watching your video enjoying a glass... Or two... Of my fancy grocery store wine.
"Should last a year or more on the shelf..." None of the mead I've made have lasted past six months.
heh... you know what we mean.
Your yeast cake could be a NASA picture 😊
I almost exclusively use a blow off tube set up as the closet wall is now speckled purple from a grape wine… 😂
I'm soooo glad you uploadet that today. I was about to do the same thing with pastorisation and backsweetening with honey😂. Just with the differenz that i'm using strawberrys and some berrymix. Love your channel btw🫶
Another fantastic video and yet another one to add to my "To-Try" list.
Ive just started a Banana wine again for the first time in 20+ years. One thing that got me thinking however was after watching a well known TV program.
Given the amount of starch in some fruits such as banana (even more so if not very ripe) would the addition of something like alpha or beta amylase be beneficial to breakdown the starch compounds into additional fermentable sugers? would be interesting hear your thoughts and even possibly an experiment to see just how much of a difference it can make.
Keep up the great work
Amylase would certainly break down more starches to sugars. We didn't because.... the flavors will come out, and the sugars weren't crucial, but ripe bananas have a lot of sugar anyway.
Had a cider go dorment this fall, probably because I waited too long for it to clear (41 days), carefully poured them all out, mixed with some yeast and rebottled. Thankfully it worked, and no oxidation yet.
Could have just opened the bottles and put in a pinch of yeast then recap them.
@@CitySteadingBrews yeah, was thinking about doing that at first, but I had another 5 liter batch to bottle at the same time from the same apple trees. Bottled a experimental pineapple-passionfruit hard seltzer this weekend and to be sure of carbonation i used some fresh yeast when i primed the batch.
Entertaining and informative. 😃 Thank you for clarifying why you all use the pasteurizing technique you do. I've been thinking about that.
We need a TRBOS cam in a little window on the bottom of the screen for all the doubters
Sparkling Banana was my stage name on the Midwest Jazz Circuit.
Lol
I use the same honey. Mostly because of cost, only because of cost. Works decent enough.
The wood joke at 41:30 got me belly laughing. Thanks Bri 😄
You guys have my mouth watering 🤤
I'm sorry I don't call mental and every one of your videos. I think I told you that I watch all CZcams and everything else on my TV through my Roku, so in order to comment I have to get my phone, open up youtube, go to my library, then click on it and then comment, so, know that I love you guys ❤❤❤❤
What s the issue with carbonating a higher ABV brew? I noticed you changed your mind there at the end and I was wondering why. Thanks for all you two do. I started brewing in October and your videos have taught me all I know and it shows in the delicious beverages I have made. You two are phenomenal!
It can be done, but you have to make sure you're below the yeast alcohol tolerance. Or just force carbonate.
22:10 I've made bread with the lees a few times, and when I did it with the ones from mead and plain cider it turned out great. Beer and hoppy cider lees turned out too bitter.
Makes sense.
I actually found a site where I can get Monarch's choice wildflower honey for $142.49 for 60 lbs. After it's gone I have another fermenter. The bucket is food grade. It adds up to $2.37 a pound
Nice!
Boiling point of alcohols:
Ethanol (C2H5OH)… 78.37 C or 173.1 F
Methanol (CH3OH)… 66°C or 151°F
Isopropyl (C3H7OH)… 80.3°C or 177°F
Why can't you cook the alcohol out of food? The reason is that alcohol and water bind to each other, forming an azeotrope. The components of the mixture can't be easily separated using heat. This is also why distillation isn't sufficient to get 100 percent or absolute alcohol. The only way to completely remove alcohol from a liquid is to boil it away completely or allow it to evaporate until it's dry.
More detailed than what I said but same idea.
Thanks!
Wow, thank you!
I'm fascinated that there is a jar of Marmite in the background 😱
Why? I use it in cooking.
@@CitySteadingBrews I didn't realise it had crossed the Atlantic other than in "American reacts to weird British food" videos. What do you cook with it, and have you tried it very lightly spread on toast with salty butter?
This was a great video. I never thought honey would restart that brew like that. Will definitely take that into account next time. This was a very good video well done
You get a like from me for that knights tale reference I love that movie.
I just started brewing Mead - Well Water, Wild honey - Fleishmans yest - - YEs I spelled it wrong - - I regularly get 3 weeks and 13.5 % mead
Aussie here, we can get Kirkland honey here at our Costco
My 160 fluid oz Imperial gallon jugs enter the room. (4.5L).
I scratched my head a good while trying to figure why my starting gravities where always low. I was converting us recipes to metric using imperal measurments. 1 imp gallon = 1.2 us gallon
I've been following for years. Thanks for the inspiration. Have you tried orange vanilla wine? I think I'm in love.
