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Squatchy

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Hi all.

So Vickey has said that people have been asking for me to come on another podcast, so I'll be back next week. We have a 2-week series I taught a while back where we looked at how to pair your yeast strains to your honey. If you haven't listened to these please do. It will help you to get more out of next weeks topic.

Any time we plan to make a mead, all of the fractions should be deliberately thought out in a way that will help to maximize the potential for all the parts to shine nicely together. Good meads rarely happen by chance. The better we understand how all of the pieces fit in the puzzle, the better chance we have to have something that really presents nicely.

Often times we can do lots of things correctly and yet still have a mead that just presents like it's confused or disjointed. Harmony happens in our thinking before we even start the purchasing process.

All too often on the public platforms we hear people giving really bad advice. It's ridiculous to think the same yeast over and over will always make nice meads. With just a little forethought and some practice, you can start to place together all of the pieces so they will complement the whole by design. And stop relying on blind luck to get that elusive intangible magic we all hope for and only occasionally find.

So please, we want you to contribute to next weeks show by posting troublesome areas that you have while trying to put together a plan so we can use some real-time examples during the show.

Thanks

https://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live/9-25-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeast-to-meads/
 
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EricHartman

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Nice Ryan! I'll try to tune into those for sure. Do you know the best way to ask questions during? I know people do so but I've never managed to attend a live show up to this point!

for those that don't know the live shows are available here: https://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live-radio-show/. That site also has all the details of the when and how to contact/listen etc.
 
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Squatchy

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Nice Ryan! I'll try to tune into those for sure. Do you know the best way to ask questions during? I know people do so but I've never managed to attend a live show up to this point!

for those that don't know the live shows are available here: https://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live-radio-show/. That site also has all the details of the when and how to contact/listen etc.

If you post your Q right here I will pick it up for the show
 

Toxxyc

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Dec 21, 2017
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I have a question, and since I'm a million time zones away I won't make the show. My question is simple. What would you say is the absolute minimum equipment a meadmaker needs to make consistently good quality meads, regardless of where in the world they find themselves?
 

Squatchy

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Fermentation vessels that are larger than the amount that you're going to age in a glass carboy. The absolute most two important things are temperature control and staggered nutrient additions. So you have to have some way to control your temperature. And you have to have a scale to measure your ingredients. Of course you also need to be able to have good Sanitation. And other than that it's pretty simple that's about all you have to have is something to make it in something to age it in the way to feed it correctly and a way to keep the temperatures where you want them.
 

Toxxyc

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Dec 21, 2017
377
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18
Pretoria, South Africa
I was thinking more along the lines of hardware equipment required. For example, a hydrometer and hydrometer tube. Fermenter. Airlock, although it's not the absolute minimum item. Fermenting vessel and another bucket or something you can rack into. Bottling wand, capper, etc. Those sort of things :)
 

bernardsmith

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I am unlikely to be able to catch the podcast live but here's my question: How to find the sweet spot for the level of acidity that will make my mead sing. Hard to believe that it is simply a matter of aiming for a specific TA. If it is taste dependent does this then require bench testing, and if it does what sort of quantities of what sort of acids should I be using for the bench test?
 

EricHartman

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Mar 4, 2019
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Indiana
I am unlikely to be able to catch the podcast live but here's my question: How to find the sweet spot for the level of acidity that will make my mead sing. Hard to believe that it is simply a matter of aiming for a specific TA. If it is taste dependent does this then require bench testing, and if it does what sort of quantities of what sort of acids should I be using for the bench test?

Hey Bernard, Ryan wrote a very detailed article on this very subject: Squatchy on acid adjustment/additions for balance

I think I am steadily becoming the gotmead archivist/librarian ;)
 
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Verolomno

NewBee
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May 30, 2022
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Congrats Ryan. I will try to tune into those for sure. What would be the best way to ask questions during the Podcast? I have a few questions I believe might be interesting to discuss and useful for the listeners. Also, not related to the Podcast’s subject, I wondered what criteria you were looking at when choosing what Podcast hosting service to use? I started thinking recently about doing a podcast myself and would like to hear more about your experiences and how it all started.
 
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Squatchy

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Congrats Ryan. I will try to tune into those for sure.
They were a while ago. But as far as I am concerned. I still think they're the most modern info on the web. I sometimes wish someone else would have done these podcasts. I might feel a bit better pointing people to them. But. I believe if you would listen to them. You will become a much better mead maker
 
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