Owl Have Another Brewery

08/23/2021

Oh a whim, I bought a gallon of lemonade and limeade to make hard sprite soda. After a few weeks, it clarified nicely.

But one problem is the lemonade fermentation stuck at 1.030. I guess US-05 yeast doesn’t like the acidity. I’m going to rescue it with champagne yeast and check back in a couple weeks.

07/26/2021

To break a long departure from brewing, I make up by resuming with bottling of 5 gallons of mead. It’s the same recipe as before, but I tried a different yeast. I went with Lalvin 71B.

It came out very clear, light bodied, 13.5% ABV.

My son, Mason, is seen helping big time with the bottling process.

11/08/2020

09/28/2020

Drink safely.

07/27/2020

I transferred the pineapple hefeweizen to secondary. Boy was that yeast happy! Look at that krausen! All you non-brewers are going “Eww! You drink that?!”... “Yes”.

It’s only a week in, so I did a taste test anyway and it’s not bad. I can taste a tinge of pineapple, tartness, and cloves.

07/24/2020

Don’t deny it.

07/19/2020

Update on the overactive yeast situation. Changed over to a tube and bucket airlock. The other one is getting a late start, so I may have to do the same for it later.

07/19/2020

Ok, so the answer to “What are you brewing with pineapple?” is a pineapple hefeweizen. I tried a new yeast brand now sold at How Do You Brew, Imperial Stefon. This is now the _third_ time I’ve cleaned up a clogged airlock, even though there’s 2 gallons of head space.

I’m just going to let it open ferment until tomorrow. I do NOT want a lid to be blown off which would coat the entire fridge innards with beer and yeast.

07/16/2020

Here’s a special ingredient for the batch I’m making tomorrow. Any guesses as to what I’m making?

06/23/2020

I checked on the mead and am surprised to find it's now crystal clear. I took a sample and it smelled amazing! This is what I love about mead so much. It's the sweet floral aroma you don't get from grape wine. 🍯

It's not exactly done yet. It still needs time to mellow out for another month or so.

05/25/2020

Moving the Mead 5 batch to secondary. It’s fully fermented at 16% ABV!

The sample tastes great, since I like dry wines. It’s still young, so it needs time to condition and off gas the volatile compounds. I’ll check back in a couple months.

05/06/2020

With help from a local beekeeper friend, I received a 35lb harvest of local wildflower honey. Guess I’ll ferment it. 🤷🏼‍♂️

This time I’m trying a more conventional yeast strain, Lalvin EC-1118, for the orange mead recipe. This should be much more efficient than bread yeast and improve clarity and conditioning time. Bread yeast works, but it’s inconsistent and takes 6 months to a finished product. This might get me done in 2-3 months if I get this right.