Final Gravity Achieved

All four batches hit their respective final gravity ranges today. Well, more accurately, the pyments did. The wines ferment dry and have been done for a day or so now.

Tonight was stabilizing and clarifying. I use a wine whip and electric drill, and I have to say I find the process therapeutic.

Eight days at this stage, then one final rack for “polishing”. Two weeks after that, we bottle.

Pyments Proceeding

Merlot Pyment – 1.050, pH 3.19
Dolcetto Pyment – 1.044, pH 3.15

Fermentation has slowed but still observable. Odor has greatly reduced.

The gravity of the situation

After dodging a tornado, I took gravity readings on the pyments. The Merlot Pyment is at 1.086, and the Dolcetto Pyment is at 1.082. That’s a drop of 36 and 38 gravity points, respectfully, in less than 24 hours. Not bad.

It’s still about 50 points before I rack to secondary. At this rate I may be racking by Tuesday. Whee!

Putting the pH in Pyment

Checking the pH of my pyment batches turned up 3.00 even for the Dulcetto Pyment and 3.08 for the Merlot Pyment. I added 5g of Potassium Carbonate to both batches to bring the pH up a bit. I will check again tomorrow. Both batches are still fermenting like mad.

And we're off… mostly…

All the batches took off, except the Merlot wine. Not something that has happened to me before, especially since the yeast that comes with the kit should work for 6 gallons of wine and I’m pitching it on three. The Dolcetto took off like a rocket. Odd also in that the yeast that came with the Merlot is RC212, a yeast I have a lot of experience with. I shot the wine with some O2 and pitched more RC212, just in case. We’ll see how it goes.

Update: That did it. Merlot is off and running well now.

This year's pyments in the fermenter

Here are the readings:

• Dolcetto: 1.095
• Dolcetto Pyment: 1.120
• Merlot: 1.097
• Merlot Pyment: 1.122

Not too shabby, and right in line with my previous pyments. Not sure what possessed me to start this late, but I did. Every time I start brewing again I forget how much a full 5 gallon glass carboy weighs. Whew!

I am going to sleep well tonight.

Brewing again soon!

After a long hiatus, I should soon have the time to brew again! Yay!

I still have my Apple Butter Cyser from over a year ago in bulk aging. I plan on freeze-concentrating the entire batch. I’ll bottle that up soon after.

On the list of planned brews:

• Full Batch of Orange Blossom Mead
• Small Batch of wildflower mead for a video (!)
• Two Red Pyments, both “Selection Limited Edition” kits:
  • New Zealand Merlot
  • Italian Dolcetto

It has been WAY too long since I did a full batch of traditional mead. Now that I have a couple of good experiments behind me, I know just what I want. I’ll be shooting for 12% ABV, and I know which yeast I’ll be using. If you can’t guess, you haven’t been listening to Basic Brewing Radio!

I have been asked by a couple of people to make a video. I can do that. I will be doing a small batch (so I can shoot upstairs and not break my back brining the brew into the basement to ferment). I’ll post these on youtube for all to see. Yes, I’m nervous.

Now, to those who think it is sacrilege to ruin a high-end wine kit by making a pyment, let me say two things: First, my very first wine kit pyment used a high-end kit (Oregon Yamhill Pinot Noir) and it came out fantastic. Second, as always, I’ll be splitting the six gallon batch in half and making the pyment out of only one half, which means the other half will be regular wine. I came up with this idea, and it’s worked really well so far.

I’m off to pick up my honey and get some bottled water today. I have a business trip this week, so I don’t plan to kick off the brewing until later in the week or on the weekend.

Stay tuned!

Absinthe Kit Revisited

Not being one to leave well enough alone, I decided to re-filter my Absinthe. I’m glad I did.

If you are going to get one of these kits, I recommend using a combination of a wire coffee filter basket and matching coffee filter. You can pick up a basket by itself:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=1&SKU=12959796

Filter first through the basket, then put in a filter and run the batch through again. I would just use the filter basket by itself between the two herb soaks, just to make sure none of the herbs that may have escaped the bag make it into the second soak.

I set my basket down into my big brew funnel. It stays put on its own, so I could do all the filter process without assistance.

Absinthe Kit Review

I just finished bottling my Absinthe that I made from the kit. Here’s a pic:

From Mead Room

I wanted to share some thoughts from my experience with the kit.

• The filter from the kit is a joke. I ended up with little black bits and dust in my bottles. The coffee filter I used between herb soaks did a much better job. I’ll know for next time.
• It may not seem like it, but the labels are the peel-and-stick type.
• The taste is interesting. I diluted with water and added sugar, per the ritual. It is an acquired taste, licorice and herb with a hint of mint.
• The kit is easy. The hardest part is the filtering. Coffee filters are maddeningly slow but do a good job.
• The glass they provide in the kit isn’t glass, it’s plastic. The spoon is thin, cheap metal. This is not surprising.
• The instruction pamphlet has numerous grammar and spelling errors.

If you buy the kit, know that you are really buying the herb “recipe”. I can nitpick all day, but it does make it easy to make a product as close to real Absinthe as you can get without distilling.

Long Overdue

FINALLY bottled the Beer Yeast Honey experiment. I’ll be shipping samples out to Basic Brewing Radio for tasting along with some of this year’s Pyments.

I picked up on of Winexperts limited edition New Zealand Merlot wine kits this week. Yup, I’m doing a split batch and making a pyment out of one half. Call me crazy!

I have another limited edition coming in April, which I will also give the pyment treatment. After that, I will make a full traditional batch using beer yeast. I’ll likely choose the honey ofter the tasting.