Chalk!

Apparently you can use a type of chalk powder to knock some acid out of wine, so I'm trying that with the pomegranate and lemon meads. also added some bentonite hoping to clear it. I have in the past bottled things before they were perfectly clear (or rather, they seemed clear, and then dropped sediment in the bottle) so I'm hoping to be more thorough about that in the future.

Hild, Idris

Hild
5 liter bochet, maple syrup to be added later
2 kg honey caramellised to fairly dark brown
Port yeast [note: added sherry yeast the next day because it wasn't starting up and I was concerned about it going bad]

Idris
10 liter bochet with homemade apple juice
2.5 kilo honey caramellised to fairly dark brown
8 liter apple juice
~1.5 liter water
Mead yeast

Little concerned I made this one too sugar-heavy for the yeast to kick off, just like with Gaia, but the yeast was also really old, so probably the first step if it won't start should be ordering fresh yeast

An online tip to remember - if the caramel taste isn't sufficient by the time it's finished secondary, apparently toasted raisins or dates can help a lot. 

Racking

Dale (pomegranate)
SG 1036
Alcohol 21% ?!
The vanilla balanced it out a bit, but it's still pretty fresh. Maybe some time will mellow it? I put the vanilla beans back in.
Added gelatin to clear it - never worked with gelatin for fining before, so curious how that will work. If it does work, this can be bottled next time. 

Edain (Lemon)
SG 1030
Alcohol 19%
Wonderful lemon scent now, the zest did a lot of work there. The taste is good, but again, pretty fresh. I put the vanilla beans back in.
Also added gelatin

Floral (elderberry flower syrup)
This is the one that got infected and I have earmarked for destillation - I do not want to taste it since there is some small risk it would make me sick.
Smell is quite strongly floral. Very fizzy, too much to get a SG reading. Alcohol reading said 10%, which seems low.
Added gelatin.