Mead Making

Racking

2012-01-08T12:14:00.003+01:00

Lisidh:
pale yellow and cloudy, typical plain mead still in active progress, though the primary fermentation is mostly done. Has almost completely stopped bubbling the waterlock (maybe once a week, maybe less), but still quite fizzy when racked - too fizzy to get an accurate SG measuring.
Somewhere between 1018 and 1032 SG is the best I can say. About 14% alcohol.
This one might be headed for champagne bottles. I can't figure out why some meads stop bubbling and go still, and others stop bubbling and stay fizzy.

Keir:
Has completely fallen clear and is a beautiful raspberry red. Smells good, a sourish sort of fresh. Less than a bubble a week now, and only very slightly fizzy.
SG 1020, alcohol 15.5%

Jove:
Dark cloudy yellow. Bubbles a couple of times a day. Very fizzy, SG approx 1018, alcohol impossible to measure at this point.

More tasting

2011-12-30T12:42:00.003+01:00

My parents had been clamouring for a taste, and I gave them a bottle of Caelan. Turns out they opened it at a dinner with their neighbours. Apparently it was a big hit :-)

Pix or it didn't happen:

2011-10-04T22:41:00.002+02:00

Introducing

2011-09-30T18:29:00.002+02:00

Jove
- 1300 gr honey
- 1 litre homemade Elstar apple juice
- 50ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp pectine enzym
- 1 tsp yeast starter
- 1/2 tsp yeast ('aromatic')

Keir
- ~1800gr honey
- 0.5l homemade raspberry juice
- 1 tsp pectine enzym
- 1 tsp yeast starter
- 1/2 tsp yeast ('aromatic')

Lisidh
- ~1800gr honey
- 1 tsp yeast starter
- 1/2 tsp yeast ('aromatic')

Actually Drinking The Stuff

2011-09-26T11:49:00.004+02:00

Shared a small bottle of Fennah with my housemate last week. It was the first time she drank mead and she really liked it. Then felt encouraged enough to bring some mead to the Eindhoven AFPmeet this past weekend.
- bottle of Caelan
- bottle of Drake
- bottle of Fennah (figuring we'd at least have *some* tasty mead.

Caelan is carbonated and I expected it to be dramatic (it was very extreme when bottled, had to be rebottled) but actually it turned out exactly right - a polite pop and some mist from the bottle, and a very nice level of sparkliness. Taste pretty good - nicely honeyed scent and taste. A bit dry. What a nice surprise!

Drake was very clearly strawberry, but rather dry and not very appealing. I think I'll leave that one for a while before trying again.

Fennah was a success. It's strangely spicy for something that had mint leaves in it at some point. Tastes a little bit hot (you can tell it fermented fast) but otherwise yum. Heavy, sweet mead though - my parents keep wanting to try my homebrew but I know they won't like this one.

Overall this is nice - the proof that patience does pay off, and I haven't spent the past two years turning perfectly good honey into something good only to go down the drain.

Final 3

2011-08-02T23:55:00.000+02:00

Fennah
Wow! This actually tastes pretty good. I think I would bring this to a party without worry people were going to spit it out. Yay!
SG 1012
alc 16.5%

Gwy
Rocket fuel! Interestingly it smells less wine-like than it used to, but I can detect the elderberry scent now. I'm not sure about the taste. It's not bad, it's not good - it's not really anything.
Have bottled it, because what the hell.
SG 1006
alc 19.5% (!)

The seperate litre bottle I used as overflow when I started messing around with it actually tastes better - less thin, which makes sense since I didn't add water there. I think that one also didn't get the second go-over with port yeast.
Didn't get an SG for that one but alc is 17%.

Ehle
Racked into two 5l demijohns. With the clear glass it's easier to see what's going on, and they are much easier to handle than the 10l ones. It smells okay - I think I can detect the cacao scent now and I couldn't before. But the taste is EWWW. It's very sour. I have no idea if that means it's spoiled though - I despaired about most of the other batches at times and some of them are beginning to turn out okay. I might be cultivating 10 litres of spoilt honey and cacao, but it can just stay in the windowsill for another year. We'll see. I might add more honey:

SG 1000
Alc 17%

So now I have four empty demis standing around. I'm vaguely contemplating starting something new..

Bottlings

2011-07-28T22:22:00.004+02:00

Long overdue!

Alexis
It's weird, this is (obviously) the A batch and it was still bubbling, all be it veeery slowly . I got leery about bottling things that weren't completely quiet, so I just kept this one on the shelf all this time, long after later batches were in the bottle. Interestingly enough this is the only batch that I heated, way back when - after this one I switched to a cold process. Coincidence?
In any event I wasn't unhappy with the taste now - it smells really good, taste doesn't quite live up to it. I'd give it a 6 now - drinkable but not moorish.
Since I had champagne bottles anyway, I decided to mess with it some more and add about 25ml of strawberry syrup (sugar+strawberries set in the fridge for a couple of days, then strained) to each of the 4 bottles. I probably shouldn't leave these for too long before I drink...
SG 1012
Alc 17%

Halle (quince mead)
This had cleared beautifully and has been quiet for months.
Smells good, taste interesting, sweet but a bit sourish. Maybe it'll improve on the bottle..

SG 1020
alc 16%

Imre (apple wine)
Last time I tried this I was disappointed because it was ciderish, and I think I messed with it. Still kind of sour but definitely not ciderish now - in fact it's much closer to Apfelkorn!
SG 1014
alc 16%

I intend to continue tomorrow to bottle Fennah, make a chuck-or-bottle decision about Gwy, and I think Ehle needs another racking.

Drake tasting

2010-12-22T22:01:00.003+01:00

Got talking about brewing with a friend and realised I have not touched any of the brewings since half April. Got so desillusioned then that I went into a 'Fine! Be like that. Just sit there and suck, see if I care' sort of sulk.
I'm kind of curious to have a look now, maybe I'll get to racking and measuring tomorrow.

While I was in the mood I dug out a small bottle of the Drake batch. It was bottled on Juli 28 2009, so very nearly a year and a half of aging.
This is a strawberry mead, but it's mostly lost the pink colour. Small amount of sediment in the bottle. Very slightly fizzy in the glass. Smells REALLY nice, smells like something I want to drink bottles of.
Sadly the taste dissappoints - sourish and 'hot' - it's 16% alcohol and you can really taste that. I wonder if it was a too-fast fermentation. Looking back at my notes, I started it in the first days of june, and bottled it on july 28. The aftertaste isn't bad, you sort of get a hint of what it could be in the scent and the aftertaste, but.. no.

The D batch did not get opened or rebottled, which is what I thought was the cause of the sourishness in Brynn, so I really don't know what to do now. Does sour mean ruined, chuck down the drain? Or should I just put it away and see what it's like a year from now?

Euphoria

2010-06-11T10:48:00.002+02:00

So about a year ago, I made this. It was intended for my graduation party, which probably isn't going to happen (I'm graduating, just not in the position to have much of a party). I opened it a few weeks ago for a games/Eurovision weekend with friends. Filtered out the fruit. I had the cherry and strawberry I made in that post, and peach and raspberry that I made a few weeks after that.

