What I did for/with Mead today

[MightyMosin]

I use the SS Brewtek keg cleaner. Some of the home built ones I have seen on YouTube look to be pretty good and I might go that way if I decide I want another.

 

[Todd Peterson]

I use the SS Brewtek keg cleaner. Some of the home built ones I have seen on YouTube look to be pretty good and I might go that way if I decide I want another.

Thanks Mosin!

I’ll look into the commercial offering.

Love the idea of less pbw and starsan. Hauling 5 gallons around in glass carboys to soak the vessels comes with a level of risk that I am growing more and more unwilling to accept.

Todd Peterson

 

[DBhomebrew]

Bottled an oaked traditional. Six months in bulk, three with oak. It's already smooth and delicious, looking forward to serving some for Christmas.

Now I've got a jug free, can't let that stand.

 

[MightyMosin]

Cleaned 5 carboys, filtered & racked 3 different meads and bottled a lemon ginger session mead... ended up with (14) 750ml flip top bottles of that one.
I left one of those at my local brew shop for them to try and share with anyone else they want to.

 

[Ren06]

Racked my traditional bochet, racked and added more fruit to my blackberry raspberry aged on white oak staves, and finally racked my blueberry bourbon acerglyn.

 

[Srimmey]

Today I racked, filtered (10 micron) and oaked 19.5 gallons of an Orange Blossom Viognier pyment into stainless steel kegs.

It will oak about 2 months and then I'll check the oaking level.

How does the delicate honey notes balance out with the traditionally bright fruity notes of the viognier?

Do both flavor profiles come through or does one dominate the other?

I’ve been stewing around pyment ideas for a while but was thinking of starting with a cab sauv and buckwheat/blackberry honey combo.

 

[MightyMosin]

For this one, I used approx 1/4 of the Viognier concentrate of a wine kit that makes 6 gallons.

The rest of sugars was from orange blossom and it makes a 6.5 gallon batch.

The Viognier comes through bright even at that reduced level but there is still honey there, especially on the nose.

If I had done my more typical 1/2 of the concentrate, the honey would have been swamped.

 

[MightyMosin]

I’ve been stewing around pyment ideas for a while but was thinking of starting with a cab sauv and buckwheat/blackberry honey combo.

I have a variety of commentary on what I have done over at this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/making-my-pyments.723957/

 

[Ren06]

Added 6lbs of juiced blackberries to my blackberry melomel in secondary.

 

[MightyMosin]

I worked on ~2.6 gallons of a mixed berry session mead. The taste was OK but had a slight funk to it... maybe a slight oxidation but it didn't taste bad; just not what I was hoping for.

I did some bench trials and decided upon .15g of citric acid and .1g malic acid per 100ml. Since my carboy isn't marked in in Liters and not marked very well in partial gallon increments I had to slightly guess the exact amount to convert to metric. I was pretty close and had to add a little bit extra acid than I calculated, which overshot it a bit.

I have a orange blossom session available so I added about 1L of that to my mixed berry batch and it cut the acid perfectly and added a tiny bit of sweetness that was just was needed to balance it out. This is being racked to a stainless keg so that it can be carbonated. Overall I am happy that I was able to take a blase mead to something that I will be happy to enjoy and share.

 

[Todd Peterson]

Racking 3 gallons of Orange Blossom Traditional off of French toast oak cubes. Mead has been on oak for 6 weeks. Initial sample was white wine (finished at 1.020 and roughly 13% abv). The more I have consumed the sample glass, the more I am liking it. Mead is 4 months old. Will let set in tertiary for a couple of months. Meads has dropped very clear.

Getting ready to rack 5 gallons of melomel to secondary. Has been on the 71b lees for 6 weeks.

Todd Peterson

 

[bushpilot]

I picked a gallon of wild chokecherries today, and I expect to get another gallon next week.

These will go into my next mead, along with some of the honey I am harvesting next week.

 

[Srimmey]

Started my fig mead on Saturday. Been managing the fruit cap from hell ever since.

Stir it up, degas, oxygenate every 8-12 hours.

Unfortunately it’s so hot right now I’m worried the yeast is still stressed. I put my hand near the fruit cap and it felt warm… my house is probably 75 deg f and the mead feels like it’s fermenting at 85.

It’s just easier to brew during the winter months when my house wants to live at 65 all day long.

 

[MightyMosin]

use small water bottles.
remove the labels, clean and freeze.
Sanitize and dump into the mead to help manage the temperature.

Freeze as much as you can so that you can manage a rotation to keep the temperature supressed.

 

[bushpilot]

It’s just easier to brew during the winter months when my house wants to live at 65 all day long.

I only brew in the winter, for that very reason.

 

[MightyMosin]

as I'm travellin for work, tonight I drank some mead that I brought with me.

 

[D the Catastrophist]

Started a ginger mead a few days ago. After it goes into secondary I probably should wait awhile before making anything else as I have 4 different wines already bulk aging, but I think since we are getting closer to fall, next might be an cyser.

 

[Wrendelar]

Acquired the bottles, corks, foils and labels for the Blackberry Mead. Sunday is bottling day

 

[NoCornOrRice]

Moved a batch to fridge to cold crash before racking.

 

[Ren06]

Brewed up 23.5 gallons of mead, cherry melomel, traditional mead, traditional cyser to be spiced later, and last but not least a cranberry melomel.

 

[Wrendelar]

Bottled up the Bruja Blackberry Mead/Malomel

Started it in May

Finished at 15% ABV

This is the first of a 3 part Christmas trio that the SWIMBO and I will be gifting to family and friends

 

[Ren06]

Made 6 gallons of coffeemel today

 

[MightyMosin]

I bottled almost 2 cases of a carbonated Honey Crisp session made from Orange Blossom using 12 oz bottles.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Bottled a gallon of blueberry melomel. Oo-boy, it's delicious. Big fan of the ease of using good quality juice. It's the dry yeast of fruit additions.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

First melomel under way.

This wine yeast has quite a strong smell, even in dry form.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Mixed up another melomel. This time tart cherry juice in lieu of the blueberry. All else the same recipe.

 

[MightyMosin]

Today I sampled my Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir Pyments that have been aging in barrels.

The Cab Sauv barrel previously held rum and my first Cab Sauv Pyment.
The Pinot Noir barrel previously help whiskey and my first Pinot Pyment.

Both are coming along but I think it will be December for the Cab Sauv and March for the Pinot before I will bottle them..

 

[Dan O]

I enjoyed some of my Dandelion mead, born on 11/14/21. Absolutely delicious

 

[LudovicoManin]

Racked my candy cane mead from primary to secondary. So much slag....

 

[Dan O]

Racked 1/2 gallon of blueberry/ lemon /vanilla off of the Hungarian medium toast oak cubes. Wow, is that tasty!
I will be backsweetening that & several others this weekend, then to bottling.