Lots of workings

 Sess came over to help and we did loads of racking and final prep for bottling. 

Aella - rosemary honey mead
Nice rosemary kick! Good mid sweetness. I might bring some to wasteland. Bottled

Xanthe - pine mead
This was already done and we drank some at christmas. It has since settled to be less of a slap in the face with a wet pine branch and more mellow piney woodsy. Pretty strong in alc but hard to measure with all the rest sugar. I'd guess at least 15%. Also might bring this to WW. Bottled. 

Zaqar 

Previously backsweetened with ~450 gr thyme honey. Good sweetness and the thyme flavour has turned up. Planning to make this fizzy and bottle it in champagne bottles. It's ready to go for that

Whaitiri

tea with ginger, lemongrass and Kawakawa. A bit more astringent than I enjoy but Sess likes it a lot. Was already done with bentonite but did not clear, so trying it with superclear. Prepared for bottling and ready as soon as it falls clear. 

Yaffe  (lapsang souchon tea)
Pretty nice. Mellowed out a lot. The orange zest really works for it. Added superclear. Ready to bottle as soon as it falls clear

Calliope (cacao bochet)
There's a heavy bochet flavour going on, that specific kind of acidity. Definitely nowhere near ready for bringing to wasteland. I'm not sure if it needs backsweetening or mainly just time.

Bronwyn (Coffee bochet)
The Tia Maria effect is gone. Vanilla pods helped balance it out some but this still has the heavy acidity of the bochet process. 

 

Fern - heather honey mead

Coming along. The heather honey is noticeabe, very nice spicy nose to it. Planning to sweeten this up with about 1 kilo heather honey. 

 

Dorian - chocolate mead

Not fermented completely dry but too dry anyway - sg about 1010.  Backsweetened with 3 kilo honey.