We have not tried that yet!
"Do it just to the point your arms fall off" should definitely be on a t-shirt
I always get too greedy and have just started out with blowoff tubes at this point. Still get the blooping of satisfaction and usually faster
As a religious person I can say I don’t see a problem with “bejeezus”. I always say “you make holy water by boiling the hell out of it”. 😂
That 1 isn't going to last a year. 🙂 'A series of extraordinary events.'
It is a beautiful moon-scape, we are a little bit nuts. Both right.
As expected, this was a great, fun video with plenty of info.
Have you ever tried the method of staggering the addition of your yeast nutrients? I've heard that some brewers consider it a mortal sin to NOT do that.
We don't ever bother. In fact, we omit nutrients a lot of the time for brews like this. No matter how you do it, someone will tell you you're wrong. IMO, those saying it can't be done just need to get out of the way of those actually doing it 😉
My first mead I made is a banana strawberry and it tastes more like hard cider banana lol it's still aging so I'm hoping the strawberry comes out more over time
FYI- cats absolutely speak English. They just choose to ignore you.
I love your videos and they have helped me a lot as a beginner, so i wanted to say thank you!
I have fig trees in my yard, so if you are looking for more videos maybe you can do some recipes with figs?
Maybe!
Figs make excellent wine and mead. I use dried Turkish figs that have a flavor reminiscent of Fig Newton cookies. I've used fresh figs as well. Give it a go, you won't be disappointed.
@@micahestep7679 well I know what I'm doing with my figs this summer.
@@francisvalone6422 figs are one of my favorite additions. When I use dried figs I like to put them on a low boil for about an hour and then strain out the solids. I'll throw a handful or so into the fermenter as well. If you just add them to the ferment you won't have as much wine or mead because they soak up a surprising amount of liquid. I have fig trees as well. I've found if you use fresh ones they work best if a little over ripe. You can collect them over a period of days/ a week and toss them in the freezer until you think you have enough. Good luck!
Could you make a cordial vid? Its super easy so should probably be done as a " short" video.
Two questions. 1) I think I just answered my own question, but anyway, If you want a hydromel, why not simply dilute with water? Answer?: you'd have to readjust for taste? But #2 remains, 2) Could you have pasteurized the honey before you back-sweetened?
We could and... better to pasteurize the mead. Had we only pasteurize the honey first time around and not the mead, it would have refermented anyway.
Murphy Law says - If it is going to happen it will - - Keep brewing and Learn
Hey Brian seeing you had so much "fun" with this one I was wondering if you could pasteurize after first fermentation then add the fruit let sit back sweeten and do the other adds then pasteurize again to prevent refermentation?
You can, but I'd rather only pasteurize once.
Hey guys I have a question about backsweetening. Since essentially all you did was kill the yeast off when you pasteurized, if you add unfiltered unpasteurized honey, aren't you adding yeast from the honey back into the brew? What is stopping that yeast from starting up the process again since this is such a low abv mead?
We actually talked about this right in the video.
Lol I posted this right b4 you talked about it... shiulda just waited haha
Hopefully i get some wild bush honey from the Father in law this year
Was a good thing you didn't bottle carb after extracting 12 points from the fruit. Your usual priming sugar dose is in the 3-5 point range after all.
Yup! We would have waited anyway.
This video is why I stopped watching other brew channels! You're funny with the puns and movie references, you're descriptive in both the "hows and whys" of creating the brew, AND the tastings with what to expect and what you shouldn't be tasting!
On a side note, not that I'm promoting Kirkland honey, but that's good honey! Yeast cells are about 3-4 microns. Pollen grains average 10-70 microns, but do get down to 2.5-5 microns. Certain "entities" will filter their honey to remove the pollen grains so that the country of origin cannot be determined. The restart of fermentation tells me its probably good RAW honey! Thank you for all you do to bring us these great videos!
Yeah, there's so much elitism and whatnot in the hobby. Good honey is good honey.
The trick, I have found, for not needing a rubber band to hold your bung down, is to dry it and the inside of the carboy neck. A paper towel works well. Then, the bung stays where you put it. Especially if you twist as you insert. Twist the bung, not do the stupid dance from the 1970s.
21:13 mine did that the rubber seal was deformed i dipped it in boiling water for like 30 seconds and put it together and the seal fixed itself
Exactly a year ago I made a Hibiscus/Hopps Mead. It fermented in 7 days to 10% ABV. I racked it, and thru in a charred oak spiral, (that I sanitized by steaming) . I opened it 7 days later, it smelled looked like a swamp. I was soo depressed. Before the oak, it was a wonderful dry Mead. So I dumped 6 gallon of the Bayou.
My Lesson; Forgo the oak and just use the Black Tea.
Never had that issue with oaking.