Going out for dinner with my wife in the city (without kids) we just happened to pass one of these stores selling all kinds of pipes for various illegal substances – and there it was – in the window – a small 0-100 g scale with 2 decimals precision for 300 Kr/about 43USD/38Euro. Compared to the prices I have been looking at, this is dirt cheap.

I bought one and took it home for testing. I have several discarded reference weights from work, which are discarded every 5 years since it is cheaper to by new weights rather than recalibrating the old ones (!?!). For my purpose they will do till the day I die :o)

My 10 g reference weight measured 10.02g which I find surprisingly accurate for the price of the scale. And then it is small and can easily be put away in a drawer. I can highly recommend this type of scales.

And the dinner? It was great. We went to a restaurant called Cofoco and had a wine menu for 5 terrific dishes, but that is a different story………..

I was also looking at Blichmann’s but these are really expensive. They might be great but right now I am not sure if this is the way to go for me.

Over the last year I fell head over heals for the fermentor from Ss Brewtech, but these were not sold outside the US.

As time went by I found that a new home brewing shop opened very close to were I live named Humlecentralen (HERE) – and what do you know – he sold equipment from Ss Brewtech. I was thrilled.

So now I have the Chronical half barrel fermentor equipped with FTSS temperature control – and it is just so sexy….. :). Even Alexander think it is a great toy

I also purchased the leg extensions which I can only highly recommend, because the bottom valve is really positioned low so unless you open directly to a drain you cannot get a tray underneath it unless the fermenter is lifted.

Now that a stainless steel fermenter has entered the scene I also got chemicals for cleaning (TSP) and passivation (StarSan), as recommended by Ss Brewtech.

TSP (tri-sodium-phosphate) is a relatively strong base that is used for cleaning the fermenter. This is done by scrubbing the surfaces with a soft sponge wetted in a TSP solution.

After the cleaning the fermenter is passivated with StarSan which is a solution of phosphoric acid (~50%) which passivates, dodecyl-benzene-sulphonic acid which is a foaming agent (5-15%) and some antibacterial component(s) which is hush hush (proprietary according to the MSDS)

This is the mild version of the passivation process I know from work which is sodium hydroxide wash followed by a nitric acid passivation bath….. Not really a process you want to fiddle with at home in your kitchen

Looking so much forward to try it out

The pump was purchased at solarproject.co.uk. It is a small 6W pump which is specified for home brewing among other uses. The pump specifications are:

Voltage: 12 V DC (7-14V DC)
Power: 6 Watts (500 mA at 12 V)
Temp. range: -40 to 105 C
Flow: approx. 6 L/min unrestricted flow
Vertical head: 2 m

It is great that it can pump freshly boiled water, so it will be easy to clean and sterilize before use.

I also purchased fittings and tubing (2m) at the site, but not the power supply, since it would not fit Danish power sockets.

Well 6 L/min might still be a bit high so I guess I will be running at a lower voltage. Using 7V I need a little less than 1000mA. I found a power supply from GooBay which can deliver 1000mA at 3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12 V DC. It comes with several different connectors, so any can be picked.

The pump is on the other hand is delivered without connector, but I found a plug (female) which can be attached with screw locks instead of weldings at Brinck Electronik in Copenhagen. It works great and it looks good too. Solarproject should sell something like these too and the kit would be complete.

I tested the pump with water, mostly to ensure that I did all the connections correctly :o)  – nice steady flow, but the pump is not able to pull air, so I still need to draw the mead to the pump initially when racking, since I do not have an outlet in the bottom of my fermentors.

I will hopefully get to try it out on my bochet later this week.

Well I am not in a hurry, and I am not expecting to have an actual sale within at least the next two years, so I am not going to quit my day job. But as a start I have set up my own web-page at mellanova.dk (HERE). I was very surprised how easy it is to build a web page. I use the web hotel unoeuro (HERE) because they are quite cheap – yes, you guessed it: about 1 euro/month. As a guide how to set up a web page I recommend webdesigner (HERE). The guides are very easy and straight forward and in danish.

I have also associated a facebook page (HERE) and also a twitter acount (@MellaNova_Mead) so at least now the name is acquired at the most relevant sites :o)

The sites are not fully updated yet but I hope that the pages will be presentable within the start of the new year. Any tips tricks and ideas are very welcome

Why MellaNova? As most mead makers would know, “mell” means honey in latin. “Mella” means “honey-water” which is the essence of mead. The use of the term “Nova” (New) indicates that the mead I make is NOT according ancient recipes but made under the best conditions that are available today, with innovative use of known and new ingredients. Put in another way, I wish to associate mead with a modern exclusive product and not with Viking drinking orgies. Finally, MellaNova is just very easy to say and remember.