Some of them work neat, some of them are mixers. Strawberry is nice if a bit syrupy sweet. Raspberry is nice if a bit overly tart. Mixed, they are delicious. Peach isn't very nice neat (tastes like the syrup in canned peaches, but alcoholic) but I'm told it tastes fab with bitter lemon or tonic water. I don't much like alcoholic cherry flavours but my mother loves the cherry variety. It also tastes like it could be good in chocolate fondue. Actually, they all do..

I made a new version yesterday - apple. I cut up two Granny Smith apples and a lime (just the flesh), added 60gr sugar, a few slivers of lime peel, and filled up with vodka. I'm hoping for a mild apple sour effect. Let you know how it turns out.. in 6 months or so :-)

Ehle! - and give me hope, please

2010-04-21T16:50:00.004+02:00

Ehele is the cacao mead batch that I stashed with my neighbour. I figured it was time to see how that was going and collected it. Easy to remember why I decided not to use more 10l bottles - they're bloody heavy and a pain to clean, because they don't fit in the sink.

Ehle
Alc 12.5%
SG 1000
Doesn't smell bad, though surprisingly faint for something that's a ton of honey and a fair amount of cacao. Taste is similarly light, which was good (I guess) because it's sour and ergh.
It's murkey but considering how brown it started out it's cleared significantly. The fat was drifting on top (looked gross) but is mostly out after racking.
Added 500gr honey, which is not stirred in and sitting as a layer on the bottom now. Not sure if that was a good idea. I intended to backsweeten but it might restart the fermentation instead.

Was feeling a little hopeless about it until I remembered that the recipe says to let it age for at least a year after the fermentation stopped, so maybe I'm just being impatient.

Impatience and discouragement is a bit of a theme at the moment with my brewing activities. I'm not getting the results I want and I'm not sure if the current batches might improve with age or if I should just chuck them already. With the meads I know to expect them not to taste now and that they might improve dramatically with time, but the fruit wines I was expecting to be palatable by now.
If I had the space I would just wait it out, bottle it and see what it's like in a year or so. As it is I'm not much inclined to bottle stuff that's likely just going down the drain in a year's time.

Anyone have any uplifting tales about stuff that started out as dreck and turned great? I'm not expecting instant miracles here, but it'd be nice to have some optimism that all this stuff actually pays off by becoming drinkable.

Retcon updates

2010-04-11T16:37:00.004+02:00

I did this in the weekend of 10/11 April, just haven't posted it here... to be honest things are kind of depressing on the brewing front, that's why I put it off.

Imre
Alc 15%
SG 1014
Still murkey though maybe starting to clear a little. Smells and tastes ciderish. I'm really sad I lost the sweet apple scent and taste I was after.
Racked and added a sugar syrup of 50gr white sugar with 100ml water.

Halle
Alc 12%
SG 1014
Racked. Doesn't smell 'gone bad' just not good. May need time? Doesn't taste outright bad either, but.. I don't know, hard to believe this could get drinkable, it's nothing like mead. Sourish aftertaste.
I am really starting to regret using the quince juice right off the bat, it smelled SO good and the fermentation has just killed that. Then again I don't think I could have frozen it, not enough space...

Gwyllion
Alc 18%
SG 1010
Racked. Smells good - sweet wine. Tastes drinkable (not spit-out stuff) but not nice. Oh I don't know. If I had the space I would just wait it out, bottle it and see what it's like in a year or so. As it is I'm not much inclined to bottle stuff that's likely just going down the drain in a year's time.

Pectin enzym

2010-02-17T18:41:00.005+01:00

After some advice from the people from the homebrewing group on livejournal I ordered a pectin enzym for Halle and Imre. You're supposed to add this stuff when you first mix the protowine, but some say it'll still work afterward, so we're trying that now.

Racking

2010-01-27T00:30:00.003+01:00

Gwyllion: 0.990 / 17% (racked)
Much too dry like this. Added about 150 gr sugar. Hope that wasn't too much, but I dissolved 100gr and that only brought it to 1.004. Wait and see.

Halle: 1.018 / ?% (didn't write it down apparently) (racked)
I don't know. Not appetising. Maybe it'll turn into something?

Imre: 1.010 / 14.5% (racked)
Lovely delicate apple taste/scent gone. Damn! Smells/tastes like dry cider now. Have added some demerera sugar.

101 things to do with vodka

2010-01-25T12:21:00.002+01:00

As a displacement activity for being really impatient to try the apple wine, I've been making some NotMead booze...

Barenjager Recipe

Ingredients

6 cloves
1 vanilla bean
700ml vodka
300ml very nice heath honey
a container large enough to hold 1 liter

Directions

Making Barenjager liquor is a simple task, requiring mostly time before everyone can begin enjoying delicious homemade Barenjager drinks.

First, rough chop the cloves and split the vanilla bean lengthwise before adding them to the container and filling it with the vodka.
Let this mixture sit for at least 24 hours before straining the vanilla bean and the cloves from the vodka.
Once the vodka is clear of any remaining pieces, stir vigorously, pouring the honey in a thin stream. Do not stop until the honey and the vodka are completely blended together. Store the finished Barenjager honey liqueur in a cool, dark area and enjoy.

It isn't quite finished yet as the last of the honey hasn't dissolved yet. Needs a few more days of regular shaking, and then I'll let it stand until it clears and syphon it off the layer of honey particles. The little I tasted was very nice though!

Gwy / Imre

2010-01-17T17:03:00.002+01:00

Gwyllion: fed more sugar, I think about 50 grams
Imre: added bentonite. I'm not sure if bentonite is going to do it for fruit haze (have a vague recollection of pos charged and neg charged clearing methods but.. meh. I figure it's going to take ages to get this one cleared as it is super cloudy because the juice was super cloudy, so I might as well start from bentonite and see how that turns out. The next step would probably be gelatine. Will see how that goes.

I'm super curious about Imre because I think it might turn out really nice, sweet apple wine, not at all like cider. If it works out well I will be making one with orchard pear juice as well. These fruit wines also satisfy my urge to make something I can drink soonish, because they should be reasonably drinkable around when it's bottling time, not take ages to age.

Measurings

2010-01-09T22:53:00.002+01:00

Fennah: 15% / 1.022
Still cloudy, still quite fizzy. It's been bubbling, so that seems to want more time. The drop I tasted seemed rather sweet, but it's hard to tell with the yeast taste still in, we'll see.

Gwyllion: 12% / 0.990
Hungry, hungry yeast - I fed it about 50 gr cane sugar and it foamed so hard it spilled over. Oops! Mead doesn't react that hard when I add new honey, so that was a surprise. Added a small piece of lemon peel to help keep the foam down. I'm going to try to get it to ferment out by alcohol level without oversweetening it again, so sugar in small increments I guess.

