Oriel and Parlan - more mini batches

I really like how the 2 litre batches turned out, and how fast they did so, so I made two more.

Oriel
600ml honey from the beekeepers in Eindhoven, kindly donated by friends who have too much of it :-)
200 ml rosehip syrup
somewhat old Aromatic yeast
nutrient mix


Parlan (I think)
1000 gr forest honey (Lidl) (that was an oops, forgot I used 750 gr last time!)
somewhat old Aromatic yeast
nutrient mix

I also added the same yeast/nutrient mix to Lisidh, since that one is resolutely Not Touching the new added honey.

Tasty list

Due to unforeseen travel plans this winter, I have decided to give mead as gifts. For that I need a little list of which batches I think are good enough to give away.Bold is what I'm happy to serve to somebody else.

Alexis plain: nice sack mead
Alexis with strawberry syrup: haven't tried yet
Brynn: need to taste this
Caelan: carbonated, bit dry. Nice
Drake: need to taste this
Ehle: still in demijohn
Fennah: spicy heavy/sweet mead [ran out!]
Gwyllion: elderberry port. Suppose I could pull open a bottle and see how this has turned out
Halle: Quince mead - very nice! [ran out!]
Imre: sourish fresh apple wine. Not sure about this as a gift.Maybe as a second bottle of 'hey, try this' and not as the main gift.
Jove: still in demi
Keir: recently bottled
Lisidh: still in demi
Merryn: heavy, sweet, not as spicy as I had expected. Very nice.
Nuggan: heavy, sweet, very nice

finally an update

Okay, so this was long overdue. I haven't been in the mood to mess with brewing and thankfully it doesn't really hurt any to just leave it for a while. Today I got around to it though.

Jove (apple mead)
SG 1000, 14% alcohol
Very dry. Racked and added 300 gr honey

Keir (raspberry mead)
SG 1004, 16.5% alcohol
Not sure how thrilled I am with this, but I bottled it. It was a little fizzy, and I'm beginning to wonder if that's just what certain types of fruit do? Back when with Caelan (blueberry) and Drake (strawberry) the fizz never quite went away. (Keir is raspberry). I bottled into champagne bottles. See how that turns out.

Lisidh (sack mead)
SG 1002, 8.5% alcohol
Fed this 500gr honey. I'm not sure if there are still yeasties around to eat it though. That's one disadvantage to taking a year-long break..

Nuggan (2l batch, sack mead)
SG 1026, 18% alcohol
Small batches go faster - this one proves it. SUPER nice heavy sack mead, and it's only half a year old. Which is awesome. Shame that the 2l vessels are an absolute pain to work with (my siphon doesn't fit) and then you only have 2 litre of the very nice stuff. Bottled this.

Merryn (2l batch, oranges/cinnamon/clove/allspice)
SG 1030, 19%
The only reason this isn't rocket fuel is because it's so heavy. Haven't done a proper tasting, but it seemed promising. Bottled it.

Ehle (cacao mead)
SG 1000, don't think I tested alc vol.
Last time I touched this is a full year ago. (Ehle was started in august '09) I think it might be slightly more palatable, but not exactly drinkable. Still keeping this stuff around in the vague hope it'll turn drinkable at some point. Maybe the 4th year will be the charm?