mmm, this seems painfully accurate

still, I wonder how many spouses of homebrewers actually participate in the activity but are not identified within the survey

The software calculated efficiency for the Braumeister is spot on for me if just using it like set it and forget it, so about 65%. I can up that with stopping the pump during mashing, opening the thing and stirring the mash about once every 30 minutes in my 90 min mash. Also by milling the malt a bit finer. But too fine, and I get a stuck mash. With this, I managed around 75, or how much the software sets as standard for pot and cooler method, so I’m happy with that.

I also start the brew with 23ish liters of strike water, dump 6 kg of malt in there and sparge with 5-6 liters at 80C. Boil 1 hr and end up with 18-19 liters in the fermenter with the rest full of trub in the Braumeister (2-3 liters maybe?) I never measured how much is left and I can sparge with 4 or 6L. I just eyeball it according to how much wort is in when I lift the malt pipe.

In your case, I’d say maybe the mash did not go very well.

I wouldn’t be too worried about the body. It could be that your fermentation just stopped a bit higher because all that’s left is longer sugars, unfermentable, but good for the body. One way to find out…

What is your brewing setup? I’ve used your grain quantities in BeerSmith with a Braumeister 20L setup for the out of the box efficiency (without stirring the malt during mashing or a finer grind or extra boiling) and it gave me a post-boil of 1.042, which seems to fit with your result so I’d guess you had an efficiency issue. How did the mashing go?

I’ve noticed that when boiling for the standard 1 hour, I get about a 10% increase in gravity (for the digits after the 1 - that is, pre-boil of 1.064 leads to post-boil of 1.070 ish), so in your case 1.037 to 1.041 would check out for me.

For my brewing setup, 30 minutes at 63C doesn’t really cut it, I’ve tried it and noticed 60 minutes or even 90 minutes work way better. But then I mostly use kveik and the indication seems to be for longer mash times (something about it being unable to digest sugars made of 3+ units).

I’m not sure I get your last point. If your FG is higher than expected, you should reasonably have more sugars left over from fermentation, so more residual sweetness.

Regardless, I’d suggest RDWHAHB, and see what you get out of this. Do share your final results, I am curious what it’s like.

Out of lazyness, I just let all my beers sit in the fermenter for 2 weeks and that seems to work out just fine. Some finish bubbling after 2 days, some after 12.

Edited to add: just noticed from your yeast link, you also use an all-in-one system, does it suffer from the same low efficiency issues as the Braumeister, I wonder?

I use a Braumeister, and grind size is a bit of an issue. Too coarse - bad efficiency. Too fine - dough. My recommendation would be to check what Brezilla recommends. Braumeister has a recommended size on their website. And use that as a starting point. Go a bit finer if efficiency is still bad. Try the size on the Braumeister website if Brewzilla does not have any. I grind at my local homebrew shop and their mill says ‘7’ ish.

Also, even if AIO, during the mash I usually stop 2-3 times and open up the malt pipe and give it a good stir. Improves efficiency for my setup.

Also, true, for smaller grains like rye or specialty black grains, do grind them separately, and way finer to make sure they don’t slip by.

Not sure if the information is still current, as it was a while ago, but I was taught that the yeast for wine originally came from the grapes themselves, it settles on the fruit from the air as it ripens. They named it Saccharomyces ellipsoideus or something of the sort, related to the beer yeast S. cerevisae, but not the same. Nowadays winemakers use lab cultured yeasts for consistency though.

Point being, if you can get hold of some grapes that you know weren’t exposed to nasty stuff (i.e. not grown near a highway), try not washing them and just smashing them, skin and all, and see what ferments. Put an airlock on to prevent acetic acid formation and try going from there. If using water to dilute or wash stuff, make sure it’s chlorine free. One campden tablet to 20L should do it.

