Let's Make a Traditional Mead: North Mountain Mead

[@JonathanWagnerXanth]

Hey guys, please don’t apologize for your old videos… the changes over time are informative, and admittedly entertaining! :). Thank you for sharing all of these and educating us!!

[@seankent7996]

You guys are amazing. Thank you for everything you do for the homebrew community

[@rcairnut]

EC1118, D47, Mangrove Jacks M05, Red Star Premier Rouge are rock stars for me in South Dakota, however in the summer 71b really works well. I only know this by comparing my brew notes to my brew rooms temps. point in case it is cool in my brew room now, 67 to 69 deg and my current traditional stalled hard with good PH and 71b. Thanks for helping me put this all together.

[@alexcan669]

“It’s not PEAR 👹” That made me laugh 😂. I love you guys happy holidays

[@Ceare100]

Thank you for all your time and efforts that go into your videos! Great info! Have a Merry Christmas.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you and same to you!

[@1boortzfan]

You guys nailed it with your tittles. KZbin Educators. That fits you both to a T. You are good at it too.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you!

[@vintage1994]

I love the idea of a mead tutorial by candlelight 😂! Barry Lyndon Mead!

[@selina6317]

Spooky storm brew video would be cool :)

[@MrBPC76]

Been watching you all long enough that I have decided to start making meads and ciders at home following some of your recipes, hopefully getting to the Christmas Fruitcake early enough to let it age a while before next Christmas. Thanks for all you guys do, and I'll save a bottle or two for a comparison since I'm sort of right up the road from ya.

[@sandrajohnsonfischer890]

Enjoy your videos. I wish you had less commercial breaks.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Well, we don't add any tbh, just the ones YT puts in automatically. But they do help us earn a living from making videos or there is no way we could do this full time. I mean, YT is a free service but the ads keep everyone in business so it's not that big of a deal is it?

[@jeffmorefield5145]

Love watching y'all Picking up knowledge is a plus.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you.

[@OwlCreekHS]

Once again, ...... going back to the bare bone basics is great for learning and ensuring one hasn't lost some of the basic brewing steps. That's one your greatest strengths ..... you teach at a level everyone gains from!! Merry Christmas, thanks for all your hard work.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

[@Badger_and_Hive_Homebrew]

Ohh the easter egg brews coming up look exciting

[@scotteinuis4991]

Will have to try this honey. Happy Holidays!!!!

[@Drok_Dagoon]

Can I make a suggestion to you CSB? Can you add a black dot or the word "clarity" or even a persons name from the community to the white piece of paper when your trying to display the final clarity of the brew? I think it would help get visual across of the clarity of the brew thru the camera. I also think it would be a neat way to have interaction with the community. It maybe a great time to highlight a name of somone in the community that y'all would like to recognize during that segment of the video. Just an idea that I thought would be neat to suggest. Love y'all and keep up the great work! Peace!✌️

[@LiBrian2]

I came here to make a similar suggestion. A flat white background does nothing to demonstrate the clarity of the brew, just lightens the background color. Contrast is necessary, to demonstrate the clarity.

[@len_pheonix141]

I was watching this next to my sleeping cat Steve. He heard Tigger. Popped his head up looking around. He loves other cats so he thought he had a visitor.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Lol

[@Questerer]

34:53 this moment is so cute. Relationship goals. Is that there.

[@boglurker2043]

Oh cool, Rowse is the brand I’ve been using. Here in England they have a few different varieties of it as well. The “runny” and dark versions of it taste best to me.

[@ratkinguk1942]

Does adding oak wood chips have big impact on flavour? I’m thinking of making a eucalyptus honey mead and an acacia honey mean. Was going to add wood chips too both. But don’t want them tasting the same. Love all you do, keep up the great work 😎👍🏻

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yes it will have an impact but I don't think it would make those taste the same. Different honeys will make different meads.

[@mothergoose229]

For airlock spirit use, avoid flavored things. I think it was Cooper 's Honey bourbon that I had, and it ended up leaving a crazy nasty film all over everything in the airlock.

[@dawsonrivers23]

Oh no I hope not I put honey whiskey in the last airlock I used 😮

[@mothergoose229]

@dawsonrivers23 it didn't end up harming anything. It started looking pretty nasty and I was wondering if I somehow had an infection in the airlock. All said and done. Everything turned out okay, once it started getting weird. I rinsed it out and replaced it with vodka.

