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.

Floral update

It's taken off and bubbling away well now. I was rightly warned that not all mold toxins can be killed by boiling, so I need to keep a very close eye on this batch and unless it's tasty enough to risk myself getting sick, just dump it along the line

Floral: DO NOT GIFT

Edit to add: Bob v S has offered the use of his destilling rig for this batch, as that should render the result definitely safe. I've been wanting to try destillation with mead but never wanted to sacrifice a whole batch to it, so this could be interesting

Whoa, it's a real one!

and infection, I mean.

It's a bit of a joke in the mead reddit that 9/10 things that people post as 'help, is this an infection?!' is nothing, but the yeast in Floral had trouble getting started and the elderberry flower syrup must not have been completely sterilised. I heated it up but did not boil it beforehand, so.

I removed the ick and am now boiling the must, and will then repitch with champagne yeast. All will be well.

My 20 ordered bottles arrived (I realised I didn't bottle a lot of my batches because cleaning labels off wine bottles is such a pain; a lot of times they're not glued but printed as stickers). I think I still have 2.5 liters of All Rise Up to bottle and Chai might also be ready, or should at least be racked. Maybe tomorrow. 

Floral - Elderberry Flower mead

This is on the edge of not being mead because there's a good deal of sugar in the syrup, but what the hell

Floral

2200 cl elderberry flower syrup, made by friend Adriana
1 kilo flower honey
port yeast
little bit of energiser

Starting gravity was 1140
Maybe repitch this with champagne yeast? IDK I want to experiment with that some