I was at my local brew supply store this afternoon getting more potassium sorbate because I want to get some stuff bottled before all the fruit ripens this year... I'd just finished paying for my stuff when this lady walks in and asks the guy behind the counter about making mead. "You're in luck," he says, "the local expert on mead is right here." And he waves towards me... so I chatted with her for a while and directed her here, so hopefully we'll have another member from Ottawa joining up, she says she and her husband mixed fresh pressed apple juice and honey together in a carboy and have been waiting for it to do something but it's only making a small amount of bubbles, so we recommended making an acclimated starter of K1V and adding it... She also had a recipe with her given to her by a friend that goes by honey volume and suggests using a champagne yeast... so I told her that EC-1118 isn't going to ruin it, but K1V gets almost the same results but is more heat and abuse tolerant as well as a little gentler on the subtler flavours. We also recommended a hydrometer and showed her how to use it, telling her it was the only way to tell if your yeast is doing something, and it's the only way to tell your yeast is done fermenting so it won't explode bottles on you. Always nice when people want to research things before they get too deeply into it!
WVMJ