[@dawsonrivers23]

@mothergoose229 yeah thanks for the heads up have to fix that later

[@Questerer]

Question for you guys using strong spirits for the airlock: is there a reason why you like to use spirits over TRBOS water?

[@dawsonrivers23]

@Questerer it's easy to just top it off instead of making more sanitizer

[@robertbeveridge9150]

Hey I’ve been watching you guys now for a few months and I’ve done my first two brews. Have you thought of infusing your honey with something like hibiscus? And doing like a peach hibiscus mead or something like that I know you’ve had a hard time liking peach brews but I think it would make an amazing video

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Maybe? But hibiscus will easily overwhelm peach flavors.

[@robertbeveridge9150]

Yeah, I understand that, maybe you guys could experiment with infusion. It doesn’t even necessarily need to be hibiscus. I think I’m definitely gonna try it on a brew.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Sure, infusing is really cool, but... in a mead, why go through the trouble of infusing it when you can add hibiscus directly? It's great for having a flavored honey for other things though.

[@billbucktube]

Candle light mead tutorial, music by Kenny G.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Copyright strike by YT.

[@billbucktube]

@ Can you imagine, doing a fake video. Just to illustrate the concept. The Copyright Swat Team busts through the door yelling, “Turn down the volume and step away from the Bluetooth!” One has a video recorder, another has a DAT, another is scanning with a LIDAR while another has an audio spectrum analyzer‼️ The documentation of your perfidy would be complete! All the while you’d be saying this is a private video, not for broadcast… To no avail, The Copyright Cops have acted…

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Copyright is a thing, whether for personal or commercial use. I spent most of my life as a professional photographer so it's kind of something I protect and stand behind.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Also... if only that was how they did it, instead they take the income from your video then if you keep doing it you lose your channel and the ability to create new channels. For us, we would be out of work...

[@billbucktube]

@@CitySteadingBrews I have no issue with copyrights. I think it could be a factor in the greatness of America. I was just having fun.

[@WolfDragonTamer]

I prefer to keep temp around 70 degrees anyway so it will work for 71b

[@JosephJohnson-n6v]

Do you know what kind of honey bees produce that particular type of honey?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It's a blend of wildflower honeys, the species of honeybee? No idea.

[@veteranoutcast]

I have a questiom, could you use lemon curd to flavor your mead?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I wouldn't as most contain eggs which might spoil.

[@matthm65210]

I created a bocheted hydromel (was planning on wine-strength, but I ran out of honey 😂). I pasteurized it with your seuz vide method and it turned from dark amber-brown to almost black. Is that color change normal for bochets?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Boches can change color, sure. Pasteurization usually doesn't change it though.

[@WilliamB.D.]

Hello Friends, I currently can't access no rinse sanitizer like star sun in my country, Could you make some recommendations about alternative methods? Thanks! I heard peracetic acid can be usable or bleach but I am not sure

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We said right in this video to use baby bottle sanitizer.

[@WilliamB.D.]

​@@CitySteadingBrews I apologize, I actually didn't watch video yet. Thanks for the answer

[@gsf120098]

My fermentation station usually runs 60 degrees or a little less. I have found that red star cote des blancs and cuvee work well at these temps.They also take a month or more. Have you ever thought of making a bottle bomb on purpose? I would be interested in seeing how destructive it is. I keep my brews in a plastic tote. Would that be sufficient to contain a bomb? Or am I courting death, and destruction of an entire room of my house?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

No, we would never make a bottle bomb intentionally and I don't think anyone should.

[@christopherjackson1550]

CSB by 🕯️ light? That'd be quite an episode! 😅

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Erm... probably not as that isn't nearly enough light to make a quality video.

[@christopherjackson1550]

@CitySteadingBrews I didn't say it'd be *quality*, just *quite an *🤪 LOL

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Ahhh

[@dungeondan]

I can't remember, have you ever given us an ending pH reading once finished?

[@dungeondan]

Lol and that's why I should wait to comment until the end of the video 🥺

[@trinityzaku]

Got two going right now that are right around 6 weeks that both have slowed tremendously at round 1.030 and 1.040. I checked ph and both are right around 3 so I am wondering if I should boost the ph some.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Maybe, but ph does go down during fermentation naturally.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

What did it start at gravity wise and what yeast?

