3 Sisters and a Cousin

CornyKegs 728
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Here She is....and just to refresh...She started out on 5-26-08 As a 1.090 Must pitched with Premiere Cuvee. She is now down to .996 and has ben racked onto this fruit:

peaches.jpg

This is 6# of Sliced and diced Peaches, and 1 oz chunk of Ginger. Not as visible is the juice from 1 good size lime. I wish I could make this one a Scratch and sniff!

Just in case you can't picture how much 6 # of Peaches are...it fills a 3 gallon carboy to the first ridge.

And here she is racked and ready to sleep for a month or so. The Premiere Cuvee will likely kick back in with all the sugar from the peaches....we'll see how that goes.

3_sys.jpg
 
Looks great, Kahuna. I'm fixing to start up my own peach melomel this week. I'll be doing it a bit differently, with the fruit in the primary as per the recent BYO article. Here's my plan -- please critique:

[edit] Found a link for the article text: http://www.bjcp.org/mead/melomel.pdf [/edit]
Ingredients (for ~ 3 gallons)
3 # Colorado Wildflower Honey
3 # Colorado Clover Honey
6 lbs Palisade Peaches.

Slice peaches and freeze. Remove frozen peaches, squish around in the bag to mash them, add to 6 gal. bucket. Mix honey with hot water to 3 gal. total volume, add to bucket. Add 3 campden tabs to kill off nasties and let the must sit for 24 hours. The author of the article has had no problems with wild fermentation even without the Campden treatment, but I'm still concerned about it.

Next day, aerate, pitch yeast and nutrients. Following that, punch down the fruit cap daily and follow staggered nutrient addition schedule until fermentation slows. Rack off lees into CO2 purged carboy, and rack monthly until clear.

Am I missing anything? Currently, I have montrachet in the fridge, but I hear Montrachet can generate some bad flavors in mead, so I may hit the LHBS at lunchtime for some alternatives.
 
jds said:
Am I missing anything? Currently, I have montrachet in the fridge, but I hear Montrachet can generate some bad flavors in mead, so I may hit the LHBS at lunchtime for some alternatives.
Click to expand...

It's not how I would do it, but it is sound practice. Due to the antiseptic nature of honey, that Campden is really unnecessary, but certainly won't hurt anything if it makes you feel better.
Do you have your honey yet? I'd almost recommend against WildFlower honey. I've never heard anyone say anything good about it, and the one mead I have with it is kinda funky (Not sure if it's the honey, the fact I used Windsor Yeast, or the fact that it's still not even 2 full months old?) But as 1/2 of the bill, it could be very good.
If you're following a recipe though, I'd just stick with it.
D-47 or Cotes Des Blanc will also be a good yeast.

You headed to the Brew Hut?
 
BigKahuna said:
It's not how I would do it, but it is sound practice. Due to the antiseptic nature of honey, that Campden is really unnecessary, but certainly won't hurt anything if it makes you feel better.
Do you have your honey yet? I'd almost recommend against WildFlower honey. I've never heard anyone say anything good about it, and the one mead I have with it is kinda funky (Not sure if it's the honey, the fact I used Windsor Yeast, or the fact that it's still not even 2 full months old?) But as 1/2 of the bill, it could be very good.
If you're following a recipe though, I'd just stick with it.
D-47 or Cotes Des Blanc will also be a good yeast.

You headed to the Brew Hut?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on the honey vs. campden. Maybe I'll just skip the campden then. As for the honey, I know wildflower can be pretty powerful stuff, hence the idea of using 1/2 wildflower and 1/2 clover. I don't mind a long aging, so I'll go with it, since I already have the honey. As for the yeast, I went with Lalvin 1122, which is supposed to ferment out with some fruity aroma, which I thought would go well with the peaches.

And, unfortunately, I'm too far west to make it to the Brew Hut at lunch. I usually end up at Beer & Wine at Home, which is a decent LHBS, if not as well-stocked or involved as the guys at TBH.
 
jds said:
And, unfortunately, I'm too far west to make it to the Brew Hut at lunch. I usually end up at Beer & Wine at Home, which is a decent LHBS, if not as well-stocked or involved as the guys at TBH.
Click to expand...

I too like Beer and Wine at Home and the Westminster store is usually where I drop off (or have one of our trucks deliver) my mead entries for the International Mead Festival. I prefer Stomp Them Grapes though because it has a more "homey" feel.

BigKahuna - those peaches sure make me want to try another peach melomel but the last one I tried took forever to clear and now I'm kinda gun shy when it comes to peaches.
 
BigKahuna said:
HOLLY CRAP!
I used what...about 7# total of Strawberries for 3 gallons. What are you making? Berry Extract for Baking?

I'll bet that is some super fruity juice! I'd like to try it...Do you still taste any of the honey, or is it mostly fruit?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the confusion. I posted right at quitting time and I had one eye on the clock and the other on the door! I should have said 3-4 lbs, with 3 lbs per gallon being the norm. I'll sometimes add the extra pound to the secondary and, once it ferments dry, I backsweeten with honey and that provides plenty of honey aroma and flavor. The fruit in the secondary is what really imparts the essence of the particular fruit you're using. As for trying sometime, we'll have to arrange that!
 
