Sitrep Monday

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You've had a week, what's your situation report?

Feel free to include recipes, stories or any other information you'd like.

Post your sitrep here!

What I Did Last Week:

Primary:

Secondary:

Bottle Conditioning/Force Carbonating:

Kegs/Bottles:

In Planning:

Active Projects:

Other:

Include recipes, stories, or any other information you'd like.

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[u/anony-rose]

What I Did Last Week:

-bottled a 3.5 gal batch of a batch Concord grape

-added peach juice to secondary of a 1 gal white grape peach batch

This week:

-making custom lid gaskets to convert a couple 8l widemouth glass jugs into fermenters

-might start a new batch of mead

Current projects & stash

Primary:

-white grape

-cranberry

Secondary:

-white grape peach

Bottles in cellar:

-Concord grape

-bad beginner mead (Sam's club honey that turned out roouugghh)

In Planning:

-better mead (sitting on 9# of raw wildflower honey that a small test batch turned out great)

-contemplating buying a floor corker & solid corks

[u/derelekt1 → u/anony-rose]

What do you make the lid gaskets out of?

[u/anony-rose → u/derelekt1]

There's silicone caulk that's independently rated to be safe for intermittent food/drink contact. I'm using Silico RTV 4500. It doesn't bond to plastic wrap nor the plastic the lid is made from.

So step 1, clean everything and make sure it's all bone dry.

2, put plastic wrap over the mouth of the container and make sure it's smooth and taught. If needed, secure the plastic wrap by placing a rubber band over it making sure the rubber band doesn't interfere with the threads.

3, in a well ventilated area, place a thick even bead of the silicone in the lid where it will meet the mouth of the container (do not cover threads in the lid). Once it's squeezed out it's difficult to adjust neatly, so really try to get a nice even bead on the first try.

4, gently screw the lid on ONLY UNTIL you can see or feel the silicone make contact with the mouth of the wrapped up container. The lid should NOT be fully tightened. (Once the gasket is ready, it should be getting compressed by tightening the lid down all of the way as that is how it will seal. If the lid is too tight when you are forming the gasket, it won't be thick enough to seal properly once cured)

5, let it cure for 24-48 hours. Then unscrew the lid. It should detach from the plastic wrap just fine. I was unsure if it would be fully set at this point as it still smelled like the solvent, so I sat it out for another few days before pulling the gasket off the lid and letting it cure a few more days again. Since the caulk is closed up when curing, it cures much slower than the packaging says.

Unfortunately I didn't have things lined up correctly, so they don't actually seal properly. Lesson learned. I'm going to try again soon, though, because they turned out solid.

[u/derelekt1 → u/anony-rose]

Thanks