Halle: 16% / 1.020
Very cloudy and fizzy. It smells of heavy fermentation, but the drop I tasted seemed to suggest it could turn out quite nice when the yeast is done.

Imre: 15% / 1.010
Still cloudy, but hardly any fizz when agitated - this seems to be going toward finished. Underneath the yeast taste it was quite nice and appley. I Will Be Patient (for once!) and let it run its course - I'm very curious how this one'll turn out though. And I'm now thinking of doing a similar wine but with the orchard pear juice..

Brynn, and Gwyllion - again

2009-12-14T23:14:00.003+01:00

Very unhappy day yesterday as several of the Brynn bottles decided they didn't like it in the bottle and pushed out corks. Even one that was already in the fridge! I lost about a litre and a half in total, salvaged about 500 ml that I'm probably going to drink, and opened a few others before they popped corks. Was. Not. Happy. Messy to clean up too. I'm mourning for quite a bit of what promised to become very nice mead. The remaining bottles are standing on the kitchen counter, loosely corked so they can breathe off, and until I stop being pissed off about it and start dealing with it.

Gwyllion is more hopeful. Had a slight brainwave and realised that with a different wine with a similar problem, I'd be looking to add fruit juice or concentrate to fix the thin-ness problem. The hippie food shop sells elderberry juice, so I went and got some, and did a little test with some of the thin, too sweet port. About 1:8 juice:port balances it out very nicely - counteracts the sweetness, gets rid of the thin-ness. Yum. I took out 0.7l to make space, and then added juice - originally 660ml, but reduced to about 0.5l.
I didn't stop there, because that would make sense - I added the yeast starter I've been putting through Alcohol Tolerance Bootcamp over the past week. It's more wine now (14%) and I still hope it'll become a proper heavy port. No idea how that's going to work out, but we'll see.

It was 1040 (I think the previous readings were off - they were with a less precise hydrometre) & 14% just now.

So I have a demi full of Further Experiment, plus a bottle that with the addition of a bit of juice will make something to try at Christmas - I quite like it, we'll see what my visitors think :-)

Gwyllion - Elderberry wine

2009-12-09T21:35:00.002+01:00

Gwy: 1035 and 14%

Well, Edmund was right..

Watering is often a mistake. In addition to introducing new issues of sterility and oxidation, watering cuts the balances of sugars and minerals in an unbalanced way; you'll end up with a drink that simultaneously tastes too sweet and too thin.

I tasted it and it does indeed taste thin and is still too sweet. Bugger. Shame I didn't know that before I did it, I didn't think half a litre of water could make that much difference! I bottled half a litre of the un-watered bottle and have set the rest of that aside to add to the new start I've made - I got in a 'killer' yeast that should go to 16%, and I'm going to try making a starter and very slowly introducing the wine to ease the yeast up to the alcohol percentage. Then I'll pitch and see how it goes.

Rackings

2009-11-20T20:03:00.003+01:00

Alexis: super dry and starting to fall clear (added bentonite last time). I'm thinking about keeping this one to correct too sweet mead with.
SG: 0.995
Alc. 15%

Halle: Just ticking along - I think it's mostly fermented out now though. This one is going to be a pain to get clear.
SG: 1.015
alc. 15.5%

Imre: I had hoped this would hang on to some of the apple scent, but sadly not. Very ciderish. I added a syrup of 100gr demerera sugar to hopefully sweeten it some.
SG 1.000 (before I added sugar, didn't measure after. 'cause I'm smart like that)
alc. 14.5%

Bottlings and measurments

2009-11-06T23:40:00.000+01:00

Alexis: very dry. Starting to fall clear (though unfortunately I stirred up some of the sediment in racking).
SG: 1000
Alc 15%

Brynn: smells great, tastes nice - I have hopes for this one. bottled at
SG: 1020
Alc 14.5%

Fennah: has been completely still - topped out due to max alc reached, but is not falling clear. I watered it down slightly in the hope this might encourage the yeasties to have another go. Racked.
SG: 1032 diluted to about 1030
Alc 16% diluted to about 14.5%

Gwyllion: this smells and tastes pretty good! It's too sweet though, even for port. Must have miscalculated the sugar. Watered down slightly + small amount of yeast activator in the hope that the yeasties will eat a few points of the sugar. With that oversweet edge off I think this could be great.
SG: 1042
Alc: 16%

Halle & Imre

2009-10-26T23:31:00.001+01:00

Halle was racked and measured:
SG 1032
Alc 12%

As expected, Imre dropped massive amounts of sediment in the first few days (it's that cloudy apple juice) and I also wanted the sultana's out of there to stop them from overpowering the apple.
SG 1045
Alc 9%
Racking lost a fair amount of volume (as expected) so I topped up with the good apple juice (about 750ml) and added about 150gr sugar. No idea about the new SG because I didn't dissolve the sugar, just poured it in - if previous experience are anything to go by, it will simply be eaten from its layer on the bottom.

Brynn is ready to bottle, I think. Will do that sometime this week.

Imre

2009-10-21T23:55:00.005+02:00

Oh dear, I just couldn't resist the sight of the two empty demijohns in the windowsill, so I filled one of them..
I'd been reading about making cider and apple wine and thought it sounded pretty interesting. I'm not a huge fan of cider, but apple wine.. hmm.

IMRE is:

3 litres of very nice cloudy orchard apple juice. This stuff tastes amazing, not at all like the processed juice from concentrate. It's been pasteurised, but nothing else. Tastes like real apple, liquid form.
1.5 litres cheaper 'normal' apple juice (I had decided the total cost should be under 5 euro)
500 gr demerera sugar
150 gr sultanas
some lemon peel
doux yeast

It looks kinda unpleasant right now - the sugar gave it a brownish colour and the cloudiness of the juice makes it look, well, brown and murky right now. With the sultanas in there it doesn't look inviting. It's slowly started bubbling though, and we will see how it all turns out. It should be relatively fast (compared to the meads) to drinkability - I'm hoping to have this drinkable by christmas. One can hope.
Starting gravity was 1070. Depending on how it progresses I will probably add more sugar later.

Bottled!

2009-10-17T21:54:00.004+02:00

I bottled Caelan. Basically decided that it was pissing me off, I had champagne bottles so it's not likely to become another bottle bomb, and I will pull one open in a year to see what's it turned out like.

Oh! and I have at last turned on comment notification, so I won't miss comments to older posts. (sorry Vicky!)

Halle

2009-10-10T23:45:00.000+02:00

I got 1.5 litres of quince juice and decided it'd probably be best to use it ASAP. This involved using my last free 5L demi (I like to keep one free to rack into) so I need to either bottle something in the next few weeks, or buy an extra. I used the blender to mix the juice with the honey, as this honey is very 'heavy' and is almost impossible to stir in by hand.

