Long post warning.... I have been gone since right before I started this batch. I coach high school football so from July to December (hopefully if we make the playoffs) which we did... all the way to the championship! Which we lost!!! Which means this stuff has been sitting untouched since July 13th.
Let me begin with my plan for Sunday July the 13th. I knew that the months and weeks to come we're going to be filled with juggling football and the SWMBO. If I try to throw brewing in there... well that just wouldn't be fair. So I wanted to get some "stuff" out of the way. Anyway... as I was saying, I was going to have a brew day on this fine day. I told SWMBO what was going to occur on this day so she took the kid and went to her parents house to stay out of my hair. My friend came over and the plan was 15 gallons of Appfelwein and 2 gallons of mead. One Malkore's not so ancient, and one of my own recipe's. Which is Malkore's, sub Pineapple for the oranges, pineapple juice for the orange juice, and vanilla beans for the cloves. I already had 10 gallons of a dark hefe that I make to taste like sierra nevada. And 5 gallons of appfelwein waiting to be kegged.
So, the appfelwein went as usual. Let's be serious that is one hard recipe to screw up. After sitting and staring at my ferm room, a bathroom sealed up with an A/C in the window, we decided to clean all the equipment. I wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going to screw up my first batch of mead from an infection......
Everything with the "mixing" of the ingredients went wonderfully. I planned to use gallon Carlos Rossi wine bottles. Cheap and easy.. .and I had two gallons of cheap ass, not too bad, wine to get HAMMERED off of. So everything is in the bottles, both of them. I take the OG reading the Pineapple Melomel had a 1.090 OG. I thought this can't be thats crazy! Well after retrieving my back up Hydro it read exactly the same. So I split the remaining must with my buddy and it was, well quite frankly, heavenly! Obviously very sweet... BUT... I love honey, vanilla and pineapple. My friend was under the assumption that the finish product would end up tasting like that, just with an alcohol content. I let him believe it, he was talking about it for days after. HAHA.
On to the malkore's. I took the OG and I don't even remember what it was. I think around 1.060. The reason I don't remember is... well when I was putting in the airlock. I pushed to hard!! The little rubber thing went all the way into the bottle. Oh yeah so did the airlock. This made a slight but very annoying mess all over my kitchen floor. Well no big deal right, I'll rack it into another bottle and put on a new airlock. Well that bottle requires a specific size of stopper. I only had two. One on the pineapple mead and one in the bottom of that stupid bottle. And, being that it was already 5:00 on a sunday, no LBHS was open. So I capped and got one the next day... hoping for the best.
Now to today. I only went into the Ferm room three times. To grab my carboy's of appfelwein when they were ready to be kegged. I can check the interior temperature from outside the Ferm room and it stayed between 62-66. As it they were forbidden apples from the garden of eden, I stayed away from them. I don't have very much patience.... at all! Had I been consciously aware of the meads I would have tasted them every month and would probably have about a quart left. I never even checked to see if there was airlock activity. I could smell the elephant farts coming from that room so I knew that the Appfelwien was frenzied. So, today... actually 2 hours ago. I decided tonight was the night to rack them away from the fruit. I know, I know I shouldn't have left it sitting on the fruit for so long but oh well. I'm sure back in the day they didn't have such strict brewing rules. So, I'm sure it will be fine. I started with the Malkore's. It had a very thick layer of green and white mold. I racked a bit in the middle of it and yes it tasted like goat piss! I nearly threw up and died. If you've ever seen the Bill Cosby Himself stand up where his wife's head opens up and light pours out of her eyes, ears and mouth. Well that was me! I quickly grabbed a jar of ginger and downed a lot of it. I figured if it would work with sushi it will work with goat piss!
Then I racked over the Pinapple Melomel. Took a gravity reading of 1.016. I used a sweet mead yeast too. I had no idea it would turn out that dry. I was very excited. I just hoped it didn't taste like rotten pinapple. So I poured the contents of the hydrometer tube into a glass. Put it into the fridge till I put away and cleaned all the equipment.
So, I pulled out the glass from the fridge. It had a very pleasant nose. A slight hint of vanilla and a very present smell of Pineapple. Not a sweet pineapple smell. Just pineapple! I took a small sip and let it sit in my mouth for a little. It was amazing!! No rotten flavor! No vanilla flavor... just vanilla nose. I can't even explain it. The aftertaste is the best part. When I swallowed it, it was like taking a shot. The alcohol hit me hard. I'm not gonna lie. I went back and filled up my glass. Well three quarters of the way up. If you like pineapple I totally recommend it. Well sorry about the thesis! I appreciate you reading this whole thing. Let me know if you try it out. I will be making a bigger batch of this soon.