[@trinityzaku]

1.106 and 1.104 both with 71b.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I would let the run their course unless they stall.

[@trinityzaku]

Roger roger

[@brianhedrick8614]

Come over to the dark side, we have Mead!

[@bigosbro21]

Does North Mountain sell that honey in bulk? Sorry, being lazy and askjng while still watching the video and having not checked the site ... also busy day in the kitchen today.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

12 pounds is the largest atm.

[@bigosbro21]

​​@@CitySteadingBrewsokay thanks! I try to buy by (bye bye! ... sorry) the 60lb/5gal bucket since we use a lot of honey , and I make mead.

[@jamespreston7823]

The points are made up, and the Scoresby doesn't matter ... or maybe it does, because it kills the bugs 😉

[@seeglines]

Yesterday I tried a wine that advertised no-sugar. It was very light and not dry. Alc% is 14.1. Chardonnay. How can you get this % with no sugar? Brand is Lifevine. Can you do an episode about how to do this? Thx

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Probably non fermentable sugars or they didn't add sugar and just used the fruit itself which is how most wines are made really.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

The yeast has eaten all the sugar and converted it to alcohol. It originally had a sugar content.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I checked it out, they just don't add processed sugar, and use only grapes. Saying no sugar is a bit cheeky in that regard but from their perspective they added no sugar directly. Kind of. I guess.

[@seeglines]

@@CitySteadingBrews How do you get 14.1% without adding sugar? What I read on the internet is without adding sugar you will get somewhere around 7%, more like a cider. I understand if you add more yeast that could increase %, but then you have a dry wine. This didn't taste dry to me - very light. Just curious. BTW they have serving facts on the bottle: per 5 oz serving carbs are 3.1g - that's less than a teaspoon right? For anyone interested cal=120.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Wine grapes have been used for centuries without added sugar and can achieve 10-15%.

[@stevewood7654]

Your links for 3lb and 12 lb Amazon honey are the same.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I will check on that.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Fixed, thank you.

[@johnp.2267]

That fermentation really dropped the pH level a good bit. Kind of surprising, at least from the POV of someone who hasn't seen that before. Definitely pushes the idea of keeping an eye on pH. P.S. - Jedi Council also deal in absolutes. Just look at Yoda's admonishment against relationships. It's an absolute. Just sayin'. ;) Aing-Tii Monks FTW!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

pH always drops during fermentation.

[@johnp.2267]

@@CitySteadingBrews Absolutely. I meant the amount was surprising to me. Seems like it dropped almost 1.5 points in pH.

[@markmanning2921]

i *KNOW* you know you can put some of the must back into the honey jar and shake the you know what out of it to get that last sacred drop of gooey goodness! Ok, you did the same but different :) "Keep going till you reach the end... then stop!"

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We used the water for the must but yeah, same concept.

[@pete8420]

The white paper test should be a barcode test.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Working on it.

[@thewrenchreviews9986]

Kveik yeast can do well at 104F.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I don't keep my house at 104, lol.

[@markmanning2921]

Ok, was watching your skeeter pee video again, was going to try making it and a question poped into my head unexpectly. Are there any GMO yeasts, are all "cultivated" yeasts GMO? if so, is there a source for non GMO yeasts?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

They are living things...

[@markmanning2921]

@@CitySteadingBrews So is wheat and most of the bread you purchase in the stores is made from geneticlly modified organisms. Farmers are not allowed to keep some of their harvest to plant next year because the those seeds are the intellectual property of the corporation that genetically modified them.

[@tanshihus1]

Dried Kiwi's, Nectarines, and Rolled oats are visible. What, no Taro roots?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Umm, no?

[@Dark_Reaper_86]

To touch more on what Brian is talking about, 10-13 or so percent mead you're not going to notice much difference in alcohol as the average person. You're only *REALLY* going to notice it with something like a hydromel (around 5%) compared to a 15% mead. That's where you will see the alcohol taste change the overall flavor of your mead. Unless you're *extremely* experienced in tasting various amounts of alcohol in things like mead, wine, etc. (which is very unlikely) you can't say "Oh I can tell the difference in alcohol flavor with a 10% vs 12% drink". Anyone who says that is full of it and lying through their teeth. The odds of actually being able to taste THAT minimal of a difference is slim and none. Your palate would have to be SUPER sensitive, and the mass population does not have that

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Side by side you might but not just taking a drink. Too many variables.