So they are just screwing around, since they didn’t write it down? Or maybe it is science since it’s recorded?

Well thank you :)

We mistakenly said our wine tannin was from chestnuts. It’s actually from oak.

Have fun!

My tea mead is Earl Grey with lemon zest and clover honey. Enjoy!

Thank you!

Thanks!

This was tannins though, not acidity.

;)

Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it.

Your reasoning makes sense too.

Lol, no hangover.

That’s still blue.

Happy to help!

Great to hear!

Yup, totally. Just you. ;)

No difference in this test but it’s a very dark wine.

That’s great but we are not in the SCA.

Definitely, lol.

I don’t know that it has much noticeable effect.

Thank you!

Thus our non definitive solution.

Yeah that makes sense too.

Thanks!

Oak chips add tannin :)

Well… our test showed otherwise in this case.

If you say so. Salt and yeast don’t like each other. Even Himalayan salt is just trace minerals so there’s effectively no difference.

One.

Coffee does have tannins but it will alter the flavor.

I wouldn’t call it a waste. I prefer it for convenience sake.

@@CitySteadingBrews For me, it is, have so much tea in the house and with inflation and energy prices rising hysterically, yup a waste!

@@heartemisart700 well, tannin powder requires no power... but tea does, so, while it is another thing to buy, it's actually comparable in price but more convenient :)

@@CitySteadingBrews yet, gotta love my solar energy set-up! Nope, from this end it's still a waste :-)

You are welcome!

They tend to enhance a brew. Necessary is subjective here, but in most cases it will be better with some tannin additions.

It’s totally fine :)

Nah, she’s fine :)

Moist but no flooding or damage :)

@@CitySteadingBrews Knock wood.

Well it’s gone now so… we’re good, lol.

@@CitySteadingBrews Whew!

Technically you can add tannin anytime.

Much of what you're asking is personal bias and dependent on the recipe itself. Tea and raisins CAN be too much tannin or not enough, depends on how much you add and other factors. Oaking is adding tannins, but also adding other flavors too, and... depending on how much and how long you oak it, it alone can be too much, or hardly noticeable. I know that doesn't really answer your question but.... there's really no way to say without testing and tasting.

@@CitySteadingBrews thank you very much for the answer, yeah I know that oak can easily overpower the brew and that it adds flavors (that i really like), question was more for the future "if I make brew without raisins and tea, and oak it afterwards, will there be something critical missing in flavor, aside from less tannins obviously" But as you said, testing and tasting is the key. Keep up with wonderful work, much love from Serbia :)

Again... it's so hard to give a concrete answer. We don't always add tea or raisins, it's a matter of what we want from the final drink.

Don’t really know about that one personally.

Great value honey is ok, not the best but for a beginner ferment you can't go wrong. It makes a passable mead not spectacular but good enough.

It could be sweetness. Tends to make things feel thick.

@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks for the reply, we will dive into the gravity of the situation...

@TigerPat_9180 Thanks for your time responding. Our gravity readings are different from one another ...

Blue? Oh the ring? Supposedly it helps keep it from shattering if it falls over.

😂 oh, I guess that's why I've gone through 3 broken tubes. Thanks

lol

Not stupid at all. Use 5 teabags. The amount of water doesn't really matter :)

@@CitySteadingBrews lovely. Thank you so much. Y'all are awesome 😎

You could use garlic in a cooking wine: onions, garlic, yes mushrooms, either grape or sugar wine. I think I'd use grape.

One of our admins made garlic wine for cooking.

Huh, so it does work… Maybe not such a crazy idea after all.

It’s up to you but why add lemon?

@CitySteadingBrews because I don't know when to stop adding stuff 🤔 thank you for helping

We have a reason for every ingredient. If you can’t think of why it should be there… maybe you don’t need it :)

