Wouldn't it be cool to sport custom printed coasters with your brews? Hell yeah it would!

Where should one get these in the EU though?

Most shops I found are only selling in bulk, targeting bars. You'll have plethora of options if quantity isn't an issue. But as merely an occasional homebrewer I'd rather get just around 20, even if the unit price is higher.

In this small scale category the best I found so far were a few sellers on Etsy. (It seems to be a thing for weddings.)

Does anyone have experiences or recommendations of custom coasters in the region?

What are you brewing?

How did your special beers for Easter turned up? Do you have something ready to drink or are you waiting for it to be ready?

Let's share what is fermenting, some good tasting #beer you made, something that didn't end up how you liked, happy little accidents that ended up well... Just everything homebrewing, #wine making, #cider , #mead ...

After last month post when I tried to post it through Mastodon, I would like to remind everyone here to leave the @homebrewing in the replie so everyone can see it on Lemmy.

#beer

Here it is, 100% in-house capsicumel with almost 2 year old dandelion honey and rocoto pepper in front and citron peppers in back.

This is the first mead we made from our own honey farm, and it is just so much better than anything peer beekeepers provided before. Want to do something right - DIY (short of manually pollinating the flowers, sure)

EDIT: recipe

1120 OG (just dissolve honey in cold tap water - with vigorous homegrown yeast and Finnish water supply this is safe enough - until gravity is reached); yeast strain MEA101 (ask me if you want some); this particular batch was fermenting for 20 months, but 4 is really enough to start adding peppers. Amount of peppers depends on their firepower and personal preferences, I recommend being brave.

Older batches had, for example, jalapeno loaded at 250 g of pepper in 20 L of mead. Or habanero 25 g in 5 L.

Hi all,

Looking to try my hand at a Capsicumel (spicy mead flavored with peppers). I'd heard about these years and years ago, but never put much thought to it till recently.

I'm hesitant to go all in on my first test batch, but saw that crushed red peppers are a decent way to begin to add spice. I think I want to shoot for a semisweet brew with mild spice - primary flavor should be comparable to a traditional mead, but with a bit of a spicy kick.

I've read that jalapeños are the go to for a mild Capsicumel, but I'm worried even that might be too much (I have experience infusing tequila with jalapeños, and that goes off the rails fast).

I was thinking of using crushed red peppers as the spice source.

Does anyone have experience with this they'd like to share?

Mead is essentially just water mixed with honey that is left to ferment after adding yeast, resulting in what is also called ‘honey wine’, with an ethanol content of usually between 3.5% and 20%. Since soda is mostly water and comes with its own supply of sugar for yeast to feast on, this isn’t such a crazy choice in that respect. Just make sure to remove the carbonation, as the CO2 makes the soda too acidic for the yeast to be happy.

Instead of straight honey, caramelized honey was used for extra flavor after which the brew was left to ferment for a while. For extra flavor notes aged oak, vanilla and cinnamon were added as well, to ensure that the fermentation didn’t erase those core notes of the coke. The result was apparently rather flavorful, with about a 10.5% ethanol content, receiving the full approval of both tame test tasters.

Via Hack-a-Day

These are from a batch a few months ago. I've been working on my filtering process to get pulp out. There's a pretty big tradeoff that comes with clarity. The taste and texture suffer a lot.

After the pictured batch I did an experiment involving two simultaneous small batches. In one I pre-strained as much pulp out as I could and used a decent amount of pectic enzyme. In the other I did no clarification effort at all.

The first was OK. A little thin. A tiny bit off from oxygen exposure from handling it so much.

The second, thick one was undrinkable. The yeast cling's to pulp and is very noticeable in the taste.

So my recent efforts are to try to land in a stable spot somewhere in between. Ferment on the lees, then strain and filter in one pass if possible. So far I'm not having luck properly getting the fruit fibre out.

What are you brewing?

Easter is in few weeks maybe you have some special beer prepared or just your normal #homebrewing experiments. Let's share what is fermenting, some good tasting #beer you made, something that didn't end up how you liked, happy little accidents that ended up well... Just everything homebrewing, #wine making, #cider , #mead ...

