plactagonic

Just to add something about sanitation, I don’t make mead (can’t get cheap honey).

Somewhere you can get peroxide based disinfectant that is rinse free, it just brakes down to bit of oxygen and harmless byproduct. Widely used in food industry is peroxyacetic acid, but here it is restricted so can’t get my hands on it. Another one that is more available is something that decomposes to baking soda but you need warm water and it dissipates quickly (can’t remember what it is now).

As others said the drinking water in pipes is usually OK and I wouldn’t worry that much about the effect on mead, on the other hand I am always worried about some bad taste from usually chlorine based disinfectant so I rinse everything. So some of my stuff I sanitise in boiling water- doesn’t leave anything.

Just to get carbonation, usually only done in secondary.

It depends on what are you making in general - fruit wines, beer, cider, mead, kvas…

Most of my brewing is dependent on what I can source, so I think about it bit like that - firstly what I have on hand or can easily get and then what is interesting combination or experiment I can do.

When I use some in beer it is usually easy to just make herbal tee to get an idea when I use it in a boil.

As I wrote in my last post this is bit of an experiment, I have enough clear cider to compare it to and if it doesn’t turn out well I will still have at least the clear cider ;-)

This process is used quite widely in food industry, duno if I would dare trying to replicate it at home just for that. Maybe if you can get your hands on apple juice concentrate it is the same and without the hassle.

I looked and it is ~8€ here from some eshop ~6l concentrated to 1l. So pretty much apple juice syrup.

I tried both (tasted from other people) with addition of quince and full quince and have to say that it is bit too aromatic for what I want from cider that I just don’t consider to using it in that quantity.

But it is just a preference.

Autocorrect did its thing barrique changed to baroque ;-)

Just so you know how my last attempts went- baroque is really good but after a year it starts getting bit of bland off taste, spice mix I used tasted like Christmas can’t explain it differently - it was pretty much same spice you use for gingerbread, hops need bit more time to age to loose some bitterness (maybe I added too much).

So yes the herbs are bit no brainer to try next and lot of options what to use.

I will have to plant some in the garden… It is just such a good ingredient in the cider and I can’t find it anywhere (and you just don’t need to add much of it).

Yeah I know pears are good but quince (quite unusual fruit) is even better for that. It makes strong fruity flavour that is quite hard to describe.

Unfortunately can’t get anything like that.

I still can get another 20kg…

I duno if extract could be an option, some cosmetics can be made or what to do. It is just too much for small batch brewing. I am open to all ideas ;-)