That's why I didn't take any Pictures.
It was a pretty uneventful Racking, but I racked the First and Second Sisters. Both Taste Fabulous. The Plum sister was less fruit flavor, and extra rocket fuel, but much better than I'd figured since it's the one I poured through a strainer in my last fit of anger.

I did use 1 campden tab per gallon on both when I racked.
 
Time to rack the cousin....just for good measure.
Taste is mild and fantastic. Very nice flavor that is not really what I'd call distinctly Blueberry...surprisingly enough. It is still a tad HOT, but not extremely so. The alcohol Flavor is still very strong, but come on...we're only like 7 months from Brew Date. Color is nice and well represented in the pictures. It's clear, but not what I'd call "Star Bright"...YET!
The Pictures show a slightly higher gravity, as this was racked in the basement at around 48 F
This project has been SO MUCH FUN! I can't wait for another 6 months to go by.

IMG_0718_copy.jpg



IMG_0716_copy1.jpg
 
Wow, Big that does look fantastic for secondary racking.
I'll wait for the final verdict in around two years to make them, but I think I'll pull another draft of cider now.
I think I need a nice clean new glass sample holder, my current one is getting just a little messed up to where I can't really see through it anymore.
 
Quick Update.
Bottled the first and third sisters! W00T!
The third was the first into bottles 447 days since brew day, and significantly over gingered, I ended up with 11 750ml bottles and 2 375's. I taste tested at bottling and added a tad bit of acid blend, it just smoothed out the ginger flavor of the Peach Ginger mead.
Next up was the strawberry. It has been a fun one to watch. It has had every flavor and aroma profile since fruit was added. It has been plastickey, Pasty, Fruity, funky, Nasty...now it's just awesome! Fruit flavor comes full steam and the honey profile is a nice balance.
I used a keg to bottle, just because it's easier than using a bottling bucket, and took my same 13 bottles as with the third sister, but there was some left! MEAD ON TAP!
I left it in the keg, and had Strawberry mead on tap for about 36 hours....3 glasses and blown, but I had it. It was so nice to have mead on tap, I am experimenting with some low gravity blackberry meads to see if I can produce a drinkable product quickly enough to have on tap.
The Blueberry cousin will bottle next, then finally the plum. Unfortunately, the plum lost much volume due to my blending the plums into sludge that took up 4" at the bottom of the carboy...Oh Well...Quality not quantity!

Keeping fingers crossed, It looks like I may have 4 super successful meads before this is all finished...and I was actually expecting to have some failures.
 
BigKahuna said:
Quick Update.
Bottled the first and third sisters! W00T!
The third was the first into bottles 447 days since brew day, and significantly over gingered, I ended up with 11 750ml bottles and 2 375's. I taste tested at bottling and added a tad bit of acid blend, it just smoothed out the ginger flavor of the Peach Ginger mead.
Next up was the strawberry. It has been a fun one to watch. It has had every flavor and aroma profile since fruit was added. It has been plastickey, Pasty, Fruity, funky, Nasty...now it's just awesome! Fruit flavor comes full steam and the honey profile is a nice balance.
I used a keg to bottle, just because it's easier than using a bottling bucket, and took my same 13 bottles as with the third sister, but there was some left! MEAD ON TAP!
I left it in the keg, and had Strawberry mead on tap for about 36 hours....3 glasses and blown, but I had it. It was so nice to have mead on tap, I am experimenting with some low gravity blackberry meads to see if I can produce a drinkable product quickly enough to have on tap.
The Blueberry cousin will bottle next, then finally the plum. Unfortunately, the plum lost much volume due to my blending the plums into sludge that took up 4" at the bottom of the carboy...Oh Well...Quality not quantity!

Keeping fingers crossed, It looks like I may have 4 super successful meads before this is all finished...and I was actually expecting to have some failures.
Click to expand...

I used to have this friend named Bigkahuna, who we used to get into online trouble together on HBT, and mostly have great conversations...but one day he got all important and went away to the land of twitter and newspapers and left his little buddy Revvy behind.....*pout*

Miss you buddy!:mug:

Some of us think twitter is evil...but are on facebook....:D
 
BigKahuna said:
I am experimenting with some low gravity blackberry meads to see if I can produce a drinkable product quickly enough to have on tap.
Click to expand...

Basic Brewing had a radio episode recently and I believe they discussed something along these lines. It was a Mead Panel from NHC if I recall correctly. Having mead on tap sounds like a wonderfully terrible idea!
 
nealf said:
Basic Brewing had a radio episode recently and I believe they discussed something along these lines. It was a Mead Panel from NHC if I recall correctly. Having mead on tap sounds like a wonderfully terrible idea!
Click to expand...

That is what prompted my Blackberry mead. Prost to James Spencer and Basic Brewing Radio...not to mention Charlie P and everyone at the NHC!
 

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