the fat content of the cream cheese powder and long-term stability seems very concerning. Also, a tip for lactose: if you heat your must water and add it in primary and simmer for about 20 minutes, it will better incorporate - otherwise, if added in secondary, most of it will fall out of suspension, and you'll lose upward of 20+ potential gravity points
From a chemist that spent 10 years in my first job working with very fine hydrophobic powders, the best way to get them to dissolve is to first make a paste with a minimal amount of water. After the paste is thoroughly mixed, slowly add more water until you have a completely dissolved solution. When you add water too quickly as you did here, you get clumps that are very hard to dissolve without vigorous mixing which we generally want to avoid.
I really didn't know what to think when this recipe was being formulated. I was REALLLLY on the fence about the cream cheese powder.... I'm so thrilled to see it all come together!
This speaks to my soul. Have you had the Talisker 10? My first sip made me think smoked cheesecake. It was the most bizarre feeling I’ve ever had drinking a whiskey. My wheels have been turning trying to figure out the cheesecake flavor in a whiskey. Flavor development is an old skill. Learning it with fermentation differences are pretty new. Like less than a year. Started with kraut, fermented hot sauces, then to whiskey and finally wine and mead. Definitely not the typical route for sure. Cannot wait to try the mead, and eventually a whiskey!!!
Well this is a handy video. My orange sunrise mead is just transferred to secondary and I have planned to add powdered cream cheese but wasn't sure if it should be in primary or secondary.
You can definitely do it without carbonation but you have to stabilize or pasteurize it! I mainly said the kegging comment because you wouldn't be able to bottle carbonate this one.
I bet the cream cheese powder would dissolve better if you shook it up with a little water in a blender bottle like a protein shake to get rid of all the chunks.
