Second year I've made this. Typical recipe except after primary i toss in 1/4tsp of apple pie seasoning. Lose a bit more on final rack but worth it. 13% abv.

Recipe:

1 gallon apple cider 3lbs Costco RAW Missouri honey Yeast - Lavlin 71b 1 tsp FermaidO 1/2 tsp tannin

3lbs honey

1 gal apple cider

71B

These are both in their secondary.

The only difference, I posted about this a while back, is that I forgot to let the cider warm up for the one that is still cloudy. So it took longer to get going, and in turn, longer to finish.

However, the one that I did let the cider warm up (clearer one), lost its cloudiness within a few days of finishing fermentation. The cloudy one sat on its lees for over a week after it finished fermenting, and still showed no signs of clearing. So that's why I went ahead and racked to a secondary.

Any guesses as to why a delayed start to fermentation would cause such a big difference in clarity in the end?

Edit: to clarify (no pun intended), the clear one has remained basically the same clarity as it was shortly after fermentation. While the cloudy one remains cloudy well past the same time of the clear one.

In other words, it's not simply an issue of one being finished longer and having more time to clear up.

Another edit: apprently there is a test where you put some in a glass, and add isopropyl alcohol. If it clears up, the cloudiness is caused by yeast. If it forms gooey clumps, the cloudiness is caused by pectin. Has anyone successfully done this? I dont want to waste my mead if I dont have to.

I’m getting back into making mead and chose JAOM recipe because of how easy it is, and that it tastes very good. However it’s been 24hrs and there has been very little activity.

I followed all the directions and confused on why it’s wanting to be stubborn.

I have yeast nutrients but I didn’t add them since that kinda defeats the purpose of how simple this recipe is

Any advice would be helpful

So, I have this very experimental brew going. I inoculated cooked toasted buckwheat with jiuqu (Chinese rice wine culture) to saccharify and ferment it for a week, strained out the grain and squeezed it for its liquor. I combined that with buckwheat honey, EC-1118, and a topping off of water to one gallon.

It's been in secondary in a carboy under airlock for almost two weeks now, and I have just discovered these little islands of translucent, white scales floating around the perimeter of the brew. It doesn't look like mold, so I wonder if they're just yeast rafts or an incipient pellicle? Jiuqu is a mixed microbial culture, so I'm rather unsure as to whether mine contained a notorious pellicle-forming microorganism.

I'm considering making 2 meads, one with dried figs and one with dried dates. How would you recommend I add them? I was thinking about adding some hot water, letting them rehydrate, then either running them through my blender or apple grinder to get maximize the flavor extraction. Do you guys think that this is a good plan? If not how would you go about doing it?

I usually add pectin to my fruits, 24 hrs before I start a mead batch, then add when I pitch the yeast. This time I had started a batch and was going to add the berries a few days later. The day I was supposed to add the berries life got away from me so I've had berries with pectin sitting in the fridge for about 4 days.

Is there any downside to having fruit sit with pectin for too long? I plan to taste them when I get home and was think if they still taste good to let em rip.

Thanks all!