Halle
1.5 litre freshly made quince juice
1.5 kilo Bulgarian flower honey (same stuff as Fennah and Ehle)
Half a teaspoon yeast starter/activator
half a teaspoon Doux yeast

SG: 1.100
That's very high, so it remains to be seen if it'll actually start. I asked the Internets for help about if I should dilute (which would necessitate some fuss with demi's) and someone said that there are people who start all their mead from such a high SG, so I should just see what happens.

The quince juice smells amazing, there's a bit of a honey scent there already, and has a pretty pink blush - the combination will hopefully work well. I have high hopes for this one.

The Mass Measuring Returns

2009-10-09T18:57:00.003+02:00

Alexis: something weird going on here. SG went down compared to last measuring (as expected, it's been bubbling slowly) but the Alc level did not go up. Huh?
Grav: 1.002
Alc: 15.5%

Brynn: I keep hoping that this is finally ready for bottling! Specific gravity still dropped a little bit though, and when the bottle is handled there are some bubbles out the airlock. Hmm.
Grav: 1014
alc: 14%

Caelan: Racked. This batch hates me. It won't stabilise and the colour has changed more toward the orange spectrum - it's lost the pretty pink/purple hue. I really have no frame of reference for the taste, but it's not good - I'm just not sure if it's the sort of not good that won't age out. I'm starting to think about dumping it! It's still very carbonated. If I had champagne bottles (or a cheap& easy way to get them) I might just put it in there and stash it away somewhere, but.. *sigh*
Grav: from 1.025 to about 1.055
Alc: 14%

Gwyllion: I actually have some hope for this one. The scent is wine(ish), the taste is not good but in the sort of way that suggests it might become good. (again, no frame of reference!) It's fermented a little more, though I'm not sure if it's topped out now - port yeast might take it a little higher still.
Grav: 1.042
Alc: 17%

Gwy

2009-09-27T13:04:00.002+02:00

Took that SG reading this morning before it wouldn't be a reasonable starting reading anymore

SG was 1042

It's not moved since yesterday, no fizzing, no bubbles. In fact I was a little worried that the sudden added gravity had bogged things down, so I added just a touch of yeast activator (only to the demi, not the overflow bottle). It didn't foam as expected. Not sure what's going on, but I'll just sit on my hands and leave it alone for a month I guess...

To the right a photo of the stopper kludge I made. Not sure if it's not airtight and therefore not building up pressure, or if there's just no pressure because the wine is still. Hmm.

More measuring

2009-09-26T22:56:00.006+02:00

Alexis: Started actually bubbling again over the past few weeks, and indeed there is significant change.
SG: 1016
Alc: 15.5%

Brynn: Completely still except when the demi is moved. I want to bottle it but am a bit hesitant after the problems with Caelan. It smells goooood
SG: 1016
Alc: 14.5%

Caelan: still very fizzy when drawn up. The measuring stickything won't really get stable, so the SG says less-than-nothing. I'm still hesitant to re-bottle it.
SG: 1024 going up to 1040 (that's what I mean. wtf)
Alc: 15%

Fennah: Seems to have come to a complete stop - makes sense given the killer alc level! It smells a little green. Distinct mint leaves scent - what I intended, but I'm not sure if I like it!
SG: 1032
alc: 17.5%

Gwyllion: I added some more sugar once or twice over the past weeks, but was hampered by the demi being really full (and not wanting to throw any of it away!). It had come to a slow bubbling. It no longer puts out a scent - it's been inside for about 10 days now, as it was getting too cold at night outside. The wine itself really does smell of red wine now.
SG: 1008 (loooot of sugar eaten!)
alc: 15% (not good enough for port. If I can get 17% out of doux yeast... this ought to be able to get at least that)
Today I added a litre sugar syrup (about 700 ml sugar) and ended up having to create an 'overflow' bottle because the volume is now about 6.5 litres. I have no plugs or yeast caps that fit a litre bottle so had to improvise a seal out of plastic foil. Not too happy with that, but we'll see how it goes.
Sadly I was way too hungry to take an after-sweetening SG measurement. 'Cause that would have been useful. Hum. Maybe tomorrow.

Mass Measuring

2009-09-10T21:51:00.003+02:00

Alexis: Still cloudy, and fizzy when agitated. Needs a lot more time.
SG: 1028
Alc: 13.5%

Brynn: Smells good! Very sweet, with a clear honey and vanilla aroma. Yum. It's completely still. It tastes promising too, not good but like it might become good.
SG: 1018
Alc: 15%

Caelan: Still slightly fizzy. It's done a bit of fermenting after I fed it some honey last time.
SG: 1022
Alc: 15%

Fennah: still fizzy, but has slowed down quite a lot. Nearing time to make a decision about what I want to add - citrus fruit or mint leaves. It's still pretty sweet and given the alc level unlikely to burn much more sugar.
SG: 1034
Alc: 17% (whoa)

Gwyllion: still living outside and fermenting very heavily.
SG: 1060 (I think. The meter thing still sinks and rises in the measuring glass. Hmm.)
Alc: 15% (lower than last time. Weirdness. It was hard to measure though because fermentation bubbles are actually affecting the meter thingy)

Gwy

2009-09-07T14:01:00.002+02:00

Gwy has been going so fast (a bubble every second or even slightly faster) that it stank up the room. Clear difference with the meads there, since even at its most vigorous mead only put out a very mild scent. Since it doesn't really get very cold at night yet I put it out on the balcony to get over that first mad fermentation stage. Added side effect is that the cooler temp has slowed it down a tick.

I've fed it some more sugar, but might not give it more because it's almost impossible to get specific gravity off of it. The measure thing keeps sinking deeper or floating higher. Really weird. Alcohol percentage is 16-17, if that measurement is accurate. It seems high for still being in the middle of primary fermentation, but we'll see. Maybe I'm just getting elderberry rocket fuel.

Holy fermentation, Batman!

2009-09-05T17:54:00.002+02:00

That's Gwyllion going like a bat outta hell. I added a cup of sugar water today and will probably do that every few days until it has the full amount of sugar the recipe suggests.

Gwyllion - Elderberry wine

2009-09-02T21:03:00.004+02:00

I had promised myself not to start anything new until I had some confidence in the drinkability of my first batches, just because I'm a little worried about pouring time and money into making a lot of mediocre brew.
However - the elderberries are ripe. I spotted a bush down the street that yielded half a kilo. I am reliably advised that elderberry wine (rather than elderberry mead) is well worth making, and figured that without the cost of the honey, this is practically a free experiment. Why the hell not. I got port yeast with my last brewery supplies, and it seems like an interesting combination.

Of course, I had not counted on the foraging on the floodlands and cleaning/juicing taking up an entire day!

Gwyllion
- about 2 kg elderberries
- 1.5 kg sugar
- port yeast
- teaspoon yeast energiser (because I'm too lazy to make a starter)
- water

Boiled the berries to make juice and let it boil gently for about 30 minutes (according to some reports this removes some kind of unpleasantness from it). Once strained, I dissolved half of the sugar. Let it cool and poured into a 5l demijohn. Filled up to 4 litres with water. Mixed in the energiser, then pitched the yeast. The other half of the sugar is going to be added in a few days, once fermentation is well and truly underway.

grav. 1.072, watered down to 1.064 the next day

Elderberries are fairly acidic and I may need to think of something to tone it down further along the way. One recipe suggested bananas, but that sounds just weird.

