The worts are now mixed, just yeast left to be pitched. Having a coffee break atm.
As we can see from the photo on the right, there is a good variance between the tests in terms of color.
The aim was to prepare all the worts in similiar fashion;
1. Dilute the honey with water until 23 brix (if fermented dry, it will produce approx 13,5% abv wine)
2. Add homemade yeast nutrient made from bee pollen (the picture on the right)
3. Acidify with citric acid
4. Regulate pH with potassium citrate until pH is 3,9
Honey's sugar level is usually around 80 brix by nature, so not alot of variance there. The biggest variance I found out so far was the buffering element in the honeys.
The order of the worts from the left are: forest honey, chestnut, thyme and lemon.
The chestnut resisted pH change the most when the citric acid was added; this means that it contains minerals which act as a buffer during fermentation. It's usually a good start for a successful fermentation. The potassium citrate as a pH regulator is driving the same effect.
On the other hand, the palest worts (thyme and lemon) were more sensitive to acid and salt additions. This was expected, since pale honeys usually are lower in minerals compared to the dark ones.
I wanted all the worts to be at the same acidity and sugar level before fermentation so that the tests would be comparable between each other. I ended up adding more acids to the thyme wort than the rest, because I corrected the pH too much with citrate, so I had to dial it down again.
Lemon honey didn't have a strong aroma of it's own like I mentioned in my earlier post, but I gotta say that after adding citric acid and the citrate salt, the lemony freshness really started to come through when I tasted it.
The homemade bee pollen nutrient solution might be helpful enough for all the tests to finish the fermentation without reductive aromas or other fermentation issues. It contains naturally all the essential amino acids and also vitamins and minerals. In theory, it's perfect nutrient for yeasts. Hopefully theory meets practice.
All worts will be fermented with Laffort's XAROM, which gave nice results earlier with the carrot wine
Until next time! nostr:nevent1qgsqxv8sswx7ggnjr2rakwgxezf79nyl8a0cvwep6nv8jxw3np9k7rqqypy60z5eamv4c73peed6pf2uaq8cen8tjhmehv9lzjjfpl3nayygshexway