I used to make these posts once per month but didn't make them for about a year, let me know if I should start again with them.

@homebrewing

I made a Cock ale.

Wikipedia. Ask me anything.

@homebrewing@sopuli.xyz

Daily check in on my stout, seems to have gotten a bit excited in the night.

E1: Changed out the airlock, sanitized, the whole shebang. Came back 5 minutes later, it happened again lmao. Swapped in another clean airlock, this time with some vodka in it to see if that helps.

E2: Swapped out the airlock again, this time with more vodka, hope that helps keep the bubbles down. This is so exciting!

E3: I've been checking back every hour or so, it's blown over again at least once. I guess I should be happy that my beer is fermenting so actively lol. Looks like I'm gonna be swapping out the airlock every few hours today, until main ferment dies down.

It's another recipe kit from Brewer's Best, but I wanna do at least a few kits like this before I branch out into making a recipe. It's good practice for getting the process down.

I'm interested in adding some spicy kick to my next brew, and was wondering if anyone had any tips for adding chili peppers to their brews. Currently, I have a bunch of dried Habanero peppers, but I could conceivably go for other ones. Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers!

It's pretty good! Definitely have room to improve, but it tastes alright. And now I have beer for the next 3 weeks...

Had no bad batches at home scale, but quite often get these events, when even replacing the lock with an open fermenter does not help. Only regular cleanups work.

This is extra notorious escapee, witbier (OG 1065) made to dump frozen berries that remain in my freezer. And my very vigorous yeast.

Doing a weekend of brewing. Started it off today making a bourbon mash. I got an ultrasonic cleaner a while back I’ve been itching to use. I’ve seen research papers showing some evidence of it speeding up the aging process and I’ve been dying to try it. Tomorrow I’m doing two experiments, brewing an imperial milk stout and doing a keg fermentation with a jumper to another keg to purge the o2 because I’m a cheap bastard. Never fermenter in a keg so I figure it’ll be a fun thing to try. Lastly, because the yeast was expensive I’m going to try to freeze back some yeast from the starter I overbuilt and use it in another brew down the line.

Took a few hours and a lot of spillage, but I got 41 12oz bottles out of it. Probably could've gotten more. Tried a bit, and the flavor was pretty muted and bitter, but I think it just needs to age a bit in the bottles. I'll post back in 2 weeks with the final results.

I know it's not wine, beer or mead, but what do we say about this, guys? I may give it a shot come spring. Anybody else interested?

Link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc

I just used Max MIller's recipe, other than adjusting the botanicals a bit to account for what I already had and what I personally enjoy. Ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, and juniper is what I went with. For those that don't already know, bochet is mead made with caramelised honey. The process of caramelising the honey is where I tripped up last time; the process gives off so much steam and basically spits nature's napalm at you, so it's really easy to underdo it. Still, I made something decent enough to make me want to try again, and here it is!

The two bottles in the pic are only about a quarter of the output, but almost all of my bottles currently have a different homebrew in them right now so I had to start improvising containers. I'm delighted with this round! It has a lovely deep flavour, the cloying sweetness of honey is reduced to a pleasant background. I'm delighted with the colour too after the initial not-fully-caramelised attempt straight up looked like a bottle of piss

I've had a beginner kit in my basement for a while, but never had the time to make it. Now with the holidays, I set aside today to brew it. Probably could've done things better and sanitized more effectively, but I'm just happy to have done it at all. Now to let it ferment, and bottle in a week or so. I really hope it doesn't taste like shit...

OK, so this is the first mead that I have used the calculator app I published just before x-mas https://no.lastname.nz/post/2052141

This is a poor mans blackcurrent mead made with Barker's NZ Blackcurrent cordial.