Readings

2009-08-30T23:37:00.002+02:00

Brynn
Last reading: 1.008 / 13%
Today: 1.008 / 14% (I'm guessing a misread last time due to a tiny air bubble or something)
New: 1.020 (I sweetened it some.)
This batch is now completely flat, doesn't fizz even drawn up into the syringe. It smells nice, it doesn't taste nice. Yet. I hope. I really wish I knew a brewy person within tasting distance who could tell me "This is a normal pre-aging taste" or "This is a waste of honey, time and effort".

Caelan - wanted to take readings here to figure out if/why it built up pressure in the bottles.
At bottling: 1.000 / 14%
Today: 1.000 / 14%
OK. that's weird. That means there wasn't any sugar left, and pretty much nothing for fermentation to go on, and no fermentation happened, and it still built up pressure. If you can explain this, please do so in the comments :-)
It's still fizzy when agitated (like drawn up into the syringe). I put in some honey (up to 1.024) to either sweeten it or kick the stalled fermentation (?) back into life so at least something will happen. I don't much care at this point, I suspect it's ruined. We'll see.

Drake
I took the bottles out the fridge and opened one once it hit room temps. No pressure at all. Opened another one - turned out to have a moldy cork. Boo. Mold was on the outside but may have tainted the wine. No pressure though. Recorked and marked it (suspect it's ruined, though it didn't smell bad once I'd cleaned the bottle neck. Put 'don't gift' on the label to be sure.)
Anyway, I think I'm safe there as far as bottle pressure goes. They're back in the wooden chest now, which I have lined with plastic. If anything else goes, as least it won't be all over the floor.

Right then.

2009-08-29T01:13:00.002+02:00

Instead of the sensible choice of going to bed, I checked up on one of the bottles that I took out of the fridge this afternoon with the intention of recorking. Cork was coming out, so instead of sleep I pulled corks. Couldn't be arsed to re-cork and it was fizzing fairly heavily, so dumped it all in a demijohn, plopped on a waterlock, and we'll see what happens to that later. It's been aereated so it may be ruined. No idea.

Drake was prepped and bottled under the same conditions as Caelan. The corks seem in a better state, but I'll open one at a later point to assess what needs to happen there. For now the Drake bottles are in the fridge to buy myself explosion-free time until I can deal with things, probably sunday.

I'm really quite miffed that I was accutely aware of this danger, thought I had taken all the necessary precautions, and STILL ended up with residual fermentation. Batches will be left in the demi's for a LOT longer from now on, even if they seem totally finished.

Ohshi-

2009-08-28T16:40:00.003+02:00

Unhappy moment today as a loud POP! was heard from the wooden chest where the bottles live, and pink wine started to pour over the floor. One of the bottles of Caelan had spat out its cork and emptied out. Damn! Besides it being a shame to lose 0.75l of what promised to become very nice mead, I am now also worried about the rest of the batch. I transferred the other bottles to the fridge to cool down until I know what to do, but that isn't going to work long term.

The batch was completely stable for 2 or 3 weeks, then has Kalium Sorbate added, left for another week, showed no signs of life in any way, and was then bottled. Drake got the same treatment.

I have no cool space to store the bottles. I live in a shared apartment so there just isn't space. They're at room temp - which is reasonably warm at the moment as it's warm outside. (odd though that it spat now, and not a few days ago when it was way warmer. Good though as I was on holiday and wouldn't have found it until days later)

What do I do? Open them all up? Add more Kalium Sorbate? The cork that got spat was pretty crappy, I wonder if that may have contributed. Anyway, halp!

Two warm weeks

2009-08-25T19:41:00.003+02:00

Have come back from my sailing voyage. Lots of fun. Don't know how, but ended up chatting about homebrewing with the bosun at some point, and got a request to bring some mead along next time aboard. If it turns out nice, I definitely will. Going to have to be fairly confident about its deliciousness for that to happen though!

It's been two warm weeks since the last readings, so I figured there'd be change, and there was.

Alexis: Still fizzy when I draw it into the syringe. Needs more time, clearly.
Grav 1018
Alc. 14%

Brynn: Sat on the vanilla pod for 2 weeks. Racked it off. Added stabiliser. If I'm happy with it by the end of the week, I will sweeten it up, and bottle it.
Grav: 1008 (too dry for me)
Alc: 13% (I'm SO confus - I wrote down 14% last time. Did something change (vanilla?) or did I look wrong last time? Weird.)

Fennah: Still very cloudy, but bubbling is at more than 60 sec now. Very sweet, and given the alcohol percentage that's unlikely to ferment out. Hmm. I can't believe me and my sweet tooth could actually consider something too sweet, but it is.
Grav: 1040
Alc. 15%
The plan for this one was to add mint leaves, but given the overly sweetness of it, I wonder if something tart might work better. I don't know, lemon or orange peel? Will have to think about this a bit.

Ehle: I think I'll leave it to age like this and sweeten it before bottling.
Grav. 1002
Alc. 13%

They all still taste pretty yeasty, even Brynn which really shouldn't have any yeast left in there. I'm going to hope that ages out.

Whoa

2009-08-13T16:36:00.002+02:00

Ehle had finished the first fermentation and there was a lot of icky foam drifting on it, so decided to rack, filter (as well as possible) and measure. Whoa.

Grav: 1.000
Alc: 11%

I had no idea it could go this damn fast, that's in under 2 weeks!
I took it off a lot of cacao sludge, added 600 gr honey and about 600 ml water to bring it up to 1.024 (at 1.000 it wasn't going to do anything anymore). When I come back from holiday Ehle will go live at my neighbour's, who has promised a space below the desk in his spare room where it can live for about a year.

I also racked Alexis, but forgot to take readings.

Movement

2009-08-12T11:59:00.002+02:00

So, Alexis definitely stalled because the yeasties were out of food, because it's started up again. No bubbles in the airlock, but definitely movement. It also looks like it's wanting to start clearing (very very slightly) so that's good. I think I'll rack it off the sediment before I go on holiday. There's a thick layer now and it's been on there for a while.

Ehle slowed down dramatically almost overnight. I wonder if I did that (I sloshed the demi gently to clear some of the foam remnants off the waterline) or if it would have happened anyway?
The recipe says to strain it once and then just put it away. I have no idea if I can strain out the cacao (I doubt it) but I think I will try before I leave. It'll give me the chance to take new readings as well, I'm pretty curious what's happened to it so far :-)

Alexis and name change

2009-08-09T16:27:00.006+02:00

While I had the measuring stuff out I took a sample of Alexis, which is still super cloudy.
Grav: 1.004
Alc: 13%
Looks like that's going to be a pretty dry one - something I'm not so thrilled about. High alc and dry - okay. Low alc and sweet - okay. Low alc and dry? Not so happy with that.
So I just added in about 270 gr flower honey I had sitting about, bringing the new gravity to 1.020.
As far as I know, this could go two ways:

If there's still live yeast, it will eat the new honey and make more alcohol
if there's no viable yeast left, the mead will be sweeter

Either of those outcomes would be okay by me, so I guess I'll just take new measurements after my holiday and see how it went.

