SC - Peeling garlic and chopping onions

[Laura C. Minnick]

 > <snip>
> >Cleaning the blender was no problem as far as I remember. Just simple 
> >soap and water. But then unlike a juicer the surfaces in a blender are
> >pretty smooth and once disassembled it is easy to clean.
> 
> Easy to clean maybe, but did it get clean enough ?
> Did you use soap & water for the rest of the eq as well?

Ok, I thought you meant cleaning the blender after making the apple
juice, since you said that after trying the fruit juicer that it was
pretty messy. I thought that the fruit juicer would do better than
your experience indicates.

> >No, somewhere I've got a hydrometer, but I've never used it, including 
> >when making meads.
> 
> OUCH...it's a good practice to use one.  It avoids having home-made grenades 
> in your refridgerator door all of a sudden (read: after a few weeks)

As I've never had trouble with meads, I haven't bothered to learn how to
use the hydrometer and have judged mostly by the rate or bubbling and
time span. The main thing I've heard from others on the exploding bottles
is that if the bottles are too close together you can get an chain 
reaction. Part of my problem with brewing at all, is that my house is
totally carpetted except for part of one bathroom and inside the
cabinets. The closets are carpetted. So once I got married and "lost"
use of the second bathroom my inside controlled temp space has been
limited. If I try again, I guess I will get some big plastic basins.
I've made all my batches in one gallon jugs rather than the 5 gallon
ones.

> No need for that....I'll send it out by e-mail off the list.  

Thank you. I recieved the files ok, but haven't looked at them yet
because of time preasures. Since you asked for "address" I figured
you meant my postal address. A lot of folks don't have access to
a scanner so I don't assume they do.

There has been a lot of useful information given here recently
about cider brewing. Thanks to everyone who posted some. I may
yet try cider and meads again. I was totally unaware of this
double fermentation of cider, for instance.
 
> Angus

Stefan
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****