What I did for/with Mead today

[MightyMosin]

I bottled 5 gallons of 12% Blueberry Cyser and about 4 gallons of my 5.5% Honey Crisp session. All carbonated.

Hurray for keg cleaners as they really make this so much easier.

Also found out that I got two Double Gold and a Silver in County fair wine contest.

 

[Kickass]

I finally got around to bottling my bochet and blueberry melomel. They’ve only been bulk aging for 1.5-2 years. Ha!

 

[Ren06]

Today I added 3 month rum soaked chips to my blackberry melomel . I’ll sample weekly to see when to remove them.

Also made a traditional bochet mead

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I packaged some mead to give away, harvested more honeysuckle blossoms and got a small batch of that going last night. Pay no mind to any dust you see in the image.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Bottled my 1st 2 mead attempts: 1) a wildflower hydromel with some priming sugar for that pétillant kinda thing and 2) a semi-sweet tupelo standard mead.

 

[Dan O]

I put together a 2 gallon batch of Strawberry/ Raspberry/ Rose Hip last night.
OG of 1.100....rose hips & Ecuadorian tahitientis vanilla to be added after it gets racked to secondary.
Pretty stoked about this one

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I’ve been harvesting mulberries I have a qt bag of them in the freezer, hoping for at least another qt before they’re done.

 

[Dan O]

I put together a 2 gallon batch of Strawberry/ Raspberry/ Rose Hip last night.
OG of 1.100....rose hips & Ecuadorian tahitientis vanilla to be added after it gets racked to secondary.
Pretty stoked about this one

It's alive!!

 

[Dan O]

It's alive!!

48 hours in, it went from 1.100- 1.016
Totally missed the opportunity for second feeding. Good thing is, I tasted it & absolutely no hot alcohol flavor

 

[Todd Peterson]

I have a 6 month old melomel that has been somewhat stubborn on the last bit of clarity.

I ran out of patience and treated with dual fine last night.

I’m amazed at the amount of material that has dropped out of suspension in less than 24 hours.

Hoping to bottle by 7/3.

Todd Peterson

 

[Dan O]

Some Perfect BOMM, (orange blossom & Tupelo blossom) born on 5/5/21. Absolutely scrumptious

 

[Dan O]

Strawberry/Raspberry/Rose Hip/ Vanilla. Started 6/28/23. OG of 1.100...Already fermented dry @ 1.000 in 5 days! 4 or 5 more days on the berries then to be stabilized & a second round of fruit, along with the dried rose hips & Ecuadorian tahitientis vanilla beans. This batch is gonna be stellar!

 

[Todd Peterson]

Mixed up 5.5 gallons of black currant blueberry melomel. It’s the same recipe that I have made for 3 of the last 4 batches.

I would like to branch out and try a different recipe eventually. I like trying the same recipe repeatedly to refine my process.

Happy 4th of July!

Todd Peterson

 

[Ren06]

Racked my traditional bochet and stabilized, I’ll backsweeten in about 2 days. Im also sampling some that I added honey and it has flavors where I want them. Subtle marshmallow and toffee

 

[MightyMosin]

48 hours in, it went from 1.100- 1.016
Totally missed the opportunity for second feeding. Good thing is, I tasted it & absolutely no hot alcohol flavor

My Marshmallow root was an extremely fast fermenting 12%... on both variations that I have made; I did try to manage the temperature some on the 2nd batch.

 

[MightyMosin]

Racked ~3.5 gallons of Pinot Noir pyment out of the oak barrel through 10micron filter onto some K-Meta in a stainless steel keg. Will bottle soon-ish from the keg. It was supposed to be today but I have lost my will to do it. This pyment is one of the ones entered into the County Fair home wine contest.

Filled oak barrel with ~ 7gallons of the next batch of Pinot Noir pyment.

Drank a carbonated 12% Blueberry Cyser while cleaning the equipment.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

My first official taste of my first semi-sweet standard mead (made with tupelo honey). It does not taste like ass.

 

[MightyMosin]

It does not taste like ass.

My first mead certainly did!

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

My first mead certainly did!

I wrote "official" because I spent a fair amount of time actually studying the mead making process before making it. The first one I did was literally honey plus yeast, and it really tasted like ass.

 

[Ren06]

Backsweetened my Traditional Bochet today with summer wildflower honey to ~1.027 sweetness, and it's delicious. Can't wait till it mellows out.

 

[Todd Peterson]

Bottled a 6 month old melomel tonight. Netted 4.5 gallons from the original 5.5 gallons of must. I see this level of loss as acceptable to avoid bottles with sediment.

Takeaways from this batch:

1) Quality oak works wonders on mead. I can’t recommend Stavin oak cubes sold by morewine highly enough.
2) Very impressed with dualfine clarifier. I’d rather it happen naturally with time. That said, in 48 hours this mead went from hazy to very clear.


Checking on my beehives tomorrow. Fingers crossed for heavy honey supers.

Todd Peterson

 

[Dan O]

Pulled the fruit from the Strawberry/ Raspberry/ Rose Hip/ Vanilla last night. Going to give the sediment a few days to settle down then I'll rack, stabilize, wait 24 hrs, then add round 2 of the fruit, the Rose hips and the tahitientis vanilla beans. I can't wait!

 

[MightyMosin]

After 4 months of barrel aging and many tastings along the way, I have finally bottled my Pinot Noir pyment. I ended up with (12) 750ml bottles and another (11) 375ml bottles. Bottled a little more than a year after starting it.

Now for the ever fun cleaning...

 

[Todd Peterson]

2 weeks ago I oaked a traditional orange blossom mead that has been sitting in secondary. I use Stavin oak cubes.

Checked the carboy today. 1/2 of the cubes have sunk to the bottom of the carboy.

What dark magic is going on with this brew. The oak I have used in other batches has remained floating for 2+ months.

Todd Peterson

 

[DBhomebrew]

I use cubes. Roughly 1/4 sink. I don't question it.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Pétillant wild flower hydromel. Kinda like drinking a dry honey seltzer.

 

[MrClint]

Poured up a cold glass of Sparkling Green Jasmine Tea Mead:

 

[MightyMosin]

Today I drank mead!!!

rewards for the work done

 

[Ren06]

Removed fruit and rum soaked oak chips from my Blackberry melomel. I wont use oak chips again just staves. I will say the taste is good but it’s definitely something that can overpower if not careful. My experience with staves are more subtle but blends perfectly.

 

[Dan O]

Removed fruit and rum soaked oak chips from my Blackberry melomel. I wont use oak chips again just staves. I will say the taste is good but it’s definitely something that can overpower if not careful. My experience with staves are more subtle but blends perfectly.

I have found chips release their goods rather quickly, but for my own personal tastes, they can be a little one dimensional. Staves, cubes or spheres I find give a rounder profile.