In other news, I finally remembered the name I had originally picked for the F batch and couldn't remember when I was making it. F batch is called ~~Forlindon~~ Fennah

Brynn moves

2009-08-09T15:34:00.005+02:00

Yesterday my long awaited syringe arrived - taking samples with the siphon is a huge fuss just to fill a 200 ml measuring tube, so I ordered a 100ml syringe and that makes the whole measuring thing a world easier.

Finally took readings of Brynn:
Grav: 1.030
Alc: 14%

I'm happy with that, and it seems to have come to a real halt anyway, so I racked Brynn off the yeast cake today and will now let it sit until I get back from holiday, when I'll bottle it.

Edit: belated decision to use the vanilla beans I bought a couple of weeks ago - now would be a good moment to add. One bean cut open along the side, pressed open slightly so fluid can get in, and added to the demi.

Houston, We Have Liftoff

2009-08-03T21:56:00.004+02:00

Maybe it's partially the temperature, but both Ehle and Forlindon are going like bats out of hell.

Ehle: 1 bubble ever 1.5 seconds or thereabouts
I just added a bit more cacao, as I didn't use all that much to begin with and probably lost some in the Accident. And I used a dropper to drop water down the inside of the neck, clearing the residue of mouse away so I can see through the top of the bottle... making it easier to see if another Accident is imminent.
~~Forlindon~~ Fennah: 1 bubble every 3 seconds
Brynn: 1 bubble every 30 seconds or thereabouts. It's getting pretty clear now, but as long as there's bubbling, I'll wait. I'm very curious about the readings though!
Alexis: no bubbling in the lock, but still very cloudy, and still slight fizzing going on.

Ehle

2009-08-03T01:11:00.001+02:00

No more chocolate mousse accidents... but wow, Ehle is bubbling every other second. I can practically hear the yeasties go "Oh wow, cacao! My favourite!"

Pet yeast colonies and housetraining

2009-08-02T12:04:00.003+02:00

I name my mead batches and have joked that they are like pets, but this was still a bit of a shock this morning...

Ehle did a lot more foaming than the recipe suggested it would, and cacao turned foam into mousse.. it spat out a good amount of yeasty chocolate mousse overnight. Ewww.

Took quite a bit of cleanup, and now to get the smell out of my room... I have taken out maybe 100 ml of fluid in the hope of giving it some extra space and not getting a repeat.

Introducing...

2009-08-02T11:43:00.004+02:00

Ehle
10 litres out of flower honey and doux yeast, with 200 gram cacao added in, after the chocolate mead recipe I posted before.
Starting gravity 1080 (before cacao was added)
It'll need to be in the demi for a full year and I don't really have space for that, but I've found my neighbour prepared to stow it under the desk in his spare room. Sadly, you don't get assigned a house with a big cellar when you start the brewing hobby .

~~Forlindon~~ Fennah
5 litres out of flower honey and doux yeast, and I will add mint leaves when the primary fermentation is over.
Starting gravity 1118

Bottling time

2009-07-29T12:44:00.008+02:00

Yesterday I received the bottling supplies from the brew store, so it was bottling time for Caelan and Drake. Caelan had cleared further with the bentonite - actually in the photo I'd already siphoned it off the clay and in the process moved the demi just slightly, so it was even clearer at first. But I am clumsey, and I've learned to live with that.
Both batches had been stabilised and showed no signs of life in the windowsill of my bedroom, so I think/hope they can be considered sufficiently done to pose no danger of explosion.
Here are the bottles I used - 0.75, 0.375 and 0.25 cl. The middle size I bought as it seems a lovely size to give away. The smaller size are recycled screw-tops and mostly intended to serve as samples. The larger size are also recycled. I also have some 1 litre bottles but changed my mind about using them as they seem overly huge. My batches are small, if the stuff does turn tasty in time it seems a shame to end up drinking almost a quarter of it in one go.
With the autosiphon and the bottling cane (flows if you depress the little pin at the end, stops the flow if you lift it) the transferring the mead was a painless and largely mess-less process. The corking was something else entirely!
I had ordered 'quality 3 corks' which were said to be for bottling up to 5 years. I knew not to expect the world, but what I got were 50 corks were about 15 weren't waterproof by any definition, and 20 which crumbled. I had to seriously search the box for a good one, and even then I ended up having to filter and re-cork three bottles because there was cork in the mead. Grrr. I called the shop and they said they're not supposed to be like that and they're sending me new ones, but unless those are significantly better I'll know either to invest in Really Good Corks, or switch to screw- or fliptops. (The reason I prefer corks is... it's cheaper because I can recycle any old bottle, and it's easier if I give away bottles that don't have recycle value like flip-tops would have. Plus, it's kind of a fuss to get white-glass fliptops. They're not cheap.
After I managed to cork as well as possible I put shrink caps on, except for one of the screwtop bottles which was too wide and got a cap of beeswax. Then I went and made labels. And then I went "Heee!" a lot and stored them in the wooden chest that is my coffee table.

Corking

2009-07-25T20:42:00.005+02:00

I'm getting ready to bottle for the first time, so figured having a practice run with the corker would be good. The first cork I forgot to soak, so that was a problem to get in and crumbled on getting out. Tried it again with a soaked cork and it went easier, but there's a problem - the pressure pin of the corker leaves this deep indentation in the cork, and it crumbles the top edges. I'm pretty sure the cork will crumble when I uncork the cottle.
The second pic shows the business end of the corker and you can see that it doesn't put pressure on the edges of the cork.
You can click the pics for more detailed view.

Now these are old corks and an equally old corker - 15-20 years old in fact. Could this problem be due to the age of the corks? I was planning to buy new ones anyway. Or is the corker just not good and is that causing the problems?

Help me, interwebs - do I need new corks, a new corker, or both?

Chocolate Mead - oh dear.

2009-07-21T20:32:00.002+02:00

I'm deeply tempted to give this a go: chocolate mead

Logistically it'd a bit of a trick to stow away a demi for that long, especially upright with an airlock. Pretty much the only place I have is the storage shed, which is not temperature stable. At all.
Plus I'm not sure if I'd have the patience.

But damn that sounds nice.

Caelan

2009-07-21T01:22:00.001+02:00

Added stabiliser. Then decided to add bentonite too. Not sure how much there is to gain with clearing, but I'm mostly just curious about how and if it'll work, so we'll call it an experiment :-)

I guess I ought to look how many bottles I have ready, and maybe have a practise go with the corker..

Alexis and Brynn

2009-07-19T15:57:00.002+02:00

While I'm updating...

