First off hello and thank you.
A few years back I found myself with a lot of free time and living with a backyard full of blackberries so naturally I got curious and decided to make some Blackberry wine. It was definitely a learning experience but something I really enjoyed doing, researching and sharing. After a curve ball or two(or three) in life I find myself free and wondering about mead making. I'd wanted to try for a while and decided now was a good time. I've seen a few people recommend JAOM as an easy first attempt and I debated doing the same myself but I wanted to try something that might add a bit more flavor in the end. So before diving into the fermenter I wanted to attempt a simple 1 gallon mead. More specifically I was wanting to try caramelizing.
what I had in mind ingredient wise was this;
3#s honey (clove)
gallon water
cup raisins
orange zest
red star champagne yeast
stick cinnamon
My thoughts were, instead of caramelizing all the honey, perhaps only doing so with 1# and leaving the other 2#s as is to combine later with the caramelized honey and water to boil. Would this give a nice character and toffee like backround? Or would it be best to caramelize all 3#s.
Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I know I could go extremely simple but unfortunately in my family that never seems to be the case. Again thank you.
A few years back I found myself with a lot of free time and living with a backyard full of blackberries so naturally I got curious and decided to make some Blackberry wine. It was definitely a learning experience but something I really enjoyed doing, researching and sharing. After a curve ball or two(or three) in life I find myself free and wondering about mead making. I'd wanted to try for a while and decided now was a good time. I've seen a few people recommend JAOM as an easy first attempt and I debated doing the same myself but I wanted to try something that might add a bit more flavor in the end. So before diving into the fermenter I wanted to attempt a simple 1 gallon mead. More specifically I was wanting to try caramelizing.
what I had in mind ingredient wise was this;
3#s honey (clove)
gallon water
cup raisins
orange zest
red star champagne yeast
stick cinnamon
My thoughts were, instead of caramelizing all the honey, perhaps only doing so with 1# and leaving the other 2#s as is to combine later with the caramelized honey and water to boil. Would this give a nice character and toffee like backround? Or would it be best to caramelize all 3#s.
Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I know I could go extremely simple but unfortunately in my family that never seems to be the case. Again thank you.