Picture 1: CapsiCyser anno 2014: Samples for tasting – very unprofessional picture but a start :o)

Everybody should know great mead!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I had been working on my own home made magnetic stirrer, and even though it was not quite finished and fancy looking, it was still working. I got the idea from reading www.instructables.com where I found complete instruction on how to make a magnetic stirrer (HERE). I am no wiz with electronics but this was so easy that even I could do it :o)

Getting an old computer fan is not that difficult these days since nobody wants stationary PC’s which are though out all the time. Ask around and somebody will probably have PC just collecting dust and will be happy to let you through their old PC out. Just open the PC, unscrew the fan, and rib the wires out of the motherboard. Clean the fan with wet paper towels, and you now have the main ingredient.

Then you need 2 small power magnets (or neodymium magnets). I purchased mine over the net and it was quite cheap. They were 2 mm wide and 8 mm in diameter. I bought 4 just in case……

These have to be glued on to the fan opposite of each other but also with opposite polarity pointing upwards. Use super glue for the job (cyanoacrylate glue), since this is fast drying and very persistent. But you have to do it right first time.

Finally you need some wires, battery pack, on/off switch (optional), and some sort of connectors.

This is pretty much the same set-up as I found on the web. But there are a few things that are not mentioned there, but are equally important. First of all I was not able to get a cheap potentiometer so I could turn the speed up and down. Instead I just used “number of batteries” to control the speed. I quickly found that:

2 batteries – not enough power to turn the fan
3 batteries – OK speed
4 batteries – Fan is spinning way to fast

….. so I only use 3 batteries (and a clip to make up for the forth in my battery pack)

I used purchased teflon coated magnets as stirrer bars, and the magnet inside them are not as strong and the power magnets. If the stirrer magnet is too long, it cannot keep up with the fan due to water resistance. Hence the magnet size need to be matched with the battery size and speed of the fan.

The two smallest magnets work but the largest does not. Size does matter :o)

One thing I found quite interesting was that electronics and Lego use the same scale. I was surprised to find that Lego matches the screw holes of the fan so I gave my boy Julius an ice-cream in exchange for a “few” building blocks. He wasn’t so sure that he came out on top in this deal.

So using 4 antennas as pins I could easily slide the fan down on these, and lock the fan in place with the more Legos. I also put some blocks in the corners so my beaker would not slide off.

And there you go – a cheap and functional magnetic stirrer.

1) E. C. Kraus
On this page there is a link to articles about wine making. Here you can find plenty of good reading, but scrolling down the page you get to “How to stop a fermentation” (see HERE). But the article does not say anything about how much metabisulfite and sorbate to use.

2) Monkey Boy Mead
This is yet another mead nut whose texts I enjoy reading. He is very enthusiastic. His catagory “meadmaking 101” contains several good articles. One of these is “Ending Fermentation & Aging” which you will find HERE. Here is also a description of back sweetening.

4) Got Mead Forum
…of cause… The forum never lets me down :o). Here I found a great thread. about stopping fermentations HERE. The reply from Wayne (wayneb) is quite good. I am not a member, so I unfortunately I cannot follow his link.
___________________

Update:

3) Brew and Wine Hobby
From a google search I found a blog topic describing Sulfite vs. Sorbate. Unfortunately the page has been removed.

For FG
  0.990 – 1.010 “dry mead”
  1.010 – 1.025 “semisweet mead”
  1.025 – 1.050 “sweet mead”

For OG and ABV
  Hydromel:
  1.035 – 1.080
  3.5% – 7.5%
  Standard mead:
  1.080 – 1.120
  7.5% – 14%
  Sack mead:
  1.120 – 1.170
  14% – 18%

Just for fun, Ken Schramm has the following definitions for sweetness in his book (2003):
  0.990 – 1.006 “dry mead”
  1.006 – 1.015 “medium mead”
  1.012 – 1.020 “sweet mead”
  1.020 – N.A.  “dessert mead”

Notice how BJCP has a mead at for example 1.023 to be considered as semisweet, whereas the same mead would be considered a dessert mead by Ken Schramm :o).

Just remenber, that these are just numbers to describe some basic characteristics of mead. Whether you enjoy the smell, taste, and mouth feel will always be an individual experience.

10) brewboard.com