I must have the maths close enough. calculated at 1.108, tested at about 1.105

Poor-mans Blackcurrent by BlueEther

• Honey: 1.10kg Clover
• Fruits:
  • Blackcurrant Cordial Conc.: 0.7kg
• Yeast: Lalvin EC-1118
• Volume: 4.5L
• Target OG: 1.108

Instructions: Re-hydrate yeast
Weigh out honey
Add about 2L of warm water to demijohn
Add in the honey
Add in 1/2 the nutrients
Stop the demijohn and shake well until all honey is dissolved
Add in the Barker's Blackcurrent
Add the yeast
Top up to 1 Gal or 5L depending on demijohn
Take GS reading and save the OG
Apply airlock and let ferment for 2-4 weeks or more
Rack to 'secondary' to and bulk age and settle
Stabilise and back sweeten if you want

Raspberry peanut butter mead, this happened after racking into tertiary. Primary and secondary had raspberries freefloating in the container, so it miiiight just be floating bits of raspberry. When I shake it up, they briefly sink and float back up.

I've been fed up with the GotMead calculator not working for ages, so I've attempted to make a more modern React app that will work well on laptop and phone

This is the first React app I've made and Gemini has done much of the heavy lifting.

Features:
20/12/2025

• Can save recipes to both a private Cellar and to a public Library ~~[to fix]~~
• Tracking of active ferments with Stage and SG readings - Keeps a log
• List of Yeasts with tolerances and flavour
• List of many Fruits
• Calculates Nutrients - Now fixed as of 23/12/25
• Calculates current ABV%
• Set OG of a brew at start of Active Brew instead of just calculated SG.

New as of 21/12/2025

• New: Archive an active brew and minimise it's card
• New: Saved state when context switching
• New: Share a recipe as markdown: Working proof
• New: Honey floral source with flavour taste, grouped by region
  • Free text field for unlisted honey
  • Extended honey list
• New: Builder tab that doesn't have a target ABV but calculates it
• New: Botanical additions
• New: Search recipes in personal Cellar and global Library
• Public Library logic revisited
  • "Save to Cellar" from public Library
  • "Save to Library" from Cellar to Library
  • Cascade delete from Cellar to Library for owned recipes
  • Enhanced Publishing Security, only logged in users can publish to Library
  • Starting a public recipe will copy it your cellar
  • Fixed security issues with deleting global recipes
  • Added Admin deletes
  • Saved recipes save the user displayName, uses just the first name for privacy
• Fixed some security issues to get profiles working
  • Fixed issue with anonymous users not reading public Library (working profile logging in broke this)
  • Fix trying to log in twice from two anonymous accounts into the same google account
  • Fix displayName (only use first name from returned google profile)
• Clean up unit conversions in all views
• New: Confirm deletes
• New: Collapsible / Expandable cards
• New: Target OG, FG and ABV on the active cards
• New: Add expected FG based on yeast and OG in builder
  • Adjust ABV based on yeast and expected FG
  • Add sweetness to recipe

New as of 20/12/2025

• Chart of SG and ABV in Log
• Fixed more layout issues
• Public Library cards have a unique URL for sharing
• Added instructions page
• Filter Cellar and Library lists/cards
• Clone from Library to designer
• Recipe & Batch Editing
• Add star rating to recipes

New as of 26/12/2025

• Back sweetening calculator
• Font size fixes
• Brew Day checklist
• Bottling & Aging subsection
• Tooltips
• Mobile: fix number entry
• ~~Add comments to Library recipes~~

New as of 29/12/2025

• Progressive Web App - it will 'install' and load like a native app on iOS/Android
• refactored the menu
  • bottom menu on mobile
  • collapsed side menu on tablet
  • expanded side menu on desktop/laptop
• Comments on public recipes
  • Inc. threaded comments
• Full instruction block when creating a recipe
• Share of an active batch to the library
  • Split the library into Becipes and Batches
• Advanced Sorting

ToDo:

