Brewers' help requested

[MadImmortalMan]

Gracias Meri. I don't have the honey yet. Looking around, it seems like it's an arm and a leg to ship that in bulk, so I was thinking of hitting up Costco or someplace to see if they had it. My choices might be limited because of that. I imagine using different types can significantly affect the flavor, but since this is my first run I don't know what that will be. I suppose I'll just have to pick what I can find and experiment. I have enough equipment to give it another go after I rack the first batch, so I'll probably play around with it a bit.

[Caliga]

MiM, when I did blackberry mead I too used EC-1118 and I did 20 pounds of honey.

[MadImmortalMan]

MiM, when I did blackberry mead I too used EC-1118 and I did 20 pounds of honey.

What did it taste like? I don't want to go too far down the honeybrick road if you know what I mean. I like it a bit...drier.

[merithyn]

MiM, when I did blackberry mead I too used EC-1118 and I did 20 pounds of honey.

What kind of blackberry flavoring did you use? I forget if it was a flavoring or the actual berries.

If it was the berries, remember that that's added sugar.

[Caliga]

Berries.  I added them after the sugar was mostly fermented out.  It didn't seem to start up a secondary ferment, maybe due to the already high alcohol content.

[merithyn]

Probably. Did you have much honey flavor in that?

[derspiess]

MOAR BEER TALK PLZ

[merithyn]

I have a caramel stout that needs to be bottled.

[derspiess]

[MadImmortalMan]

I got 25lbs of clover honey and got it rolling. My trusty huge stock pot barely held all that plus less than an equal amount of water. My hydrometer was literally bobbing around on the surface. So I cooked up some water and put enough in there to get it to 1.14, which the calculator says should get me through with the yeast I have. There is about six gallons of liquid now.

I wanted to do a baseline sort of brew, but I did add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Maybe I ruined it. We'll see.

Now, the container is sitting on the kitchen floor with a valve full of vodka in it.

[merithyn]

Sounds reasonable enough to me.

[MadImmortalMan]

Okay, so I put this stuff in the thing at the beginning of the month. I have been watching the valve. It sped up over time and was putting out about ten glugs per minute of air bubbles. Now it's down to four or so. Is that ok? I suspect I'll want to rack it at the end of September, but if it's not done maybe I should inject more yeast. I'm not sure. I guess a hydrometer check might tell me for certain, but I don't want to upset it yet.

[MadImmortalMan]

Bumpity.

I still have this damn stalled batch of must here, and the hydro readings have only decreased from 1.14 to 1.10. Since October.

I've tried re-pitching, adding some cut up oranges and blackberries and also re-pitching with rehydrated yeast that the packet says to do at 40C. That's over 100 degrees! This thing has been sitting in the mid 60s Fahrenheit and I thought that wasn't a problem. But maybe it is. PH meter reads 5.54. Should I quit it and start over? It tastes fine...but sweet like candy. Personally, I hate it. But someone might like it.