What I did for/with Mead today
- Thread starter Ren06
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Today was much sorting and boxing of bottles. Sorting by volume, shape, and type.
I have 5 buckets of bottles soaking in a PBW mix to make removing labels easier.
Drank a Blueberry Cyser while working on this.
I fed my Marshmallow mead. Will update other thread.
I have 5 buckets of bottles soaking in a PBW mix to make removing labels easier.
Drank a Blueberry Cyser while working on this.
I fed my Marshmallow mead. Will update other thread.
Yesterday I gave the last drop of nutrients to the bochet, and made adjustments to 2 meads I’m sending to competition. Today I bottled and shipped the entries.
I shouldn’t get dinged on appearance for this one.
I shouldn’t get dinged on appearance for this one.
Where is the comp?
Minnesota,
they don’t freeze during transport. The first leg of the AMMA circuit.
Got a link? Always looking for comp venues.Minnesota,
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Yum. I'll take a warm slice of that with peanut butter for lunch please 
That’s a beautiful loaf that would look great on the https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/homemade-bread-thread.457601/page-77#post-10445156
As for the quality of flour, I suspect the additives are very different. I bake most of my breads with organic AP four from Costco which is quite affordable, but one must buy 20# at a time.
My bochet is still fermenting the caramel flavors are all there from the sample I’d taken.
As for the quality of flour, I suspect the additives are very different. I bake most of my breads with organic AP four from Costco which is quite affordable, but one must buy 20# at a time.
My bochet is still fermenting the caramel flavors are all there from the sample I’d taken.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Racked a Bochet for the Solera project. Racked a hydromel that needs to be back sweetened so that I can blend with my Cucumber session that has too much cucumber flavor.
Update its pretty good and warms my belly
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Racked my Marshmallow mead v4 through a 50 micron filter (x2)... I should have better filtered the marshmallow root before fermentation as enough clogged the filter that I had to use 2 of them.
Started a Viognier pyment. My first one was great, but my next batch has a fault that I'm trying to wait out... so another new one was in order as I did enjoy it the first time I made it.
I enjoyed another Blueberry Cyser while doing this.
Started a Viognier pyment. My first one was great, but my next batch has a fault that I'm trying to wait out... so another new one was in order as I did enjoy it the first time I made it.
I enjoyed another Blueberry Cyser while doing this.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Solera project racked and back sweetened. I now have a full barrel again.
Lots of cleaning along the way. I still say that the Mark II carboy and keg cleaner has been a worthwhile investment as it allowed me to continue other things while cleaning is in progress.
A similar item has been a small transfer pump which is useful for cleaning tubing as well as the inner parts of my auto-siphon and my Kegland jiggler siphon. 10 minutes of PBW followed by rinsing leaves the much cleaner that I would do on my own.
I sampled my waterless mead I did last year and it is coming along nicely. Less tart that a few months ago and the strawberries have backed down a bit and the other berries are more present now. I don't remember the exact ABV, though its in the 15% range IIRC and it has no real heat at all. The mouth feel is great, even is slightly viscous.
Lots of cleaning along the way. I still say that the Mark II carboy and keg cleaner has been a worthwhile investment as it allowed me to continue other things while cleaning is in progress.
A similar item has been a small transfer pump which is useful for cleaning tubing as well as the inner parts of my auto-siphon and my Kegland jiggler siphon. 10 minutes of PBW followed by rinsing leaves the much cleaner that I would do on my own.
I sampled my waterless mead I did last year and it is coming along nicely. Less tart that a few months ago and the strawberries have backed down a bit and the other berries are more present now. I don't remember the exact ABV, though its in the 15% range IIRC and it has no real heat at all. The mouth feel is great, even is slightly viscous.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Back sweetening of 2 meads today along with some acid adjustments to one of them.
Also have some 1/2 gallon bottles of honey getting liquid again so I can start some traditional meads later in the week, I hope.
Also have some 1/2 gallon bottles of honey getting liquid again so I can start some traditional meads later in the week, I hope.
Last edited:
Started a 1 gallon batch of traditional some local wildflower honey that was sourced in 2018. OG came in at 1.1.06 about where I wanted it.
I have 2 quart jars left, my thought process is that if its needed I would use 1 jar to back sweeten future meads and the other for another batch. Otherwise I could just source some other honey and look to make 2 batches haven't decided yet.
I have 2 quart jars left, my thought process is that if its needed I would use 1 jar to back sweeten future meads and the other for another batch. Otherwise I could just source some other honey and look to make 2 batches haven't decided yet.
Racked my traditional to a 5 gallon Speidel. Added Xoakers and some vanilla tannin, K-Meta and Sorbate. I'll give it a couple months before tasting it again.
Thinking of starting a cyser before the weather changes. Brew room is about 62F now but that won't last long. Too bad the orchards are closed until Spring, I'd have liked to use local cider.
Thinking of starting a cyser before the weather changes. Brew room is about 62F now but that won't last long. Too bad the orchards are closed until Spring, I'd have liked to use local cider.
Took a small sample of the bochet, tasted it and checked gravity. Almost finished fermenting, and it tastes good. (Though I haven’t ever tasted one before so I really don’t have anything in memory to compare it to.)
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Racked 3 gallons of waterless mead that I started last year. Tastes nice, but I may play with some acid or other adjustments. Not sure yet.
Drank a small glass of the waterless.
