Hi. I live on a small island in Alaska. We have grocery and hardware stores, but no wine/beer making store. My fiance and I have brewed quite a bit of beer, and on a little impules we thought we might make mead this weekend- we haven't made mead in years, and even then it was only once or twice each (in our previous separate lives). We have everything our recipe (papazian's barkshack gingermead) calls for except for gypsum and citric acid.
Does anyone know if these are sold under any other name in say the spices section of the average grocery store? Or for some other purpose in the hardware store?
Alternately, can I just use lemon juice instead of the citric acid? Anyone know how much? I have ascorbic acid, too- someone lower in this forum likes using it for acid balance, but I've read elsewhere it's not so good to use. Substitutions for the gypsum? We have very, very, very pure water- low mineral content. Thanks for any ideas you all have. =)s
Does anyone know if these are sold under any other name in say the spices section of the average grocery store? Or for some other purpose in the hardware store?
Alternately, can I just use lemon juice instead of the citric acid? Anyone know how much? I have ascorbic acid, too- someone lower in this forum likes using it for acid balance, but I've read elsewhere it's not so good to use. Substitutions for the gypsum? We have very, very, very pure water- low mineral content. Thanks for any ideas you all have. =)s