Alexis is nowhere near ready - grav 1.010, Alc 8%. It's still very hazy without a hint of clearing, but also seemed to have all but stopped - no more bubbles and no more fizzing. I decided not to rack as that would have killed it completely, and gave it a very small bit of energiser instead, hoping to give the process a bit of a kick. Looks like this might take a few more weeks.

Brynn it still bubbling at about a bubble every 10 minutes, but very slowly also starting to clear. I am really curious about readings but don't want to disturb the demi right now, so will leave that for a bit.

Taking samples currently requires using the siphon which is a HUGE hassle because I need to move the demi to set it all up. None of the commercial sample-takers fit my demi's, so I'm going to see if I can find something like a 100ml syringe and a bit of tube to make sampling easier.

Caelan

2009-07-19T15:34:00.002+02:00

Since the racking a week ago it's had the slightest trace of white foam on the surface, but no bubbling or fizzing, it looked completely still. Readings:
Grav 1.000 (again, no starting readings so nothing to compare to)
Alc 14%
I'm happy with that alcohol percentage and it doesn't taste bad. Not good enough to have a glass of, but not yeasty or disgusting, so I'm happy leaving it at this. I've racked it off the last bit of sediment and will see if it starts clearing further. If it shows no signs of life I will probably try clearing it with bentonite in a week or so. It's not really hazy but not clear either – kind of hard to tell because it's dark red.

Drake Done!

2009-07-18T13:46:00.004+02:00

Since it had cleared so completely I had my suspicions that Drake could already be finished fermenting. Today I got the measuring tube I needed to take readings, and after some faff about how to get it full without stirring up sediment I managed to get it done with the siphon and bottling cane that I had foresightedly ordered at some point.
Gravity 1.002 (no begin readings so no real idea how that compares)
Alcohol 16% (!)

It tastes pretty icky at the moment, but it's icky-with-strawberries, and will hopefully improve with aging.
I've added potassium sorbate to stop the yeast from throwing a party later on when it's bottled, and I'm thinking about clearing it with bentonite tomorrow. It's pretty clear already so not sure if that would really make a difference.

I shall also take a reading off Caelan tomorrow.

Flat :-(

2009-07-13T23:28:00.000+02:00

Both Caelan and Drake are still flat and haven't restarted bubbling, and I'm a bit worried. Caelan seems to be building a veeeeery slight bit of pressure and has the slightest trace of white foam on the surface. Drake is just flat and still, and I think it's definitely too early for that one too be done yet.
I'm wondering if I should add some nutrient tomorrow if it hasn't started by then.

more moving notices

2009-07-12T23:00:00.000+02:00

Racked Caelan and Drake as they both had a hefty amount of sediment going on. Drake is the most wonderful colour especially in sunlight. Goldish orange. Awesome.
Sadly my green 5l demi turns out to be too narrow-necked to use the autosiphon from, which is a huge pain. Had to get it tranferred to a better demi by way of pouring. *grumble*. Yes I know you can siphon using just a tube. You can, I can't, because I'm super clumsey.
Have ordered two new 5l demi's and some more rubber stoppers.
Caelan did some bubbling straight after racking, but they were both still when I closed the curtains (they're in the windowsill) an hour ago. Let's home they've restarted bubbling by tomorrow.

Alexis update

2009-06-30T22:11:00.002+02:00

I've just returned from a few days abroad and noticed that Alexis has slowed down almost completely - bubbles happening once every 5 minutes at most. I guess that means it's done, or near as - I will consult the book tomorrow to see if it's clearing and bottling time or if I should give it some more time. It is quite exciting to finally get to this stage!

More racking

2009-06-21T15:19:00.002+02:00

Yesterday it looked like the B, C and D batches were about due a racking. Drake dropped an enormous amount of sediment sludge in the few days it was in a demi, and seemed to be fermenting robustly enough that I figured it'd be okay racking it so soon.

They've since all started bubbling again. And.. Drake has dropped more sediment, almost looks like I didn't take anything out at all.

Moving Notice

2009-06-14T19:59:00.003+02:00

Last time I had the bucket fermenter (home of Drake) open the strawberries were looking pretty pale (and, to be honest, disgusting). I figured it was about time to re-home Drake to a nice glass demi.

My auto-siphon is a godsent (not regretting that expense at ALL) because it went without a drop (of sticky smelly protomead) spilled. I made a little more than 5 litre so I just discarded the last bit with the strawberries and dead yeast and still have a nice demi full.

I wasn't sure if the strawberries had coloured it at all until I saw it in the demi - lovely reddish blush in there. It's already bubbling away like there's no tomorrow.

Bored now

2009-06-10T22:30:00.000+02:00

I knew this was coming! I have four batches bubbling away, so now... I wait. Not my strongest point! I have capacity for a 10 l batch but right now I want to see how the first batches turn out before I go anywhere near a large batch.

The next batch is going to be called Ehle and I think that will be a summer honey (the good stuff, no more supermarket honey) with mint leaves. But I'm not allowing myself to start it before Alexis is bottled. Impatience, I has it.

Drake

2009-06-04T22:24:00.002+02:00

I drove down to the orchard outside town and bought 1.5 kg gorgeous strawberries. They made the car smell soooo good. (Oh, also half a kilo cherries for boozemaking, see other post)

The D batch is called Drake *. It's a strawberry melomel that's currently sitting in a plastic fermenter. Made it with supermarket honey and aforementioned really nice strawberries. First time I used yeast activator, which is supposed to kick it off, but so far hasn't. Only been a few hours though. Will see how it's doing tomorrow.

Using the plastic bucket fermenter for ease of getting the fruit out later, but damn it's annoying to not be able to see into it! I like the glass demi's much better, it's fascinating to watch what's happening in there.

*) a naming reference that only works if you're Dutch/English bilingual. And me.

Boozemaking - Euphoria

2009-06-04T21:30:00.006+02:00

Something non fermenting today. In the book about meadmaking is also this recipe, and when I had extra fruit I figured it'd be a nice surprise for myself in the autumn.
Plus, I've picked up these nice litre bottles in Ikea yesterday :-)
It's fruit (one cherry, one strawberry), sugar and vodka - should be nice in about 4 months. I've given it labels which say "Do not open before graduation" as I hope to graduate uni in October and it'd be a nice treat!

Caelan de-berried

2009-06-02T17:44:00.004+02:00

A few more supplies arrived; new siphon* , a straining cloth and some more cleaning agent (love the active oxigen stuff but it does go pretty fast)

Now I had the straining cloth I could take Caelan off the berries. Since I didn't see a way to siphon it off without getting the siphon horribly clogged with berry pulp, I settled for gently pouring it into the cloth-wrapped funnel. Don't know if the aereation has done it harm, but it's already bubbling again a few hours later.

Sadly the new siphon does mean that one of the 5l demi's isn't useable because the neck is too narrow to fit the siphon into. I only intend to have 4 small batches going at one time (and 1 10l batch) so I'll always have a free demi to rack to, but it would have been handy to have an extra so I can use a demi to let stuff age. Ah well.