One way to go about knowing if you need to add lemon rind to your mead is to make it without… and to taste it once it has cleared. If it’s missing the freshness of citrus, add a little bit of lemon zest (not the entire rind with the white pith, I beg you) and to let that sit for a week. Taste again. My guess is that it won’t need it because strawberries have plenty of acidity of their own. Do your tasting using the ’goldilocks’ method by adding a bit of sweetness in the glass if you’re planning on back sweetening your final brew though, sweetening it to your liking. And remember that brews containing banana often need some age on them to come into their own. Another thing I like to do for all of my brews is to go by the advice a Michelin star chef I know always keeps telling his apprentices: “If it doesn’t add anything valuable to the dish, it doesn’t belong in the recipe or on the plate.” Anything that doesn’t bring a brew to a more elevated level doesn’t end up in my brews. That’s also why I keep a binder with all my brewing notes and I always include my tasting notes over time. It provides me with valuable information on how a brew evolves over time and if after say, a year I’m missing something or a flavour gets too overpowering I’ll know that next time I need to tweak the recipe or method (or drink up my stash faster). When doing a variation using a sale dominant ingredient, it provides me with clues on what might work or not. That’s how I learned never to use more than 1/3rd of the bananas unpeeled in any banana brew and not to allow strawberries to stay in primary for more than 5 days if they’ve been frozen or they’ll turn to complete mush that doesn’t stay in the mesh brewing bags I use, causing too much sediment and therefore too much loss. And that strawberries have more acidity than I originally thought. It taught me that vanilla should only be added in secondary or you lose too much of the delicate flavour. Incidentally, I’m soon going to try to make a ‘banana split mead’: banana, vanilla and cocoa nibs. Based on the dessert with the same name (vanilla ice cream, a ripe banana and chocolate sauce). I might need lemon in secondary to add a little bit of acidity. Then again, if I add tea to the start of the brew the fermented tea might add citrus notes and I might not need it. So all I’m going to do is make sure I have a lemon ready when I taste my cleared brew. And should you be curious: I toast my cocoa nibs before adding them in secondary. I already know the banana flavour will only start coming into its own at 3-6 months and the entire brew will only really balance out at around 6-12 months, which means I’ll probably keep it under airlock until 3 months post fermentation and start adding the vanilla then. Nibs will go in after first racking as soon as it’s fermented dry. Shooting for an ABV around 12-14%. I hope your recipe turns out fabulous!

@eddavanleemputten9232 thank you

It’s not a wine to drink cold.

Yeah, mostly being facetious :)

@@CitySteadingBrews facetious? never! haha

Yeah, in hindsight it would have been a good idea.

So we shouldn’t do taste based tests?

@CitySteadingBrews No sir! I'm not saying that at all. I don't know how you got that out of my comment. Lol. I'm just saying everyone's different. What your tasting will be different than most others. We all want to hear your taste test opinions. But, there will be disagreements. Not everyone knows that peoples taste buds can differ that much. Someone may not think your wine is dry or sweet, as you may think it is. I'm on a few Bourbon sites also. I've seen many people in disagreements with which bourbon is better. They sniff and taste. One will like this bourbon, but the other person will disagree and say I think this one tastes better. One says I taste some notes of vanilla, oak, and cherries. The other will say I don't taste any of those. I taste chocolate notes with a little ethanol and buttery flavor on the same bourbon. Lol. We're all wired differently. 🤷

@CitySteadingBrews I do have a question for you. I want your opinion. I used to make wine. I haven't made wine since 2007. I have two bottles from 2007. One Merlot and one White Zinfandel. They have aged 16 years. Will the wine taste better? Will it be the same? No change? Or will it be terrible? What do you think?

The variables involved are far too wide to really say. Most wines top out at 3-4 years usually. After that it’s a slow decline. Could they be amazing? Sure. Could they be horrible? Same odds I think. Most likely they will be fine if they haven’t spoiled.

Thanks :)

If you want to...

Maybe at some point. I honestly don’t expect a significant result.

@CitySteadingBrews but the "science" need to know 😉

We could I guess. Tannins are subjective though and not a requirement. More of an enhancer.

@@CitySteadingBrews gotcha

Molasses is notorious for harsh taste and needing a very long aging time.

@@CitySteadingBrews OK I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info.

Told ya.

But the sky isn't gray, that's the clouds.

@@CitySteadingBrews Are you sure that I'm talking about clouds? Maybe I am talking about the ability of light reflected off snow to wash out the color of the sky in early morning and late evening. Although, to be less ambiguous I should have said purple, or orange, or red, or green, all of which appear in the sky without clouds or the ground being involved.

Thanks for making doing comments even more difficult today.

;)

There are so many things. What do you like?

@@CitySteadingBrews I mainly drink sweet meads and fruity white wines. I once made a strawberry wine for the first time that was dry but nice. So I guess I could say dry as well?

Again… the options are nearly endless. If you know mead and wine, just choose a recipe that appeals to you? Anything can be made dry. We tend to ferment dry and sweeten to taste.

Hm, okay. Thank you ^^

We didn’t have one. Also… not that inebriated at all.

Lol

It’s supposedly true.

@@CitySteadingBrews Yeah, but I've been Kayamping, so not really a good idea for me At the Moment. 👃

I want to ask - While I was kayamping last weekend, I tried my first Pumpkin Cider. I intend to start an experimental pumpkin wine this (Labor Day) weekend. I looked, did I miss a Pumpkin thing from you? This is gonna be fun!!!

Nope. Not a pumpkin fan.

This was about differences in tannin and flavor. Sure a control might have been good but as we said, we are not scientists.

Not looking at all. Quite tired of arguments to be honest.

We see it as blue regardless of the reason behind it.