Racked 5 gallons of my Honey Crisp session. It's now ready for me to play with blending it and my Cucumber session.
Cleaned, rinsed, passivated, rinsed and then sanitized the new BrewBuilt conical that came in on Saturday.
Drank a small glass of the waterless.
Racked 5 gallons of my Honey Crisp session. It's now ready for me to play with blending it and my Cucumber session.
Cleaned, rinsed, passivated, rinsed and then sanitized the new BrewBuilt conical that came in on Saturday.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Racked ~5.5 gallons of a mead that was based on a dragon fruit wine kit. It was never good and has sat on Xoakers for >1.75 years. It didn't end up over-oaked, which I was surprised about, though there was a ton of oak related dust-sediment at the bottom.
I probably left about 1/4 gallon at the bottom, but I avoided all the oak dust/sediment at the bottom getting racked over.
I then proceeded to bench test acid adjustments. The short story is that all my initial amounts were just too high. In the end I ended up with a .5% cacao nib extract addition and .065% tartaric acid adjustment to get a blasé mead to an OK mead. It's not a huge success but it is no longer a mead that I would relegate to the cheapo-getting-drunk-on category. Maybe it will taste better in another year?
All of the bench tests were focused on maintaining the honey flavor, keeping the fruit and making it more interesting. In the bench testing, I was using 50ml base amounts and adjusting on those. I eventually needed to switch to 100ml base so that I could get more accurate 1/2% additions of the cacoa nib extract.
I will also add that the high accuracy digital scale came in handy today as I really needed that 3 decimal point accuracy so that I could accurately scale up small 100 ml tests to the full carboy without over/under shooting the target. The scaling hit perfectly and matched my final bench test batch.
Every time a batch wasn't good, it was dumped... there were a lot of 50 ml batches that went down the sink as the acid was just too high or I didn't like the specific acid in it. I was bouncing around through tartaric, citric and malic acid. Tartaric is where I found the most pleasant flavor for this specific batch.
Between the spouse and I, we probably went through 1/4 gallon. That ended up OK as my carboy was sitting pretty much at an even 5 gallons after the bench tests. That final 5 gallons was converted out to ML, divided by 100ML to get the amount of parts I was working with and then multiplied out by the batch adjustment values for the full batch additions. That testing added up and I'm feeling it a bit... Not good to do this on a fasting day
Most of my meads don't go through this amount of tweaking, but I really hated this mediocre mead that needed to move into the palatable category. At least when I eventually bottle, it might be worth it... I hope.
I probably left about 1/4 gallon at the bottom, but I avoided all the oak dust/sediment at the bottom getting racked over.
I then proceeded to bench test acid adjustments. The short story is that all my initial amounts were just too high. In the end I ended up with a .5% cacao nib extract addition and .065% tartaric acid adjustment to get a blasé mead to an OK mead. It's not a huge success but it is no longer a mead that I would relegate to the cheapo-getting-drunk-on category. Maybe it will taste better in another year?
All of the bench tests were focused on maintaining the honey flavor, keeping the fruit and making it more interesting. In the bench testing, I was using 50ml base amounts and adjusting on those. I eventually needed to switch to 100ml base so that I could get more accurate 1/2% additions of the cacoa nib extract.
I will also add that the high accuracy digital scale came in handy today as I really needed that 3 decimal point accuracy so that I could accurately scale up small 100 ml tests to the full carboy without over/under shooting the target. The scaling hit perfectly and matched my final bench test batch.
Every time a batch wasn't good, it was dumped... there were a lot of 50 ml batches that went down the sink as the acid was just too high or I didn't like the specific acid in it. I was bouncing around through tartaric, citric and malic acid. Tartaric is where I found the most pleasant flavor for this specific batch.
Between the spouse and I, we probably went through 1/4 gallon. That ended up OK as my carboy was sitting pretty much at an even 5 gallons after the bench tests. That final 5 gallons was converted out to ML, divided by 100ML to get the amount of parts I was working with and then multiplied out by the batch adjustment values for the full batch additions. That testing added up and I'm feeling it a bit... Not good to do this on a fasting day
Most of my meads don't go through this amount of tweaking, but I really hated this mediocre mead that needed to move into the palatable category. At least when I eventually bottle, it might be worth it... I hope.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
Racked my Marshmallow v3 from barrel to a keg for later bottling. Almost 5 gallons.
Racked Marshmallow v4 into the barrel that was just emptied. Right about 6 gallons.
Racked Marshmallow v4 into the barrel that was just emptied. Right about 6 gallons.
Lampy
Well-Known Member
I actually drank some mead! Saying goodbye to alcohol for 40+ days and thought I would celebrate with one of my aged, rarer products (mead).
Lampy
Well-Known Member
If I may ask, why the fast?That testing added up and I'm feeling it a bit... Not good to do this on a fasting day
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 885
- Reaction score
- 1,480
It helps with weight maintenance and keeping glucose levels in check.
I usually fast for 12-16 hours twice a week and have a lower calorie dinner. I haven't done a full 24 hour fast.
Proud to say today marks 10 years married and we finally get to open the last bottle of Peach Melomel, also 10 years bottled. Sweet honey with a light wine tang on the front with a tart white peach to follow. No bitterness or alcohol bite and wishing we had more, very happy and blessed to be hear. Cheers everyone!
Happy anniversary
OP
OP
Happy Anniversary