Tomorrow I think I shall go on an expedition for fresh strawberries. The farms are selling them in stalls along the road at the moment.

*) I know just a bit of hose will do, but I am not the most well coordinated person in the world and one mouth full of yeasty honey water was enough for a lifetime. This one is more practically sized and also has a much nicer pump-start system that does not aereate the proto-mead.

More bubblings

2009-06-01T12:06:00.001+02:00

Interval between each bubble:

Alexis: 10 seconds
Brynn: 4 seconds
Caelan: 8 seconds

Bubblings!

2009-05-28T22:25:00.004+02:00

Alexis has picked up since the transfer - about 20 seconds interval now. So not dead, but slowed down a bit. Hopefully it'll pick up further.
Brynn about 3 seconds, fizzing away like crazy
Caelan about 4 seconds - and the berries have become a foaming mass that's sitting a lot higher than they did before the yeast beasties started doing their thing. Kind of fascinating to see.

Siphoning

2009-05-28T17:44:00.000+02:00

The last stuff from the supply shop finally arrived; including the siphon.

Alexis had almost a cm of sediment on the bottom so after some practising the whole business with water a few times I transferred the batch to a new demi.
Not sure if I did good or if I should have waited longer - it was still bubbling fairly heavily (once about every 6 sec) and now in the new vessel it's slowed down almost to a halt. Is the yeast now going "Whoa, WTF?" and will it have bounced back by morning? Or have I killed it... fuckup or impatience - time will tell.

Introducing..

2009-05-27T16:13:00.005+02:00

Brynn:
This is the nice Springbalsemien honey I still had. Should be a sweet sackmead, and in theory not much different from Alexis. The honey is different, but apart from that the only difference is that I made an overnight yeast starter for this one. Oh wait, and I didn't heat it. The book I'm reading (The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm) suggests that there is not usually a problem with that, and that unheated meads also taste better earlier. We'll see.
This honey was a little thicker than the one I used for Alexis, and seems to sink to the bottom a little. I have mixed and shaken well, but it's still seeming darker in the bottom half. Hope that doesn't affect things too much. Ah well.

Caelan:
Supermarket honey and 400 gr of frozen blueberries. I wanted fresh but they were prohibitly expensive, and I'm still way too much in the experimental stage to want to spend that amount of money on ingredients.

(remind me that I said that when I start talking about buying cool things like Eucalyptus and Heath honey..)

It got darker than I expected (I don't know, of course it did. must have had a brainfart) and I'm not sure if I like that it'll probably look more like normal wine - or grape juice - than mead. Will have to wait until I can taste it to judge if it's worth it. Raspberry and strawberry are apparently popular because they'll give a more subtle colour and taste effect. Since it's strawberry time I may start up one more batch - then I'll sit on my hands for a while and wait until I've got Alexis bottled before I start any more :-)

Now the eager staring at the waterlocks to detect any bubbling has started...

Bubble Brain

2009-05-27T15:29:00.002+02:00

This is what it looked like this morning

Moar!

2009-05-26T22:27:00.003+02:00

Bit of an update... I am still waiting for the other plugs to close off a demijohn with a fermentation lock in it. The shop only sent me one and has been dragging its feet over sending me the rest. I'd been waiting for that to set up the next two batches.

Today however I drove down to Schaijk and bought the best part of an old hobbyist's brewing gear. He'd made wine about 25-20 years ago but never had much success (self identified as 'Fermentation kept stopping and I kept adding more yeast to make it go' !)
I got two 5 liter and 2 10 liter demi's, which brings me to a very nice capacity - I will probably only set up one 10l at a time and keep the other one for racking into. He had two very beautiful larger demi's - he thought 25 liter, but he thought the 10s were 15, so they were probably 15 or 20s. I was tempted but there's just no way I can physically handle that sort of weight.
Also got a bunch of old waterlocks (trying to get them clean now, which is a pain!) and corks and a corker. And we chatted a while. He gave me a good deal on the stuff and I offered that if he's ever near my hometown, he drop by and I'll give him a bottle.

Have made a yeast starter ("Brain in a bottle") to start off a new batch tomorrow. This'll be another normal mead, because I still have the very nice Springbalsemien honey.
I also bought some reasonable supermarket honey that wouldn't be dramatic if I ruined it, so with that I think I'll try one with fruit. Blueberries? Strawberries? There are just so many options. Maybe I'll do one with fresh mint leaves, that sounds like it could be interesting.

Patience, Padawan

2009-05-23T11:13:00.002+02:00

Alexis did indeed start bubbling overnight, and has been happily glupping away ever since at about 5 seconds per bubble. It simply took until the morning for the yeast to recover from the shock, groggily ask "Where am I? What happened?" and start feasting on the sugar.

Patience is not my strongest point. I think it'll be the hardest part of mead brewing for me. It'll take around 2 months (give or take) until fermentation is finished and I can taste it for the first time; and more likely than not, it'll not be very nice then and will need further aging in the bottle to become tasty.
My usual style with doing anything new is to do a test, see how it turns out, then base further attempts on what I learned. But mead takes so long that that isn't really practical. So I am going to start a few more batches with different honeys, and just have to hope it doesn't come out as battery acid!

Alexis

2009-05-17T20:28:00.000+02:00

I started my first batch of mead today, and it's called Alexis. *
I had real trouble getting the yeast starter to get going and it never did so convincingly. Consequently after I've added it to the protomead and put it in a demijohn, it's unenthusiastic to say the least. As I write this I've had it standing for at least 5 hours (warm side of room temp and dark) and it's not bubbled once. There's not even a head on it apart from some leftover foam from funnelling it in. I hope it'll start overnight.

*) Why Alexis and not 1 or A?

1) "Yeast is a beast". So as far as I'm concerned, a batch is a living creature.
2) I need a way to refer to individual batches
3) I think numbers are boring
4) I just felt like it
5) there is no 5

The Start

2009-05-15T17:33:00.000+02:00

I have a couple of friends who home-brew, but it had always sounded like a complicated and laborious thing, reserved for the sort of people who can follow a recipe to the letter. Me, I'm more of a "Bit of this and some of that" style cooker. And I always had the impression you needed an orchard full of fruit and a big cellar. Plus, all that to-do with yeast starters and racking and the right temperature seemed like a big fuss. Then there was the squashing of large amounts of fruit (which I'd have to buy, not having a garden) and the months of patience and the risk of ending up with something vile. All together it seemed like something I just shouldn't get in to.

But said friends kept insisting that homebrewing could be really simple, and that mead, my favourite drink, is both simple to brew and forgiving. And though it would be nice to have a cellar or something like that, mead fermentation doesn't mind daylight, so my north-windowsill would work fine.

So that was the start. I got some equipment, discovered that I live close to the National Dutch Beekeepers Organisation (which means an easy supply to high quality, well-priced honey) and decided to just give it a go. Am I going to end up with something tasty? Time will tell.