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

More tasting

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 :-)

Actually Drinking The Stuff

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.

Bottled!

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!)

The Mass Measuring Returns

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%

More measuring

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

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)

Readings

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.

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-

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!

Bottling time

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.

Caelan

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..

Caelan

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.

Flat :-(

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

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.

More racking

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.

Caelan de-berried

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

Interval between each bubble:

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

Bubblings!

• 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.

Introducing..

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...