• ~~Get profile working to save between devices~~
• ~~General tidy up~~
  • ~~Dropdown list highlights~~
• ~~Real domain name~~ https://goldendrop.blueether.net/ is now live
• ~~Share a public recipe~~ Working proof
• ~~Tweak recipe at the start of brew~~
• ~~Starting a brew from public Library copies it into your personal Cellar~~
• ~~Fix font sizes on some elements~~
• ~~Tweak widescreen layout~~
• ~~Fix public Library~~
• ~~New: Builder tab that doesn't have a target ABV but calculates it~~
• ~~New: Target OG and ABV on the active cards~~
• ~~New: Botanical additions~~
• ~~New: Honey floral source (and taste?)~~
• ~~New: Search recipes in personal Cellar and global Library~~
• ~~New: Add expected FG based on yeast and OG~~
  • ~~Adjust ABV based on yeast and expected FG~~
  • ~~Add sweetness to recipe~~
• ~~Mobile: fix number entry~~
• ~~Add comments to Library recipes~~
• Yeast Starter
• Better Onboarding
  • ~~contextual tooltips~~
  • ~~a "Welcome" modal~~ an info modal available
  • if "Private Cellar" and "Active Batches" are empty display a prompt/hints
• Water Chemistry Adjustments
• Detailed Cost Tracking
• ~~Collapsible menu~~

Main screen on mobile.

Main screen on laptop:

Cellar & Library.

Active brew (medium screen width).

On Friday I brewed up some tree beer using Leyland Cypress boughs in the strike and sparge water as well as in the mash vessel. OG was ~1.050 and I split the boil to brew up a saison and a pale ale with galaxy and sultana (denali) hops. The saison is fermenting with a wild yeast culture I captured from my neighbor's raw honey and the pale ale has Framgarden kveik. They're both fermenting at 87°F/30.5°C

The Leyland Cypress gives the beer a pleasant evergreen/christmas tree flavor that's a bit citrusy and not too overwhelming. I've brewed with this tree a number of times and thoroughly researched it so I'm fully confident that it is not toxic. I don't measure the amount of tree I put in the beer, basically just put branches into the kettle until it's annoying to try to add another one.

Had some leftovers from a sahti x stout run I recently made for a birthday bash. Not enough of the crucial Viking Malt Chocolate Light to replay the well-received recipe, though, and the hops box was on its last crumbs of whathaveyou. I decided this is the time to be brave...

Bought a bag of frozen blueberries (200 g). Mashed a dark brew with a colourful ensemble of malts (Simpsons Maris Otter pale, Simpsons Premium English caramalt, Viking Black malt and Chocolate Light, and Tuoppi rye caramel malt). Infused the blueberries in 1,5 L of water (no boiling) with 20 g of Amarillo pellets. Realised my only option for first hops was Citra – well at least it's high in alphas, in we go at T minus 45 minutes. Brought the infusion to boil and added to the wort at 20 minutes. Scraped the last of a Kent Goldings bag for a 15 min addition.

I've never been a fan of beer with seasonings, so this is quite the experiment. We'll see what kind of animal comes out the tap in due time.

I'm an experienced mead maker with a couple of Micro-Matic Sanke D kegs I bought online over the pandemic. I finally got around to using one, and I'm stuck on the last part of the teardown: removing the CO2 valve from the down tube. I've watched a few YouTube videos and they don't really go into huge detail on this part. I even broke down and called Micro-Matic who basically said that this stuff wasn't designed to be regularly disassembled but instead pressure-cleaned with an expensive keg washer. I'm hoping someone out there has a clever tool or approach they use to handle this situation, even if it's something silly like "I hold it down over this widget with a bump which pushes up the ball and then I spray cleaner down the tube and follow it up with rinse water and I'm not dead yet".

Help?

so my partner is a harry potter fan, from back when What's Her Face wasn't obviously a trashy person. i would just like to preface this by stating that i don't condone the ideas that What's Her Face espouses, we don't buy the merch, we pirated the movies and any of her books in my library had been bought from a used book store which resells donated books.

So in the books, there's a reference to a "butter beer" the kids drink. I'm thinking that this is non-alcoholic as in a ginger beer, or at least not super strong. I wanted to try to make a batch for my partner as a special surprise.

I'm planning on making a batch of this next in the style of an american cream ale with vienna malt as the base, 10% oat and 10% corn flakes, to give it a heavy mouth feel, and adding some vanilla extract and nutmeg for the flavor.

Has anyone here made this before, and if so, how did it go? Any pitfalls to watch out for?