The downside of brewing small batches of mead is that you might like it and depending on your brewing method it takes quite a lot to make. I made 5L at one point, took 6 months to clear in primary (I’m lazy, no secondary here) and it then… erm… evaporated in about 2 months. Then I started 10L batches. Thinking of just doing 20L now.

Have never tried doing a classic wort fermentation with it, just the normal soda thing - sugar, lemon and water, but had never managed to get a stable system going. I’d wonder if the colony is well suited as a whole to digesting mostly maltose from a wort or if the yeast will overpower the others.

My phone has IP68 with an usb-c and headphone jack, and the SIM/SD tray. Not a rugged phone though.

I like the label, though I see why some of our friends from the US might be a bit sore on the topic.

I’d be careful with the beetroot, it might impart a certain flavour. Had some beetroot stout at one point and it was tasty, but you could feel the beetroot. I’d say maybe try some red fruit or hibiscus petals and if your pH is in the acidic range, it should keep a red colour. Though that might also bring some tartness. Could balance that out with some residual sweetness I guess. I would love to hear what you get out of it and your final recipe, I’ve been trying to crack the illusive red for quite a while now.

I’ve done this for some homebrews where I split the cooled wort into 2 fermenters and used different yeasts.

For instance, for a porter, I used a california lager yeast in one and a kveik in the other. Massive difference, though they were fermenting at around 20 Celsius, so a bit under for the kveik.

I know this is beer and OP asked for wine/cider but I’d expect the same to be true for those yeasts.

Damn, they gave it a name. It means it’s official. dramatic ‘nooooooo!’

this looks like it would pair nicely with some nachos topped generously with free range processed cheese (protected origin designation - some chemistry lab somewhere) with a side of gas station burger, heated up unevenly in a microwave

also, there’s people out there making a drink out of 1/2 coca cola and 1/2 red wine. I saw a flight attendant wince at some point when asked to do this. scary stuff

I’ve no experience on wine, but I can tell you I’ve once messed up the amount of citrus peel extract (just some dry citrus peel macerated in whiskey) I added to a beer and it was mostly undrinkable. The citrus peel bitterness did not go out after about 2 months and it was quite unpleasant. Ended up dumping the rest of the bottles. That particular batch also finished quite high on gravity, and I blamed it on adding the extract in primary fermentation.

I’d be curious if you’re trying to age it, though, maybe something will happen after a longer while?

If all else fails, you could use it as cooking wine, I guess.

Seems like they went for a lambic style and barrel aged it quite a lot. Wonder what that tastes like. Overripe blue cheese tends to be a bit harsh on the ammonia.

I might be biased, but I would have gone for a chocolate stout. Blue cheese and chocolate go together.

Seems like one of those things you’d serve in a 200 ml portion size. Nevertheless, I’d try it for the sheer novelty. It can’t be any worse than those lambics they sell with added artificial (non-fermentable, that is) sweeteners.

Manowar had that one song titled ‘Pleasure slave’, if memory serves. No idea if it was a serious song or not. Those were some weird times for music.

They look unused. I never thought of re-use, but I would assume that if you’re just opening a bottlecap without much care for preserving the cap (like when they sort of get bent down the middle) you’d be deforming it beyond re-use. It needs to be able to form a uniform seal around the bottle opening when capped and any bend will prevent that.

Never thought of trying out some bottle caps I tried not to damage when opening because they were pretty though.

I can suggest a mead with some fruit juice (i forget the name for that style). Honey, water, fruit juice and some spices and you should have a nice base. I’d think possibly currants or blue/blackberries might work well. Or cranberries, but add less, just enough for acidity and colour. Then the tannins you mention shouldn’t overpower the batch.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can caramelize some of that honey beforehand. Not a lot, just enough to bring some walnut/hazelnut flavour. Add some cinnamon maybe and I’m picturing a drinkable christmas cake.

Glad to see you found a way to improve it. Cheers to that!

it certainly has some ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery’ (and all that) vibes

especially the looting, that was done for the woman and the children. I bet they’ll donate looted items to some charity /s