Oh yeah, I am going to let the mead sit for a few days. Then bottle to sit a while longer.
Once again sory for the long post.
Let me begin with my plan for Sunday July the 13th. I knew that the months and weeks to come we're going to be filled with juggling football and the SWMBO. If I try to throw brewing in there... well that just wouldn't be fair. So I wanted to get some "stuff" out of the way. Anyway... as I was saying, I was going to have a brew day on this fine day. I told SWMBO what was going to occur on this day so she took the kid and went to her parents house to stay out of my hair. My friend came over and the plan was 15 gallons of Appfelwein and 2 gallons of mead. One Malkore's not so ancient, and one of my own recipe's. Which is Malkore's, sub Pineapple for the oranges, pineapple juice for the orange juice, and vanilla beans for the cloves. I already had 10 gallons of a dark hefe that I make to taste like sierra nevada. And 5 gallons of appfelwein waiting to be kegged.
So, the appfelwein went as usual. Let's be serious that is one hard recipe to screw up. After sitting and staring at my ferm room, a bathroom sealed up with an A/C in the window, we decided to clean all the equipment. I wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going to screw up my first batch of mead from an infection......
Everything with the "mixing" of the ingredients went wonderfully. I planned to use gallon Carlos Rossi wine bottles. Cheap and easy.. .and I had two gallons of cheap ass, not too bad, wine to get HAMMERED off of. So everything is in the bottles, both of them. I take the OG reading the Pineapple Melomel had a 1.090 OG. I thought this can't be thats crazy! Well after retrieving my back up Hydro it read exactly the same. So I split the remaining must with my buddy and it was, well quite frankly, heavenly! Obviously very sweet... BUT... I love honey, vanilla and pineapple. My friend was under the assumption that the finish product would end up tasting like that, just with an alcohol content. I let him believe it, he was talking about it for days after. HAHA.
On to the malkore's. I took the OG and I don't even remember what it was. I think around 1.060. The reason I don't remember is... well when I was putting in the airlock. I pushed to hard!! The little rubber thing went all the way into the bottle. Oh yeah so did the airlock. This made a slight but very annoying mess all over my kitchen floor. Well no big deal right, I'll rack it into another bottle and put on a new airlock. Well that bottle requires a specific size of stopper. I only had two. One on the pineapple mead and one in the bottom of that stupid bottle. And, being that it was already 5:00 on a sunday, no LBHS was open. So I capped and got one the next day... hoping for the best.
Now to today. I only went into the Ferm room three times. To grab my carboy's of appfelwein when they were ready to be kegged. I can check the interior temperature from outside the Ferm room and it stayed between 62-66. As it they were forbidden apples from the garden of eden, I stayed away from them. I don't have very much patience.... at all! Had I been consciously aware of the meads I would have tasted them every month and would probably have about a quart left. I never even checked to see if there was airlock activity. I could smell the elephant farts coming from that room so I knew that the Appfelwien was frenzied. So, today... actually 2 hours ago. I decided tonight was the night to rack them away from the fruit. I know, I know I shouldn't have left it sitting on the fruit for so long but oh well. I'm sure back in the day they didn't have such strict brewing rules. So, I'm sure it will be fine. I started with the Malkore's. It had a very thick layer of green and white mold. I racked a bit in the middle of it and yes it tasted like goat piss! I nearly threw up and died. If you've ever seen the Bill Cosby Himself stand up where his wife's head opens up and light pours out of her eyes, ears and mouth. Well that was me! I quickly grabbed a jar of ginger and downed a lot of it. I figured if it would work with sushi it will work with goat piss!
Then I racked over the Pinapple Melomel. Took a gravity reading of 1.016. I used a sweet mead yeast too. I had no idea it would turn out that dry. I was very excited. I just hoped it didn't taste like rotten pinapple. So I poured the contents of the hydrometer tube into a glass. Put it into the fridge till I put away and cleaned all the equipment.
So, I pulled out the glass from the fridge. It had a very pleasant nose. A slight hint of vanilla and a very present smell of Pineapple. Not a sweet pineapple smell. Just pineapple! I took a small sip and let it sit in my mouth for a little. It was amazing!! No rotten flavor! No vanilla flavor... just vanilla nose. I can't even explain it. The aftertaste is the best part. When I swallowed it, it was like taking a shot. The alcohol hit me hard. I'm not gonna lie. I went back and filled up my glass. Well three quarters of the way up. If you like pineapple I totally recommend it. Well sorry about the thesis! I appreciate you reading this whole thing. Let me know if you try it out. I will be making a bigger batch of this soon.
Oh yeah, I am going to let the mead sit for a few days. Then bottle to sit a while longer.
Once again sory for the long post.